03 June 2012

Tiger


An Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) photographed yesterday nectaring on a lupine in our back yard.  Swallowtails are large, graceful and powerful fliers that herald the onset of summer at our latitude.

It's quite easy to see how "tigers" received their common name.  There are subtypes distributed through the various climate zones of North America, and close relatives around much of the world.  I've never been successful in finding any eggs or rearing any caterpillars of this species, because they oviposit on trees (cherry, chokecherry, ash, cottonwood, poplar, willow, birch, lilac, apple, maple, basswood) as food sources.

But they do come to ground level to nectar, and this fellow was so delighted with the lupine that he sat there long enough for me to run into the house for a camera and then position the lens an inch from his wings for a couple dozen photos, of which I liked this one best (click for bigger).

5 comments:

  1. What a wonderful photograph!

    ReplyDelete
  2. *holding arm up and waving it wildly" Mr. Minesotastan Sir!!!???

    [you/Mr. M.] Yes, Maggie?

    [me] Thank You! I have a cool picture of some kind of beautiful caterpillar and I don't know what it is! Could you look at it and tell me?!?

    [you/Mr. M.] .....?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You betcha, I'll be happy to look at the photo. Is it posted somewhere?

      Delete
    2. right now only on my facebok page [along with a really huge spider from a couple of years ago!]. I also have a long neglected google+ page. Or I could email it to you?

      Delete
    3. You can send it to the email on my profile:

      retag4726 (at) mypacks.net

      (and tell me what part of the country you live in)

      Delete

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