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Spicebush Swallowtail

Papilio troilus

6 Comments

Wild Maxams
Wild Maxams 11 years ago

Ok thanks!

KeithRoragen
KeithRoragen 11 years ago

The Black Swallowtail has a black spot at the center of the orange dot on the upperside base of the hind wing. The real clincher, though is the row of orange spots on the underside. Black Swallowtails have an uninterrupted row of orange spots. If you look at your last two images, you see two orange spots near the lower middle portion of the underside of the hind wing, followed by a whitish-blue streak, followed by more orange spots. That is always indicative of Spicebush Swallowtail.

gatorfellows
gatorfellows 11 years ago

Here is a website that has photos to compare the dorsal (topside) and ventrao (underside) views of all the dark swallowtails. http://louisiananaturalist.blogspot.com/...

annorion
annorion 11 years ago

The way I tell is the extent of the blue coloration on the hind wing. The spicebush the light blue covers about half of the hind wing. The black swallowtail has one row of blue and a row of yellow on top of that on the hind wing. Sorry if I'm not explaining well, if you google images for both species you should be able to see what I'm trying to explain.

Wild Maxams
Wild Maxams 11 years ago

What distinguishes a spicebush from a black? I thought the wing shape looked more like the black swallowtail?

KeithRoragen
KeithRoragen 11 years ago

This is a Spicebush Swallowtail.

Wild Maxams
Spotted by
Wild Maxams

Ohio, USA

Spotted on Jul 17, 2012
Submitted on Jul 17, 2012

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