Animal Species:Blue Triangle Butterfly
The Blue Triangle Butterfly is an active butterfly moving quickly from flower to flower.
Blue Triangle Butterfly on leaf
R.Jessop
© Australian Museum
Identification
Commonly seen in Sydney gardens, the Blue Triangle Butterfly's triangular-shaped wings are vibrant turquoise-blue with black around the margins.
Size range
6.6-7.5 cm
Distribution
The Blue Triangle Butterfly is found in Eastern Australia, from Torres Strait and Cape York in Queensland to about 160 km south of Sydney.
Distribution by collection data
Biomaps map of Graphium sarpedon choredon specimens from the Australian Museum database
Habitat
The Blue Triangle Butterfly is found in urban areas, forests and woodlands. Although preferring moist rainforest habitats, this species has survived well in Sydney's suburbs.
Feeding and Diet
The caterpillars of the Blue Triangle Butterfly have adapted to feed on a variety of plants including the introduced Camphor Laurel (Cinnamomum camphora).
Other behaviours and adaptations
The green Blue Triangle Butterfly larvae rest on the upperside of the leaves and can be difficult to see. If the plant is disturbed, you are more likely to smell them before you see them. Many caterpillars in this family (Papilionidae) have an 'osmeterium', which looks like a fleshy horn that pops up from a slit behind their head and emits a strong smell. In this species the osmeterium is yellow, but in other species it may be red.
Fossils
null
Evolutionary Relationships
Danger to humans and first aid
Classification
- Species:
- sarpedon choredon
- Genus:
- Graphium
- Subfamily:
- Papilioninae
- Family:
- Papilionidae
- Superfamily:
- Papilionoidea
- Order:
- Lepidoptera
- Class:
- Insecta
- Subphylum:
- Uniramia
- Phylum:
- Arthopoda
- Kingdom:
- Animalia
Further Reading
null
References
Last Updated:
Tags butterflies, insects, invertebrates, arthropods, identification, wildlife of sydney,
4 comments
Dave, what do the eggs of this species look like? Just saw the butterfly in my garden. Thanks!
If the butterfly you saw was a blue triangle it would be highly unlikely that it was resident or even vagrant in SE Tasmania. The natural distribution extends as far south as coastal southern NSW, with verified southernmost records from Bawley Point and Ulladulla, so it would be unlikely that even a stray southern NSW specimen would make its all the way down to Tasmania. The only swallowtail/triangle which occurs naturally in Tasmania is Macleay's Triangle (sometimes called Macleay's Swallowtail). I guess this leaves the only options as being either a misidentification on your part, or that a specimen has been released by movement of a pupa or larva on plant material or pot plants brought down to Tasmania from further north. The release of specimens outside their natural distribution is not all that uncommon - we had a male Cairns Birdwing photographed in a Sydney suburb earlier in the year. It probably had escaped from the Darling Harbour Wildlife World complex where they keep live specimens of this species.
Hi Serena,
In Sydney eggs will normally be found singly on the underside of leaves of the introduced camphor laurel. They are spherical, yellow-cream, and do not have much surface sculpture.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Commonjay_egg_sec.jpg