...What if you could actually meet a myth? This butterfly owes its scientific name precisely to its grace: so majestic that it was nicknamed "Apollo of Parnassus". Lovely as the god of beauty and sunlight, to meet this butterfly means running into the mythological embodiment of the marvelous! So, are you saying the ancient Greeks were right?
Parnassius apollo is a rather large butterfly, with a wingspan of 5.8 to 7.5 cm in length. This Papilionid can be seen flying from May to September in grasslands and wide clearings between 600 and 2400 m altitude, in the alpine areas and on the Apennines, including Sicily. This butterfly is easily recognizable by its typical white coloration, almost transparent, with black spots and large red ocelli (roundish spots) in the hind wings, even if in some exceptional cases it is possible to find specimens lacking the spots. While the name of this species, "Apollo", as we said, refers to the Greek god of music, of the Sun, of prophecy and of poetry, the name of the genus, Parnassius, in Latin means "proper of Apollo" or "of the muses", and in the past indicated the Greek mountain where they lived. The alpine populations of Parnassius apollo are numerous and currently not threatened, while the Apennine ones are in decline and at risk of extinction, for this reason in these areas the apollo is a protected species.