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Swallowtail (anise) Caterpillars

Papilio zelicaon

Habitat:

On (anise?) plants on the side of the trail.

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3 Comments

maplemoth662
maplemoth662 5 years ago

Beautiful caterpillars....

MrsPbio
MrsPbio 9 years ago

Wow! jackpot!!!

ForestDragon
ForestDragon 9 years ago

Nice spotting! These caterpillars are likely Papilio zelicaon or Papilio polyxenes, rather than Papilio glaucus. P. glaucus are not found in California and their caterpillars are much different looking.

Here are some references.
Anise Swallowtail: http://bugguide.net/node/view/28235
Black Swallowtail: http://bugguide.net/node/view/2636
Tiger Swallowtail: http://bugguide.net/node/view/491

And on a side note, please keep your images with minimal photo editing. We prefer to see them without the distractions of fancy borders or other alterations. If you have not done so already, please take a read through the FAQ page for the posting guidelines (and other general info on the features of the site): http://www.projectnoah.org/faq

dylanjamesjoaquin
Spotted by
dylanjamesjoaquin

California, USA

Spotted on Mar 17, 2015
Submitted on Mar 17, 2015

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