Beyond Black Swallowtails

Black swallowtail, male

I participate in a number of groups on Facebook geared towards supporting pollinators and increasing your wildlife habitat at home. These are wonderful groups with people showing pictures of their flowers and the insects that visit. The thing that kills me (yes, this is my rant of the summer) is the misconceptions about swallowtails and the usage of parsley/fennel/dill.

First of all, not every ‘swallowtail’ is a black swallowtail, so don’t use the term ‘swallowtail’ unless you really are speaking in general. In Georgia, we have a number of other native swallowtail butterflies: Eastern tiger swallowtail, Giant swallowtail, Palamedes swallowtail, Pipevine swallowtail, the tail-less Polydamus swallowtail, Spicebush swallowtail, Zebra swallowtail, and even the red-spotted purple looks like a swallowtail that lost its tails.

Tiger swallowtail: female dark form (left) and male (right)

Second, these other swallowtails have vastly different food preferences as a caterpillar. Several weeks ago, someone posted about raising pipevine caterpillars and what to do if she ran out of pipevine leaves. Another person responded to get some parsley or fennel from the store because “swallowtails love it.” No, I’m sorry but pipevine swallowtail caterpillars won’t eat any plant but a plant related to pipevine (Aristolochia).

Giant swallowtail

Tiger swallowtail: female yellow form

Pipevine swallowtail

Spicebush swallowtail

So, let’s turn this rant into a teaching moment. Here is a list of native host plants for all types of swallowtail butterflies in Georgia. If you’d like to support all types of swallowtails that frequent your area, include some of these plants in your garden and landscape:

Black swallowtail – plants in the Apiaceae family: Angelica, Thaspium (meadowparsnip), Zizia (golden Alexander) and many others (but these are the ones generally sold) as well as non-native relatives like parsley/fennel/dill.

Eastern tiger swallowtail – Liriodendron (tuliptree), Fraxinus (ash), Magnolia (sweetbay magnolia primarily), and Prunus (cherry).

Giant swallowtail - plants in the Rutaceae family: Ptelea (hoptree/waferash), Zanthoxylum (pricklyash also called Hercules’s club) and others as well as non-native citrus relatives.

Palamedes swallowtail – Persea (redbay ); this is a deep south butterfly, normally found in coastal regions where its host is indigenous.

Pipevine swallowtail – Aristolochia (pipevine) and Endodeca (Virginia snakeroot). See my earlier blog on finding pipevine caterpillars on Virginia snakeroot this year.

Polydamus swallowtail– like the pipevine swallowtail: Aristolochia (pipevine) and Endodeca (Virginia snakeroot); this is also a deep south butterfly.

Spicebush swallowtail – Lindera (spicebush), Persea (redbay), and Sassafras.

Zebra swallowtail – Asimina (pawpaw).

Red-spotted purple – Prunus (black cherry) and Salix (willow).

Red-spotted purple

Zebra swallowtail

So when you’re talking about butterflies, please be specific. Their life literally depends on your getting it right when it comes to feeding their caterpillars. And if you want a lot of different butterflies making babies in your yard, please be aware that it takes a lot more than parsley/fennel/dill.

Id tip for dark swallowtails: I find that trying to get a look at the coloration and patterns (dots vs. stripes) on the abdomen is very helpful. I learned about this from this blog post which has excellent pictures of dark swallowtails.

At first, I thought this dark butterfly was a dark form of the Eastern tiger swallowtail because the wings were so muted. In looking at my pictures, I could see a spotted abdomen which the tiger swallowtail does not have. Another picture of the spread wings allowed me to id it as a spicebush swallowtail, but checking the abdomen can narrow down the possibilities.