swallowtail caterpillar in hawai’i
Location: Honolulu, HI
February 1, 2011 10:33 pm
Can you tell me what kind of swallowtail this is?
Found them on my tangelo…
Mahalo!
Signature: local boy
Dear local boy,
We did a web search and found that the Chinese Yellow Swallowtail, Papilio xuthus, is well documented in Hawaii based on the Butterflies of Hawaii website. The image of the caterpillar on the Chinese Yellow Swallowtail pictured on the Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias website matches your specimen.
Wow, that was super-quick!
Mahalo nui Daniel! Me and my kids love the website–mahalo for your labor of love.
Kua’aina
I have found two of these on my Ruby Red Grapefruit tree on Maui. Can I move them to another plant? They are denuding my tree. Thanks for the info, I have been scouring the internet to try to identify these guys!
You would need to move them to a tree that is on the list of food plants. Another citrus should work fine. Leaves will grow back.
I can’t wait to see the caterpillar! I’ve been watching a beautiful female. I have a lot of citrus trees and would love to see more of them.