The Apollo is a beautiful butterfly, which we have been fortunate enough to see in the summer of 2002, in the quiet lanes of Sorunda in Sweden. The Apollo has 2 overlapping pairs of creamy coloured wings with black & red or yellow patches. It's thorax and abdomen is grey and furry. It's wingspan is quite large for a butterfly, ranging from 5-10cm, the male being the smaller. The Apollo butterfly can be seen in the summer months of July & August, generally on hills or mountains 500-2000 metres above sea level. It can be seen from Spain, through central Europe and southern Scandinavia, as well as Asia. Apollo loves natural chalky slopes, where the plants on which it feeds grow. This type of habitat is becoming less, and so they tend to be found more widely scattered now. The average lifespan of an adult butterfly is just a few weeks.

Breeding season is in July and August. The female lays many hundred tiny white eggs in groups or singly. Eggs usually hatch in August or September, from which a caterpillar emerges. The caterpillar molts (discard its old skin) for a new soft skin, which then hardens in sunshine. The caterpillar eats leaves of herbaceous plants until it fills this skin, then molts again. It may molt as many as 5 times before it is fully grown. The next stage is to crawl down the plant and bury itself in the ground. One last skin change leaves it with a waxy skin inside a silky cocoon, (pupal). In the pupal stage, it's body dissolves completely and is then rebuilt as a butterfly. After about 8 weeks, the chrysalis bursts open and the adult emerges, and it climbs up the nearest plant. It then expands it's wings by pumping blood through the veins. When the wings have expanded and the skin hardened, it flies off to eat and mate. Apollo has a long, thin sucking tube which works like a straw. The butterfly uses it to stick into flowers and suck the nectar from the base of the petals. A preference for the Apollo is the flowers of thistles.

The Apollo butterfly is becoming increasingly rare because changes in land use are destroying its natural habitat, and is now an endangered species, protected by law in many countries.

In 2003 we agreed to allow a large Scandinavian company, Nordkalk (who produce products for cleaning factory emissions) to use one of our Apollo Butterfly images for an advertising campaign. The adverts are appearing throughout Sweden and Finland, and emphasize it's commitment to clean air in the environment, and thus protecting the delicate wildlife around us for future generations to enjoy.