The Scarce Swallowtail is a butterfly found in gardens, fields and open woodlands. You can come across it in places with sloe thickets and particularly orchards. It is widespread throughout
Europe with the exception of the northern parts. Its range extends northwards to
Saxony and central
Poland and eastwards across
Asia Minor and
Transcaucasia as far as
Iran and western
China. A few specimens of the Scarce Swallowtail have been reported from central
Sweden and
England but they were probably only strays and not migrants. In the
Alps it can be found up to altitudes of 1600 m.
In some years the Scarce Swallotail is quite abundant. The caterpillars spin little pads on leaves and grip them firmly. The newly hatched caterpillar is dark in colour with two smaller and two bigger greenish patches on the dorsal side, later they are greenish with yellowish dorsal and side stripes. The summer chrysalides are green as a rule, the hibernating ones are brown. A number of hibernating chrysalides fall prey to various enemies. The Scarce Swallowtail is getting rarer as the blackthorn bushes are being cleared; and it is now protected in some central European countries.