Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Order: LEPIDOPTERA - Family PAPILIONIDAE
Bugs, Birds Butterflies, a BBB Report
By Betty Mosher
It’s a Tiger!
National Capital Area Garden Clubs has selected a State butterfly. It’s a Tiger! It sails! The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio glaucus was selected in August 2004. With a wing span of three and one half to four inches, it is one of the most beautiful and familiar eastern butterflies and is easily identified by “tails” on the hind wing. These flying flowers can been seen in forests, along streams and in gardens from spring to fall. If you have lilacs, sweet bay, willow, wild cherry, tulip tree and cottonwoods, you have every chance that yellow-green eggs are deposited on the underside of the leaves and plumb green distinctive-looking caterpillars with bright yellow and black eyespots will soon begin feasting happily. The yellow/’black ring around the neck is another identifying mark of the larvae. Males mud puddle before mating. Two or three broods give the butterfly observer more opportunity to study and identify these beauties looking for yellow males with ebony stripes and the dimorphic females which are known for their yellow or all black or chocolate markings when they emerge from the chrysalis. The tiger is also known to mimic the poisonous Pipeline Swallowtail, Battus philenor which birds try to avoid. Females are known for their hindwing chevrons of blue and yellow. Bee balm, buddleia, and sunflower are a few of the nectar plants that appeal to the swallowtail.
The chrysalis may be seen suspended from a twig and over winters in this area. Within the chrysalis, the final stage of metamorphosis, the caterpillar tissues are rearranged to form a butterfly. It is truly one of nature’s miracles.
Butterflies need a selection of host and food plants, nectar plants, water, shelter and rocks. The Washington Youth Garden at the US National Arboretum has a butterfly garden that has been created by volunteer Bob Speaker that incorporates this combination essential for butterflies. Pick a sunny day to visit and you may see a “tiger” fluttering with other species as you walk the paths of a garden devoted to attracting butterflies. Next time you are at the Arboretum, it is worth a trip
You can help by:
Letting this chairman know if you are working on BBB projects
Sending names of speakers and resources you have found helpful
Sending in tips and observations
Applying for the NGC #43 Butterfly Award
Go ahead and bug me with news, I will flutter for joy and roar like a tiger.
Betty Mosher bugsbirdsbutterflies@ncafgc.org
*Tiger Swallowtail photo from eNature, a website of National Wildlife Federation.
For more information on Tiger Swallowtails, visit these websites:
eNature
