CLOSED: Male & female of same butterfly?

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maryyx Grand Prairie, TX Mar 23, 2007

Hi
I'm posting pictures of two butterflies. I'm wondering if they may be male & female of the same species - as marking is similar though the main color is yellow on one, and black on the other.

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maryyx Grand Prairie, TX Mar 23, 2007

Here is the black one.

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claypa West Pottsgrove, PA(Zone 6b) Mar 23, 2007

I think so. The females of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail can be almost black, supposedly to mimic the Pipevine Swallowtail, which is poisonous or at least tastes bad to birds. It's a confusing genus (to me anyway) but I think they are both Papilio glaucus. Hopefully somebody else can confirm or correct that...
Mike

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maryyx Grand Prairie, TX Mar 24, 2007

I just love this website! There are so many helpful, knowledgeable people! This year, I want to take pictures of all of my little visitors, and try to ID them. I know that last year (my first year of flower gardening) I saw all sorts of insects I had never seen before.

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fly_girl The Woodlands, TX(Zone 8b) Mar 24, 2007

Mike, you're right, the Tiger females are dimorphic, in that they have two different colorations. She can emerge from her chrysalis as chocolate, black, or bright yellow. The Pivevine ST is supposedly unpalatable to birds. The black coloration occurs only from female eggs laid by the black mother. Male eggs from the same mother produce yellow males. It is confusing, but so interesting.

Great pics maryyx!

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WUVIE Hulbert, OK(Zone 7a) Mar 25, 2007

How funny to come across this thread, as we were just wondering
about this earlier. There are literally hundreds of Swallowtails in our
fruit trees during the day, and wow, are they gorgeous!

I found the comparisons here:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/species/Tigersw.shtml

KM

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fly_girl The Woodlands, TX(Zone 8b) Mar 25, 2007

Hi WUVIE!!!

Wow, that must be incredible to see!

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