Pterourus glaucus
Copyright, Jay Cossey: http://www.images.on.ca/JayC/jc_g1index.htm
The Eastern Tiger
Swallowtail, along with the Monarch, is one of our most
recognizable butterflies. You can identify it (usually) by
its large size and bright yellow color with black tiger
stripes. Male tiger swallowtails
have a few orange and blue spots near the tail. Females have both a light
and dark form. Believe it or not, the picture to the right
and the picture directly below are both female Eastern Tiger
Swallowtails! The light form (below) looks a lot like the
male, except it has more blue on the hind wings. The dark
form still has the blue spots, but it is otherwise very dark
with no yellow. Johnson County K-State
Research and Extension Master Gardener, Jacolyn Loyd
Goetz
Mark Moran
Johnson County K-State
Research and Extension Master Gardener, Jacolyn Loyd
Goetz After mating, female
tiger swallowtails lay eggs on leaves of host
plants. Host plants are the plants that caterpillars
will eat. Host plants of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails include
Yellow Poplar, Black Willow, Black Cherry, American
Hornbeam, Red Maple, Spicebush, American Elm, and
Sassafras. When caterpillars first
hatch, their colors look a lot like bird poop. This helps
camouflage
them. As they get older, they turn green with a large head
and bright eyespots. The eyespots aren't really eyes. They
are probably there to scare away predators, or to make them
attack the wrong part of the butterfly. A butterfly can lose
part of a wing and still survive. Johnson County K-State
Research and Extension Master Gardener, Jacolyn Loyd
Goetz Johnson County K-State
Research and Extension Master Gardener, Jacolyn Loyd
Goetz Johnson County K-State
Research and Extension Master Gardener, Jacolyn Loyd
Goetz
Bill Dunn, Huntley Meadows Park
When caterpillars are
fully grown, they will then become pupae
(resting stage). The name for a butterfly pupa is
chrysalis. An adult
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail will come out of the chrysalis in
a couple of weeks. If the weather is getting cold, the
butterfly might wait until the following Spring to
emerge. The chrysalis of this
butterfly is greenish-brown, and a little over an inch
long. Eastern Tiger
Swallowtails are found all over, especially near water, but
also in meadows,
gardens, parks, and roadsides.
