Swallowtail

Thought I'd share a picture of my swallowtail with you. I think he's a Tiger Swallowtail. He spent a lot of time nectaring on my red porterweed. I got some great pictures of him!

Great Tiger Swallowtail photo! Lots of blue on the hindwing. By the way, that's a her not a him.

Sorry, Bugguy...I haven't figured out how to tell male from female yet! If I had to guess, some of it is in the body shape/size (gravid females are fatter) and some is maybe in the markings on the wings? Lorenzo, the butterfly guy at the farmer's market, knows. Can you enlighten me?

This is a male Tiger. See how there is no blue on his wings, that is how you tell the difference

This is the dark female Tiger. She has the same blue on the hindwings as the regular female.
She is mimicking the Pipevine Swallowtail who is very distasteful to birds.

This message was edited Tuesday, Dec 10th 7:24 PM

Thanks guys! That's pretty cool. So is it always markings that differentiate the males and females in the butterfly species? Are there many species of butterflies that have light and dark phases? I haven't seen anything like that in Monarchs, Frits and Zebras and I guess I didn't realize it happend in Swallowtails, either. Learn something new every day :)

Great pictures!

I'm pretty sure the Tiger is the only butterfly that has two different colored females. The Swallowtails are pretty easy to tell apart and it's always the colors you can tell by. Like the Pipevine male has bright blue irridecent hind vings and the female looks more greenish.
The Spicebush is opposite, female has blue and male green on hind vings. The Black Swallowtail male has yellow markings and the female white, etc.
If there is one in particular you want to know about, ask, I might know.