Oman Butterfly Diary-1 Papilio demodocus, African Lime Butterfly.

In October 2019, we headed down to the Dhofar region of Oman primarily for our sea shell obsession…oops, hobby sounds better, less geeky really!

The first morning walk along the beach made me realise that it was far too hot to spend all day outside on the beaches and, as over the year, I had been become involved with a Dragonfly recording group in Cyprus and had also discovered the pleasure of photographing both dragonflies and butterflies, we decided to split each day into discovering which species of each we could find in the Ayn’s (valley), khors (inlet) and escarpments along the southern coastline of Oman.

Armed with “The Butterflies of Oman” we set off each day exploring the countryside.

I had occasionally seen a fairly large butterfly, mottled black and white with flashes of red and blue.

The book told me it was the African Lime Butterfly, Papilio demodocus, a member of the Papilonidae family.

Three members of this family are found in Oman, Papilio machaon-the Swallowtail, Papilio demoleus- the Lime Butterfly and Papilio demodocus-the African Lime butterfly.

They are amongst the largest and most beautiful butterflies in the country.

The Swallowtail and the Lime are known from the north of the country.

I have not been lucky enough to photograph the Lime butterfly in Oman. I have seen it, but, without my camera.

However, it is also found in the UAE and I was lucky enough to photograph a resting one on a beach in Fujaraih earlier this year, in this linked post.

In Oman, the African lime is only found in Dhofar. The African lime is common in most of tropical Africa and in Southwestern Arabia, as far north as Jeddah.

It is very similar to the Lime butterfly, but they may be told apart through the broader central band and the larger orange spot in the anal angle of the hindwings of demoleus.

After a few mornings of finding lowland butterflies, we headed up the towering escarpment that broods above the coastal plain.

Randomly heading down a small track high above the coast, we gave one local lady quite a shock as she was heading out.I don’t think many Europeans have headed down the little track to her house.