Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

The eastern tiger swallowtail is a large swallowtail butterfly that is found in the eastern half of the United States. Males are yellow in color with four stripes on their forewings which is how they got the name tiger swallowtail. Most females look similar to the males however some females are mostly black and often confused for a black swallowtail. At one time the eastern tiger swallowtails range extended up into Canada but in 1991 the Canada subspecies was divided out and became its own species.
This tiger swallowtail has just recently emerged from its chrysalis. You can tell because its wings are in pristine shape. The butterfly in these pictures is drinking salt and amino acids from the wet sand. This is behavior that they typically only do right after emerging. Often groups of newly emerged males will congregate together to drink from the sand so that they have the necessary nutrients for mating. This behavior is called pooling.