On Saturday, an atlas spinner was discovered on a birch on Kullaberg in northwestern Scania, writes Helsingborgs Dagblad.
“It was so huge,” says Niklas Mörk, one of those who saw the butterfly, to the newspaper.
Mikael Odell confirms to Helsingborgs Dagblad that it is indeed an atlas spinner.
The butterfly, which with its 25 centimeter wingspan is one of the world’s largest butterflies, usually has its home in Southeast Asia.
In August, an atlas spinner on a house wall in Stockholm’s Old Town caused great surprise. Already a few weeks earlier, another specimen of the butterfly was also sighted in the same neighborhood. The butterflies turned out to be from an anonymous butterfly lover who had pupae in his home.
But where Saturday’s butterfly in Skåne comes from is still a mystery.
“It is strange that there is a Southeast Asian giant butterfly sitting on a birch in Kullaberg,” says Mikael Odell to TT.
He points out that it is forbidden to smuggle in animals.
In addition to the Swedish finds, an atlas spinner was found in the state of Washington this summer. And it should be the first find in the open in the USA, writes, among other things Smithsonian Magazine.