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Handmade Trovelore Scarce Swallowtail Brooch Pin, bold black and ice blue striped wings with golden body accents and black beaded tails. Cotton, felt, sequins and beads. 2.5" x 2.3". Keepsake box included. Made in India. Preorder, arriving October 2026.
Available in store
Close**PREORDER FOR FALL OCTOBER 2026**
Why You'll Love It
Most butterflies seduce with color. The Scarce Swallowtail seduces with geometry.
The Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) is one of Europe's most elegant and immediately recognizable butterflies, found across southern and central Europe from Spain to western Asia, typically in warm, sheltered hillsides, orchards, and scrubland where its larval food plants, blackthorn and wild cherry, grow in abundance. Despite its common name it is not particularly rare across much of its range, but it is always a notable encounter, a large, pale butterfly that moves with a characteristic soaring, gliding flight and lands with its wings open to reveal one of the most graphically striking wing patterns in the European Lepidoptera.
The wing pattern is the thing. Bold black stripes on a pale cream-to-ice-blue ground create a strongly graphic, almost monochromatic pattern that reads more like a woodblock print than a butterfly. The hindwings carry the characteristic swallowtail extensions, long black tails tipped in blue, and a row of blue and orange-gold lunules along the lower margin. The body is richly marked in black and gold-yellow. The overall impression is of a butterfly designed by someone with a strong preference for graphic design and a complete command of the black and white palette.
Trovelore's Scarce Swallowtail Brooch Pin translates this extraordinary graphic quality into beadwork with remarkable fidelity. The pale ice blue-white ground of the wings is built up in pearl and silver-white seed beads and fine embroidery that captures the delicate, almost translucent quality of the real butterfly's wing surface. The bold black stripes are worked in jet black beads and embroidery with crisp, precise edges that give the piece its characteristic graphic punch. Vivid golden-yellow accents along the body and inner wing bases provide warmth against the cool blue and black ground. The hindwing tails extend downward in fine black beaded strands tipped in gold, completing the swallowtail silhouette with structural delicacy. The twisted black antennae are tipped in small gold beads.
At 2.5" tall by 2.3" wide (6.5 cm x 6 cm) this is a nearly square, open-winged piece with a balanced, formal symmetry that reflects the Scarce Swallowtail's characteristic resting posture with wings fully spread.
It arrives in Trovelore's embossed keepsake box with a story card, ready to wear or give.
This is a preorder item. We expect our Trovelore shipment in October 2026 and will ship your order immediately upon arrival.
Size and Details
Care Instructions
Styling Tips
The Swallowtail Family
The swallowtails (family Papilionidae) are the largest and among the most spectacular butterflies in the world. The family includes some of the most celebrated species in Lepidoptera, from the enormous Queen Alexandra's Birdwing of Papua New Guinea, the world's largest butterfly, to the common Monarch-mimicking Pipevine Swallowtail of North America. The characteristic hindwing tails that give the family its name serve primarily as a predator deflection device, drawing a bird's strike toward the expendable tail rather than the vulnerable body, a strategy the swallowtails share with the Luna Moth's remarkable hindwing extensions.
The Scarce Swallowtail is among the most elegant members of this distinguished family, its graphic black and white palette giving it a refinement that the more colorful swallowtails, for all their beauty, cannot quite match.
The Perfect Gift
The Scarce Swallowtail is a piece for a specific and appreciative recipient, someone who values graphic elegance and restraint in jewelry over vivid color, who knows their European butterflies, or who simply responds immediately to the extraordinary black and white wing pattern that makes this species one of Europe's most distinctive Lepidoptera. It is equally wonderful for anyone who collects Trovelore and wants the most graphically sophisticated butterfly piece in the range. The complete keepsake presentation means it arrives ready to give.
FAQs
What is the Scarce Swallowtail?
Iphiclides podalirius is a large European butterfly found across southern and central Europe from Spain to western Asia. It is immediately recognizable by its bold black stripes on a pale cream-to-white ground and its characteristic long hindwing tails. Despite its common name it is not particularly rare across much of its range, though it has declined in some northern areas due to habitat loss. It flies with a soaring, gliding style that makes it unmistakable in the field.
How does the Scarce Swallowtail differ from the common Swallowtail?
The common Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) has a yellow ground color with black markings and vivid blue and orange-red hindwing markings. The Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) has a pale white-to-cream ground with bold black stripes and a much more graphic, high-contrast appearance. The two species are related but immediately distinguishable in the field and in beadwork.
Why are swallowtail butterflies called swallowtails?
The name refers to the elongated extensions on the hindwings that resemble the forked tail of a barn swallow. These tail extensions serve as a predator deflection device, drawing a bird's strike toward the expendable wing tip rather than the vulnerable body. The strategy is effective enough that many swallowtails survive attacks that remove part of the tail entirely, flying on with damaged but functional wings.
How large is this brooch?
The Scarce Swallowtail Brooch Pin measures 2.5" tall by 2.3" wide (6.5 cm x 6 cm), a nearly square, open-winged piece with the formal symmetry of a museum specimen pinned for display.
What does it arrive in?
Every Scarce Swallowtail Brooch Pin arrives in Trovelore's embossed keepsake box with a story card. It is ready to gift exactly as it arrives.
What is your return policy on preorder items?
Our standard 14-day return policy applies to this item. Returns are accepted within 14 days of delivery for store credit. If you have questions about the piece before purchasing, please reach out and we will do our best to help.
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