Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 40, 1 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
Ok, let me start by sharing the photos my aunt took in WV. She's big into bird watching and got a new camera for Christmas and she's really been taking a lot of photos. I was trying to decide if this was a Spicebush or a female dark-form Tiger ST and I've settled on the Tiger ST. This is a photo of her photo so the color isn't great, but there's another clue.

When we identify bfs we tend to focus on the wings, but we should also learn what the bodies look like. The Spicebush bf has a dotted body, but you can see in the picture this butterfly is solid black. Normally, Tiger STs have stripes, but since this is the dark form it's plain black.

Now that I've got all my books around me there are a few other ways to tell, but the dots on the body are the easiest. I saw another one of those dark form female Tigers when I was roaming around but it went by me in a big hurry! There are tons and tons of Tiger STs in WV so it makes sense there would be some of the dark females. I also saw a lot of Pipevine STs in the area so it also follows that the Tiger STs would mimic them.