Southern Festoon (Zerynthia polyxena)

I can't help myself, but whenever I see a “Festoon” butterfly (in German “Osterluzeifalter”) I get almost giddy with excitement, they are so strikingly beautiful. This one (and several brothers and sisters) we saw in a little meadow on the Western slope of the Nanos plateau, in the Slovenian spring.

A “cousin” species (Spanish festoon) can be found on the Iberian peninsula