Beautiful Black Swallowtail in the Garden

by Karen Adams

Title

Beautiful Black Swallowtail in the Garden

Artist

Karen Adams

Medium

Photograph - Fine Art Digital Prints - Photography

Description

I was really lucky on this day for two reasons. One is that a really beautiful butterfly spent time in my garden. Two, that he posed in this way for me several times. Actually third lucky thing: I was in my garden! I like this perspective of this gorgeous Black Swallowtail butterfly because normally you only get to see one ventral wing at a time since it is normally viewed when a butterfly sits with its wings closed. Here we get to see both wings at one time and I think they are so stunning!

This was taken in Ohio mid afternoon on July 30, 2018. The scientific name for this butterfly is Papilio polyxenes. The name gives its obvious identifying feature that it is mostly black with the inner edge of the hindwing marked with a black spot centered in larger orange spot. The male has a yellow band near the edge of its wings, while the female has a row of yellow spots. The female also is marked with an iridescent blue band on the hindwing. The underside of their wings (ventral side that you see when they have their wings 'closed') varies between female and male as well, with the male having orange spots and the female mostly the yellow and blue. This is a male Black Swallowtail.

The size can vary on these butterflies between a wing Span of 3 1/4 - 4 1/4 inches.

Caterpillars are hungry creatures. The Black Swallowtail caterpillar loves host plants such as the leaves of plants in the parsley family (Apiaceae) including Queen Anne's Lace, carrot, celery and dill. Sometimes plants in the citrus family (Rutaceae) are preferred.
Adults like nectar from flowers including red clover, milkweed, and thistles.

My home is in a suburb and we have a large back yard that borders a protected wetlands area, a perfect place to see many types of butterflies. Black Swallowtails like a variety of open areas including fields, suburbs, marshes, deserts, and roadsides. They can be found in most of the eastern U.S., north into Quebec, west into Saskatchewan, Colorado, southeastern California and as far south as northern South America.

Thank you so much for looking at my images. I appreciate that very much.

I am very concerned with our environment and have decided to donate any money I make from any sales of this image to the ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND.....because the Earth needs a good lawyer! We all need to speak up and support efforts to protect our environment. We will not get a second chance!


**The watermark stamp will not appear on any purchased items. All images are protected by copyright law and cannot be reproduced in any form without the express written consent of the artist.**

Uploaded

October 12th, 2018

Colors

Embed

Share

Tags