The Chinese windmill is a black, long-tailed swallowtail butterfly of Korea, Japan, and China; it does not live in the United States. Its caterpillars feed on birthworts (Aristolochia) and store the plants' toxins, so predators avoid the adults. Males are glossy black and females are a dull yellowish brown.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Wingspan is roughly 2.6–3.5 in (6.5–8.9 cm), with summer-brood adults larger than spring ones; big individuals can reach about 4 in (10 cm). Males are glossy black and females are a dull yellowish brown. The hindwings have long tails and a row of red spots along the edge, and the body is partly red.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Broadleaf forest edges
- Shady woods
- Range
- East Asia, including Korea, Japan, and China. It is not found in the wild in the United States.
- Preferred conditions
- It only breeds where its caterpillar food plants, birthworts, grow.
Behavior
- Activity
- In much of its range, adults fly from May to August in two broods; in warmer parts of Japan there can be three or four broods a year.
- Overwintering
- It spends the winter as a pupa.
Life cycle
- Caterpillar food plants
- Birthworts (genus Aristolochia).
Cautions
- Cautions
- Caterpillars take up aristolochic acid from their food plants and keep it into adulthood, so predators learn to avoid them.
Name and classification
- About the name
- It was once placed in the genus Atrophaneura. The population in the Ussuri region of the Russian Far East is treated by some as a subspecies of this butterfly and by others as a separate species, Byasa confusa.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
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