Papilio indra
species of insect
Papilio indra, the Indra swallowtail, short-tailed black swallowtail, or cliff swallowtail, is a western North American butterfly in the family Papilionidae.
Description
The Indra swallowtail is a black butterfly with minimal blue and whitish markings, similar in coloration to the black swallowtail or the short-tailed swallowtail. Likewise, the species has a very short tail, and dark blue crescents on the topside of the hindwing.
Habitat and distribution
P. indra can be found in a variety of ecosystems, ranging from sea level in some areas to several thousand feet in elevation elsewhere. They can be found near many cities and other human settlements, as well as in extremely isolated, pristine forested regions, remote high deserts, prairies, or in montane habitats.
Geographically, P. indra is found in the western half of North America, from extreme southern British Columbia, south through Washington, Oregon and California (extending to northern Baja California, Mexico). It is also found around the Rockies, north from Idaho and western Montana through Wyoming, Nevada, Utah and Colorado, and south to Arizona and New Mexico. Sightings have also occurred as far east as western Nebraska and South Dakota.
Flight
The Indra swallowtail has one brood per year and is on the wing in spring in southern or lower altitudes but early summer in northern or higher altitudes.
Subspecies
There is an (as-yet) unnamed subspecies that has been referred to as P. i.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Papilio indra” as species of insect. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of insect. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3019475. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Papilio indra” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.