Topic: Swallowtail Butterfly

[Astronuc]

This Yellow Swallowtail butterfly visited our front yard today.  Someone took a bite out of his/her left side (left 'tail').  The butterfly is sitting on Purple Coneflowers.

Below is a caterpillar of this species.  My wife found eight of these little guys on the bronze fennel in her herb garden.  Once we identified them, we relocated 7 of them so that they could have adequate food.  We placed one on another fennel plant, three went to the black-eyed susan, and the last three were deposited at a nearby swampy area on some wild milkweed.  :D

 :koala

[Astronuc]

A relative of the butterfly above is the -

Eastern Black Swallowtail Papilo polyxenes

Here are some pictures of the caterpillar.

[Astronuc]

Swallowtail Butterflies

Swallowtail Butterflies, family Papilionidae.

 :koala

[Astronuc]

I believe this picture is of a Black Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio polyxenes).  It is pretty ragged, probably from bird attacks or perhaps damage from being blown into plants(?).  It was caught in some garden netting which protects the vegetable garden from deer and rodents.

There are pictures of younger Black Swallowtails at the sites (links) in the preceding post.

[Patty]

No no. What you've got in the first photo is a Western Tiger Swallowtail (I am almost sure) and the caterpillar is an Anise Swallowtail.

Hang on, I'll show you mine. Let me take a picture.

[Patty]

I take it back!! Mea Culpa!!

The black swallowtail (found in the Eastern US) and the Anise Swallowtail (found in the western US) are very phenotypically similar, in their larval stages!! Learn something new every day. Wow. Anyway, most of the text below was written when I was under the assumption that you had posted a pic of an Anise caterpillar by mistake.

~~~~~~Begin what-I-was-going-to-say~~~~~~~~

We don't have black swallowtails at all, in California, but we have Anise Swallowtails. They lay eggs on wild fennel. I found one on my Dill (which Black Swallowtails *will* use, out East, but not here), -- Dill is closely related to Fennel and the female Anise Swallowtails will use it if they can't find fennel.

Here is our baby from the kitchen counter who is trying to decide whether she should pupate or not :



(sorry for the out-of-focus-ness.) I couldn't get her to extend her orange musk glands (horns) for the photo, but we teased her to do it earlier when the kids got home. They are a defense mechanism and release a nasty smell.

An adult Anise Swallowtail differs from a Tiger Swallowtail in that the Anise Swallowtail has a black mantle on her "shoulders." Examine the two photos:

Tiger Swallowtail:



Anise Swallowtail:



A Tiger Swallowail typically uses trees as a food source, not fennel or dill. Willow, sycamore, and a few others.  A Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar looks like this:

http://www.stephencresswell.com/s/sXXX-03.JPG

A black swallowtail caterpillar, below, (Eastern US)  appears similar to an Anise Swallowtail (western US):



~~~~~The following was written after I realized how similar the BST and the AST are phenotypically, especially in their larval stages. ~~~~~~~

The main larval differences between the black swallowtail and the anise swallowtail appear to be that the black bands on the black swallowtail are more dominant, relative to the yellow blobs on each band. This is why I now think you(Astronuc) really did post BST pics instead of AST. The black appears to dominate each black/yellow stripe.  The adults, on the the other hand, are very different between the two species - with the black swallotail being mostly black and the Anise swallowtail appearing to be intermediate between BST and Tiger swallowtails.

Interesting. Presumably, the species are closely related, and geographical isolation (doe to westernm deserts?) allowed some phenotypic drift, inculding preferred larval host plant. Obviously the drift is not absolute, and I am glad i planted dill --- and that the AST's used it.

We have some other species of swallowtail - I am waiting for Pipevine Swallowtails to find my Aristolochia californica. I am not holding my breth as they are generally found further north and more coastally.

(now I can't wait to see the butterfly that comes out of this caterpillar. Wouldn't it be a hoot if it was a black swallowtail, in california?)

[Astronuc]

Cool, Patty!  I have some more caterpillar photos.  :D

OK - here is several of what I think is a Yellow Swallowtail.

Here is a cool site for butterflies- http://www.biopix.dk/Category.asp?Language=en-us&Category=Sommerfugle.

http://www.biopix.dk/Species.asp?Language=en-us&Searchtext=Papilio%20machaon&Category=Sommerfugle - what they call a Common Yellow Swallowtail (Papilio machaon)

And here is one for a Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) - http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/biodiv/lepidopt/papilio/tiger.htm

[Patty]

Our swallowtail today:

This morning:



This evening:



She's a bit on the small side. But so far she is doing everything she ought to be doing, so I hope she has enough oomph to go the distance.

[Astronuc]

And some closeups of the same Yellow Swallowtail above -

[Astronuc]

Here are a couple of Black Swallowtails that are pretty ragged toward the end of the season.

[Astronuc]

I have been using a Kodak DX6490 - 5 MegaPixel - EasyShare digital camera, which has autofocus.  The problem I enounter with the highest mag is the limited depth of field and the fact that slight movement is exaggerated.  It means I have to breath in and hold it, and use the action setting, which means fast 'shutter speed'.

I would prefer a mostly manual camera, like my Canon F-1, which is now 30+ years old.

I like the digital image as opposed to film, but I prefer manual everything else.