I would like to introduce to you a special guest, that showed in some of my creations:
The Mountain Butterfly, Parnassius Apollo.
I just love this butterfly, it has such wonderful wings, that I can`t resist its beauty! It has beautiful white or beige-grey wings with orange-red eyespots, he has also a fluffy body. These very very large, beautiful have a wingspan of ca 80 mm , ca 3 inches.
Parnassius apollo lives in valleys, flowery alpine meadows and pastures, mountains, rocky and stony places, natural stone walls, or vineyards. It can be seen in the of the continental European mountains, in Spain, Scandinavia, and Central Europe, in the Balkans up to northern Greece and in the Alps between Italy and France. It was seen also in Poland, near Warsaw, maybe I have seen him when as a child I was spending my holidays near Warsaw, near the Valley of Narew River.
The butterfly Apollo is sitting on a grass. Macro snapshot.
Mountain butterfly it’s very hard to see, endangered in extinction, almost wiped out, strictly protected. He prefers mountains, flowery meadows, natural stone walls, vineyards. Isn`t it a perfect place also for fairies, don`t you think so?….
Invite Apollo to your garden:
The main host of caterpillars is the giant sedum (Sedum maximum). The Apollo butterfly uses a narrow range of flowers as nectar sources, e.g. Sweet William (Dianthus Barbatus), Clover(Trifolium L), Thistle (Cirsium sp.), Mary thistle (Cardus sp.), Hemp/agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum), Chrysants (Chrysanthemum), cornflower (Centaurea) sp.), Wintersweet (Origanum vulgare).
Who knows, if you live near Apollo’s natural habitats, and plant these plants in your garden, maybe this beautiful Mountain Butterfly will visit you? …
Sources:
