Aha! The garden has been discovered by more than the Hummingbird Moths now!! And, now I know what goes on during the day while I'm at work and have to miss everything!!
Anyway, I got both forms of the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail today. :) I also saw a Monarch, but was not quick enough to get outside with the camera.
Here's the black form....
and her underside....
and the yellow form (my favorite)....
and her underside...
They're beautiful, I love the Swallowtails! Great shots!
Very nice pics indeed!!
Thank you! It was really cool later today, because there were two black forms at the same time. They stayed for a very long time, too. Unfortunately, my battery had died by then, but maybe it'll happen again tomorrow and I'll be able to get a good picture. For now, here's the one I did manage to get through the window. They are on opposite ends of the "garden."
Indiana, do you have TST host plants in your gardens? Love your BF pictures!
Thanks much! Yes, I've got bronze fennel and curley parsley. I tried to grow dill, but the bunnies kept devouring that, so I gave that up. I watched these ladies closely today, but they had no interest in the host plants whatsoever. And, I do check the plants daily for signs of eggs or babies, but nothing yet.
One more picture. I did see a male today, but was too slow with the camera. :(
I can't tell the males from the females, especially the yellow females. I also get the dark TST females confused with the Black Sawllowtails. I've got to get a field guide on my next trip to the book store at the mall.
I've planted a sweet bay magnolia for the Tiger ST but it's still a wee little plant yet.
The females have blue along their bottom wings, and the males don't. Here's a picture of a male that was taken last year.
I think the difference between the BST and female TS is that the female TS has more blue, and the BST has more golden dots on the wings. I'm still learning and am often wrong, though. :)
I don't think I've had (or noticed) a black female Tiger. I know I had a female yellow because DGers ID it for me. Tiger ST are absolutely goreous!
Indiana, some host plants for the TST are tulip tree (Liriodendron), sweet bay, wild black cherry (Prunus), ash (Fraxinus), wild poplar (Populus), Basswood (Tilia), birch (Betula), lilac, aspens, or choke cherry. I just found some green eggs on a Texas Ash a little while ago. I had thought I saw a probable female dark TST lately, but wasn't sure. DH said he saw one also.
Great pics, Indiana_lily! I have a terrible time telling all the black swallowtails apart, too.
I noticed that some of them have different flight patterns, and that may be the way to differentiate them, too, however I don't know the characteristics for the flight patterns...maybe somebody will chime in with descriptions...?
I planted lots of parsley, fennel, dill, etc. but I thought those were Black Swallowtail host plants. No?
Cordeledawg:
Just a quick rule of thumb - the Spicebush ST will not be as crisply black as the Eastern BST. The Spicebush has a somewhat brownish cast to the dorsal side. Haven't seen enough Pipevines (host plant the Dutchmans Pipe Vine) to know them on sight.
The black / dark form E. TST will show tiger stripes through the wings when viewed from the ventral side. And, you can often make out the tiger stripes from the dorsal side, if the lighting is right.
As you noted - the best thing is study the good reference books. After you have raised a few of each it will come almost as second nature. You can't tell much from what they nectar on but you can start to get a good take by knowing the larval food sources. The Spicebush ST gets its name from the Spicebush plant, its primary larval host. The camphor tree is also a host plant.
The E. BST's have a variety of host plants - mostly herbal; parsley, dill, rue, etc. The GST's, at least in the South, primarily host on citrus plants. Don't have much experience yet with the E. TST's as this is the first year to see them almost daily here on the west side of Houston.
But, they are so easy to tell, like the Giant, that you don't need a host plant for ID'ing the adult.
Rod
Thanks, Ron. Hoping Cats' doing well. Y'all been on vacation or something?
I finally planted a spicebush. The chances are probably slim to none that I'll have any SST's though.
