Georgia's State Butterfly!

My family recently enjoyed a picnic and fun afternoon at Stone Mountain Park.  As the kids played and watched the train go by, this butterfly caught my eye:

This is the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Georgia's state butterfly.  It is also the state butterfly of Alabama, Delaware, and South Carolina and the state insect of Virginia.  The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is found throughout the Eastern United States and Canada.  You can see these beautiful creatures from spring to fall with the time varying by the part of the country you're in.  In the south, they are often seen from February to November, while in the north, they are only seen from May to September. 



Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail; photo courtesy of Jeffrey Pippen

You can recognize Eastern Tiger Swallowtails from the four black "tiger stripes" found on each fore wing.  Males are yellow, but females can be yellow or black.  The black morph in females mimics the Pipevine Swallowtail, a poisonous species that predators have learned to stay away from.  The outer edge of the Tiger Swallowtail's fore wing is black with a row of yellow spots.  The inner margin of the hind wing has small blue and red spots. Females have more blue on them than males.



Female Tiger Swallowtails; top-yellow female; bottom-dark female morph

It takes around one month for the life cycle to go from egg to adult.  Green eggs are laid on plants.  New caterpillars are brown and white, and look a lot like bird poop.  Older caterpillars are green with two black, yellow, and blue eye spots on the thorax.  These eye spots help to ward off predators.  The caterpillar will turn brown before pupating, and the chrysalis will vary from a whitish color to dark brown.  

Males often participate in a behavior called "puddling."  This is when they congregate on mud, damp gravel, or puddles.  Sodium ions and amino acids from these sources are extracted to aid in reproduction.



Puddle Party!

All photos other than the first one are being used by permission by Jeffrey Pippen of Duke University.  These are only a few of the beautiful photos on his website.  I encourage you to follow this link to check out the rest of his work: http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/butterflies/easterntigerswallowtail.htm.