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.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

The eastern tiger swallowtail is one of the most impressive butterflies in the eastern United States. It was first recorded in 1587 when it was drawn by John White during Sir Walter Raleigh's third expedition to the new world. It was originally thought to have a range that included much of Canada but in 1991 the Canadian tiger swallowtail was separated into its own species.
Here in the northern part of its range the eastern tiger typically has two broods per year. Eggs are laid on a larval host plant, which includes wild cherry, Magnolia, tulip tree, birch, ash and willow trees. The caterpillars rest on silken mats on the top of the leaves. The eastern tiger over winters in its' pupae form, chrysalis.

Wordless Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Their are over 600 species of swallowtails in the world but only about 30 that are found in North America. Out of those aproximately 30 species we only see four hear in Minnesota, the eastern tiger swallowtail, Canadian tiger swallowtail, the black swallowtail and in the southeastern part of the state we have begun to see giant swallowtail. Must swallowtails are found in the tropical areas of the world.
Swallowtails are large colorful butterflies, the ones we have here in Minnesota are mostly yellow and black. All of their legs are full sized and fully functional, unlike butterflies in the brushfoot family, and most have tails, including all four that we have in Minnesota.
The easter tiger swallowtail is the most common found here in Minnesota. There are typically two broods of eastern tigers here per year, the first is from the middle of May to mid June and the second in from mid July to mid August. So far with our cold spring I have yet to see a swallowtail this year but it is still early. The first brood are swallowtails that over winter in their pupae or chysalis stage. In these photos the butterfly is sticking its proboscis, the tube it uses to drink nectar, into the sand looking for moisture.

Congrats Wisconsin

Last nights Super Bowl was a great game. I was very happy that our neighbors to the east came up victorious. To honor their victory I decided to feature one of my favorite Wisconsin refuges in today's post.
Necedah NWR is located in central Wisconsin. It is about an hour west of Madison, Wisconsin and about 3 hours south east of the Twin Cities, where I live. Our first trip to Necedah was back in 2007. I had been doing some reading about butterflies and found that Necedah was a good place to see the endangered Karner blue. Unfortunately by the time we made arrangements to go there, Michelle accompanied me on this trip, it was October which is a bit late for the Karner blues. We did fall in love with, and photograph the numerous red-headed woodpeckers living in the refuge. The head on this immature bird was just beginning to turn red.

In 2008 we decided to go back to Necedah but this time in June. We were able to photograph our first Karner blues on that trip but we did not see as many red-headed woodpeckers as we did in the fall of 2007. So I decided to head back, this time on my own, at the beginning of October. On the second trip not only did I get my red-head fix but I also was astounded when a pair of endangered whooping cranes flew directly over head.

In 2009 I made two trips back out to Necedah, one with Michelle and one on my own. This eastern tiger swallowtail was very cooperative that June, posing for many pictures on brightly colored flowers. On the June trip we also spotted a porcupine as it crossed the road, which was very exciting.

In 2010 I repeated my now traditional two trips, this year both of them on my own. I added several new species to my Necedah list including several new dragonflies and a bobolink. I also photographed my favorites including the red-headed woodpeckers and the Karner blue butterfly, as seen above.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Tiger Swallowtail on Orange Hawkweed

My final post for this anniversary week and the last picture in my 2010 calendar is this pic of a eastern tiger swallowtail drinking from an orange hawkweed blossom. To us they may be a terrible invasive species but to a butterfly they are just another source of food.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

One of the larger butterflies that we see here in my little corner of the world is the eastern tiger swallowtail. It is so named because of its yellow color and the four black tiger stripes on each wing. I found this swallowtail at the Carpenter Nature Center in September.

In this area the range of the eastern swallowtail crosses that of the Canadian swallowtail this can sometimes make identification difficult. The Canadian swallowtail is smaller and has a continuous yellow band on the trailing edge of the forewing as compared to the eastern where the band is interrupted by black. Occasionally giant swallowtail come north making identification even trickier.

This is a male eastern tiger swallowtail. The female of the species has orange and blue spots mixed into the black border of the wings, particularly near the tail. Females can also come in a dark form that appears similar to a black swallowtail. This dark form is not very common, especially this far north, and I have yet to see a dark form female.

Wordless Wednesday: Tiger Swallowtail

Butterflies of Maplewood Nature Center 2008

Last year did not seem to be a very good year for butterflies here in southern Minnesota. I did not see very many butterflies around here until well into the summer. This may have been the resault of a long winter and late spring that we had last year.
By the time that August rolled around things had rebounded some what, especially with the monarch population. I do not know whether there was a large final brood of the year or there was a lot of staging for the migration but there were many more monarchs in August and September, especially on the blazing star at the Maplewood Nature Center.
This was one of the few eastern tiger swallowtail that I saw last summer. He was sampling the thistle plants at the Maplewood Nature Center in August. The readish substance on the wings in the pic above is pollen that the butterfly inadvertantly pics up when it is drinking nectar.
This is how many flowers are pollinated. When the butterfly is taking a drink at the next flower some of the pollen will fall of and pollinate the new flower. You can tell that this is probably a male because females have large orange spots near the bottom of the wing.
This year seems to be a little bit better for butterflies but things have still been slow. I have only seen 1 eastern tiger and only a few monarchs so far this year. This weekend I did photograph a few new species, new for me, up at Crex Meadows so hopefully things are getting better.