Eastern Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)

Order: Lepidoptera (le-pid-OP-ter-a) (Info) Family: Papilionidae (pap-ill-lee-ON-ih-dee) (Info) Genus: Papilio (pap-ILL-ee-oh) (Info) Species: polyxenes Profile: 9 positives 5 neutrals No negatives Regional... This bug has been reportedly found in the following regions: Laceys Spring, Alabama Deer, Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas Marion, Arkansas North Little Rock, Arkansas Denver, Colorado Bear, Delaware Dover, Delaware Boca Raton, Florida Brooksville, Florida Hollywood, Florida Loxahatchee, Florida Mascotte, Florida Melbourne, Florida Melbourne Beach, Florida Oldsmar, Florida Sebastian, Florida Tallahassee, Florida Wauchula, Florida West Palm Beach, Florida Cordele, Georgia Lula, Georgia Chester, Illinois Chicago, Illinois Galva, Illinois La Grange Park, Illinois Palmyra, Illinois Peoria, Illinois Washington, Illinois Coatesville, Indiana Farmersburg, Indiana Greenville, Indiana Jeffersonville, Indiana Macy, Indiana Hebron, Kentucky Thibodaux, Louisiana Durham, Maine Halifax, Massachusetts Saint Cloud, Minnesota Saint Paul, Minnesota (2 reports) Wayzata, Minnesota Columbus, Mississippi Dover, New Hampshire Hudson, New Hampshire Egg Harbor City, New Jersey Marlton, New Jersey New Milford, New Jersey Henrietta, New York Selden, New York Mooresville, North Carolina Pittsboro, North Carolina Raleigh, North Carolina Bucyrus, Ohio Kellyville, Oklahoma Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Tulsa, Oklahoma Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Middleburg, Pennsylvania Waynesboro, Pennsylvania Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania Manning, South Carolina Gainesboro, Tennessee Abilene, Texas Amarillo, Texas Arlington, Texas Carrollton, Texas Dallas, Texas Denton, Texas Edinburg, Texas Fort Worth, Texas Houston, Texas Los Fresnos, Texas New Braunfels, Texas Snook, Texas Victoria, Texas Newport News, Virginia Urbanna, Virginia Milwaukee, Wisconsin Member Notes: Rating Author Comment Neutral Magpye On Aug 16, 2006, Magpye from NW Qtr, AR (Zone 6a) wrote: Wing span: 3 1/4 - 4 1/4 inches (8 - 11 cm). Identification: Upper surface of wings mostly black; on inner edge of hindwing is a black spot centered in larger orange spot. Male has yellow band near edge of wings; female has row of yellow spots. Female hindwing with iridescent blue band. In the Southwest, yellow forms predominate in the subspecies P. coloro. Life history: Males perch and patrol for receptive females. Female lays eggs singly on leaves and flowers of the host, which are then eaten by hatching larvae. Hibernates as a chrysalis. Flight: One-2 flights from April-October in northern regions of range; 3 flights in southern regions. Caterpillar hosts: 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. Adult food: Nectar from flowers including red clover, milkweed, and thistles. Habitat: A variety of open areas including fields, suburbs, marshes, deserts, and roadsides. Range: Most of the eastern U.S., north into Quebec, west into s. Saskatchewan, Colorado and se. California; south to n. South America. Subspecies coloro in desert Southwest. Neutral SPRINTER On Aug 26, 2006, SPRINTER from Harrisburg, PA wrote: I FOUND A CATERPILLER ON MY PARSLEY IN A POT ON MY DECK IN EARLY AUGUST. WE PUT IT IN A SMALL TERRARIUM AND WITHIN A FEW DAYS IT WAS A COCOON. WITHIN THE NEXT TEN DAYS IT WAS A BUTTERFLY - I THOUGHT IT WOULD TAKE TILL SPRING. ONLY TWO WEEKS ??? Neutral jswords On Sep 27, 2006, jswords from columbus, MS (Zone 7b) wrote: The butterfly that this pretty caterpillar becomes is just lovely, but boy! he and his family ate an entire parsley shrub overnight! Fortunately, they are eating at the end of the season here (7b), and the parsely had already gone to seed for next year. the caterpillar is about 1-2" long, bright green with black and white horizontal stripes, and yellow dots on each band of black. They love anything in the carrot family, so the website says...carrots, dill, parsley.... I'm kind of looking forward to seeing the chrysalis in a couple of weeks! Positive organic1 On Nov 18, 2006, organic1 from DFW Metroplex, TX (Zone 8a) wrote: I found about 30 caterpillars on my single rue plant 24 September. By 1 October, they were all gone, and part of my plant, too. The damage is simply cosmetic. The plant is fine. One must be willing to sacrifice a part of their gardens’ beauty to enjoy the winged beauties later. Positive Marilynbeth On Nov 21, 2006, Marilynbeth from Hebron, KY (Zone 6b) wrote: I always love to see these BF's in the garden! They are so beautiful! I'm happy to offer host plants and nectar plants! Neutral catbird8 On Jun 22, 2007, catbird8 from Houston, TX wrote: I could not find the Western Black Swallowtail in the overview. It does exist and has been documented as far East as Houston. Hard to tell the difference between East and West, but it can be done, especially with good confirmation photographs. Some butterfly books do not note the two, listing only Black Swallowtail. Positive pford1854 On Jun 24, 2007, pford1854 from Marion, AR (Zone 7b) wrote: After having at least 14 Caterpillars on my Dill plants outside, and after witnessing several Wasps "steal" the Caterpillars away, I finally took the remaining 5 inside on some Dill cuttings, into a vase. They continued to eat, poop, and sleep. Then after being about nine days old, they suddenly left the plants and starting climbing my walls and onto the ceiling. I put my gloves on, and gathered them into a coffee can, with a mesh lid. They made a horrible smell and stuck out the yellow "antlers" from their heads as I carried them. In the can, they quickly settled down and became real still, and started to curve their bodies so that only their tails were anchored onto the plant. Somehow, they make a thread around the waist of their bodies to help hold them into place. The next morning, they had shed their last Caterpillar skin and had become a cocoon. The coccon was Lt green, with some Yellow patterns. I look forward to witnessing them break free in a few days...... Positive daylilylib On Jun 24, 2007, daylilylib from Egg Harbor City, NJ wrote: I saw this butterfly in late June in one of my daylilies. Very beautiful! Positive fly_girl On Aug 17, 2007, fly_girl from The Woodlands, TX (Zone 8b) wrote: These butterflies can have two colors of chrysalids; dark brown or light brown. Usually, the dark brown will be on a rough surface and the light will be on a smooth surface. Positive EJM1027 On Sep 3, 2007, EJM1027 from Urbanna, VA wrote: I'm curious to know if this late (Sept 3) in the East/mid-Atlantic if the chrysalis is for over-wintering now? They have enjoyed what was left of the dill plants, they were very welcome to them, and one chrysalis is attached at this point to a stem. I will keep watching but, this is in an area subject to be tilled and if they over-winter now, I will remove them to a safe area. Anybody know? Positive jillj97 On Mar 19, 2008, jillj97 from Loxahatchee, FL wrote: My children and I LOVE these caterpillars! We look forward to the eggs that appear on our parsley plants about 4 times a year. We watch them grow daily (and watch our parsley and dill disappear quickly!) turn into crysalis' and then into beautiful butterflies. It is sad that as many caterpillars that we start out with (well over 50 this most recent time), that we have only counted 8 crysalis'. So far, we've seen 3 of them "hatch" and work up their wings to full size and fly away. The life cycle is amazing! What a gift to have these in our garden! Positive aggscott On Apr 23, 2008, aggscott from Wilkes Barre, PA (Zone 6a) wrote: Easy and beautiful butterflies to raise. They will ususally find your dill or parsley or fennel real easy and leave a few gifts for you. If you take them in they are easy enough to raise. There is nothing like coming home to find one of these beauties has hatched, what a sight! Loves the butterfly bush the most from what I've seen Positive twopuppies On May 12, 2008, twopuppies from Chester, IL wrote: Another swallowtail seen flying on May first- an early season? Neutral Photog237 On Sep 9, 2008, Photog237 from Waynesboro, PA wrote: We found three caterpillars on our parsley, which I relocated not knowing what they were. I have since had two more which I decided to leave on the parsley since we aren't eating any of it. No sense in letting it go to waste.

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