Black Swallowtail Butterfly
by Karen Adams
Title
Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Artist
Karen Adams
Medium
Photograph - Fine Art Prints - Photography
Description
There is nothing better than a peaceful summer afternoon in a garden with a few butterflies! This is a Black Swallowtail butterfly enjoying the tall purple verbena flowers that grow in my backyard wildflower garden.
The sceintific name for these beauties is Papilio polyxenes . . . the family: Papilionidae and subfamily: Papilioninae.
To identify a Black Swallowtail look at the upper surface of wings and as you would expect these are mostly black. You will see on the inner edge of hindwing a black spot centered in a larger orange spot. Male Black Swallowtails have a yellow band near the edge of the wings, while females have a row of yellow spots. Female hindwings will have an iridescent blue band. In the Southwest, yellow forms predominate in the subspecies P. coloro.
The average size is a wing span of 3 1/4 - 4 1/4 inches (8 - 11 cm).
The Black Swallowtail caterpillar has some favorite host plants. The female will lay eggs on these plants and the hatched caterpillars will eat them. They enjoy 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. The adult likes nectar from flowers including red clover, milkweed, and thistles.
These butterflies like a variety of open areas including fields, suburbs, marshes, deserts, roadsides and to my great joy, my wildflower garden in Ohio!
**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
March 19th, 2013
Statistics
Viewed 589 Times - Last Visitor from Beverly Hills, CA on 03/29/2024 at 7:26 AM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Comments (26)
Morris Finkelstein
Fabulous close up photograph of a Black Swallowtail butterfly with great pose, colors, clarity, and composition, Karen! F/L
Karen Adams
Thank you so much to the art collector in Houston, Texas who honored me with the purchase of this print. I hope you enjoy it for years to come!
Tessa Fairey
Congrats on your sale Karen! Beautiful image! v/f
Karen Adams replied:
Thank you so much, Tessa! always exciting to know someone likes it enough to buy!! :)