Eastern tiger swallowtail
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| Eastern tiger swallowtail
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| Papilio glaucus Linnaeus, 1758 |
The Eastern Tiger swallowtail, Papilio glaucus, is a large (12 cm wingspan) Swallowtail Butterfly. It is found in the Eastern United States, as far north as southern Vermont, and as far West as extreme Eastern Colorado. It flies from spring through fall, and most of the year in the southern portions of its range, where it may produce 2 or 3 broods a year.
Adult males are yellow, with four black "tiger stripes" on the each fore wing. The trailing edges of the fore and hind wings are black which is broken with yellow spots. On the the medial margin of the hind winxt, next to the abdomen there are small red and blue spots.
There are two forms of adult females, a yellow and a dark form. The yellow form is similar to the male, except that the hind wings have an area of blue between the the balck margin and the yellow main yellow area. In the dark form, most of the yellow area are replaced with a dark gray. A shadow of the "tiger stripes" can still be seen on the dark females. The dark form is more common in the Southern portions of the range, especially in areas also inhabited by the Pipevine swallowtail, which it seems to mimic.
The larva eat the leaves of a wide variety of trees and shrubs, including cottonwood, tuliptree, sweet bay, and cherry.
It is the state butterfly of Virginia and Delaware.
References
- USGS treatment (http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/usa/703.htm)
- Jim P. Brock and Kenn Kaufmann, Butterflies of North America (New York, Houghton Mifflin Co., 2003)