A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Butterfly
Aaron8, Do you know how to update Wikipedia? You seem to be dead on with the Swallowtail info and Spicebush info...and that website you mentioned in the other comment, is very helpful.
another positive ID for it being spicebush: if you look at the innermost row of orange spots (which would be the top row in the picture), one of the orange spots is replaced by a "spike" of the blue spots below it. This is a characteristic of the spicebush. In the black swallowtail, it would be a continuous row of orange spots.
florida33girl - I am glad to hear that your Butterfly Garden staff are big fans. I agree that Project Noah is a great resource for so many groups of people with so many purposes. Plus, it actually encourages a use of cell phone apps other than "games" or discussing what teenagers are or are not doing this weekend. (haha). What amazes me about Project Noah is how easy it is for new users to pick up, so it's "easy" yet it is so powerful especially if enough data points are collected for scientist experts to do research. Things I am particularly looking forward to are a previously "believed extinct" species of something being spotted on here, and ID'd with much fanfare and the welcoming back of a once thought of species. Now that there is video feature as well, movements and sounds can be used to further the ID discussions. I'd also like to see some research collected from the data on here make the cover of some big journal some place. 3rd, I'd love to see an awareness created by this project have a direct link or two in both catching a predatory species or disease prior to it wreaking havoc on an ecosystem. 4th- I'd like to see migratory routes of species migrating huge continents - spottings mapped in more details from people on pleasure trips with cell phones and video cameras - whales, butterflies, manatees, birds, and even fall colors might be interesting.
Heather - I actually work at the Butterfly Garden as an assistant, but we are huge fans of Project Noah and are doing lots to contribute to and promote it. We visit daily to see what people are spotting worldwide, and help out with IDs whenever we can. What a great place for amateurs and experts everywhere to meet, share, and learn!
FL333girl - did you take your smart phone to the Butterfly Garden and show the curator this thread and spotting? If so, that is another great feature of Project Noah...Take the picture to the experts!
Kristen G, curator of the Butterfly Garden at MOSI, assures me this is a Spicebush. This is a hard ID to make for many.
AuntNance, I agree...I have learned a lot. I didn't realize that the backs of the critters were so important for ID. Also, your spotting was from egg, host plants and more looks at the different angles. This one though, looks like it might be on a pine or a rosemary, but who knows at this point?
I think I am going to have to go with spicebush swallowtail. If you work your way up from the body, just before the first row of spots, there should be a yellow/orange spot around the middle of the row. The white spots don't quite match the spicebush, though they might just be faded.
Heather, you know, I don't think I really can tell; my suggestion was based on my first impression. My spotting is definitely black swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes because I have examples of the host plant, the caterpillar, chrysalis and the adult. The likelihood that this spotting is a spicebush, I would say, are pretty high, but without a view of the upper wing surface or evidence of the caterpillar, I'd just be guessing again. But this has been an education; thanks for the discussion.
AuntNance123, How do you tell it's a Black Swallowtail and not a Spicebush Swallowtail? I'm comparing all the pictures I can find and even the spotting you listed above looks like the P.troilus ? I'm reading stuff about both species, which I'm new to, and the range is Eastern US for both. It must be the preference of plant for egg laying? Your spotting takes you from egg to butterfly on dill as I recall. Any advice is welcome.
Colors look off for the Black Swallowtail. The blues in this picture go the length of the wings, not just the bottom wings like the Black Swallowtail. Also, the white spots are almost identical to the Wikipedia picture for the Spicebush Swallowtail. They are related species, so at least it's a Swallowtail for sure.
Spotted on Jul 12, 2011
Submitted on Jul 13, 2011
