Black Swallowtail

Description:

Wing Span: 3 1/4 - 4 1/4 inches (8-11cm) Coloring: Wings are mostly black. On the inner edge of the bottom wing is an orange dot with a smaller black dot inside. Male have yellow band near edge of wings. Females have yellow dots near edge of wings with shiny blue band on bottom wings. (info from www.butterfliesandmoths.org)

Habitat:

Open areas like fields, suburbs, marshes, deserts, and roadsides. Most of eastern U.S.; north into Quebec; west into south Saskatchewan, Colorado, and South East California; south into northern South America. Caterpillars eat leaves of plants in parsely family including Queen Anne's Lace, carrots, celery, and dill. Sometimes plants in citrus family. Adults eat nectar from flowers including red clover, milkweed, and thistles. (info from www.butterfliesandmoths.org)

Notes:

My little brothers and I actually found this one when she was still a caterpillar. I was cleaning some carrots I had picked in our garden, and found her among the leaves. We looked up what kind of caterpillar she was and what she liked to eat. We put her in a bug catcher with the carrot tops and kept an eye on her. We watched her grow, saw her in her chrysalis stage, and turn into this beautiful butterfly. This is a picture I took right before we released her. Once i learned about a black swallowtails habitat and eating habits, I'm not surprised we found her. I live on a farm in northern Minnesota, and although there's a lot of trees around here, I live on relatively open pastureland for our horses and cows. In our pasture, a ton of milkweed grows, a food the adult likes (the milkweed is also why we also get lots of monarchs as well) ... In the garden where the caterpillar was, we grow carrots and a lot of dill, the caterpillars favorite food.