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Battus philenor
The Pipevine swallowtail is also called the "blue swallowtail". Coal black to dark gray above with brilliant metallic blue toward hind wing margin. Male brighter than female. If you look closely, this swallowtail is missing one of its hind wings.
This Pipevine swallowtail (even though it is missing a hing wing) was spotted flying everywhere in the beautiful gardens at Hillwood Gardens in Washington, DC.
Spotted on Jul 23, 2014
Submitted on Jul 25, 2014
2 Comments
Thanks ForestDragon for correcting me. Hope you seen one soon. That was my first spotting of a Pipevine swallowtail.
Beautiful spotting! I'm still waiting to see one of these.
By the way, it's Pipevine Swallowtail, named for one of the plants the caterpillars feed on called "Pipevine" from Genus Aristolochia. :-)