Giant Swallowtail

This weekend I was supposed to go up north for the Minnesota Dragonfly gathering but unfortunately my car was broken into on Thursday while I was at a local park. Fortunately all my camera equipment was with me but they broke my back passenger window to gain access. The only thing that they took was a laptop bag that was filled with all of my books, surprise! So I decided to head up to Wild River State Park today to do some dragonfly photography. What I photographed most though was giant swallowtail butterfly. The giant swallowtail is a butterfly of the south east, although they are also found in southern California. The larval host plant are eaves of citrus trees so it makes sense that you would find them primarily in the south where they grow citrus. There range does extend to the southern border of Minnesota and on some years they push into the southern part of the state as the summer progresses. This year they have already made it as far north as Wild River, which is further north then I have ever seen them, and its only the second week in June. The strangest part though is that this year it seems to be hard to find species that are usually common. Everything is mixed up. It's like we have a shortage of butterflies except for giant swallowtail which are an uncommon species.