Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Facts about Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly, "Scientific name for Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly is Papilio glaucus". Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly is a swallowtail variety of butterfly that belongs to the Papilio genus of the Papilionidae family. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly originate from North America, and they are one among the most common butterflies in the eastern parts of the United States, where they live in several different homes. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly start flying from spring and continue up to fall, in which they make two to three broods.

Features

The adult Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly have a wingspan, ranging from 3 3/32 inches to 5 1/2 inches (7.8 to 13.9 cm), whereas the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly are bigger than the males, and they have a better wingspan. The male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly has a yellow color body, with four black color stripes similar to that of a tiger on both sides of their front wings. Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly may appear with either black or yellow color body, creating them dimorphic. The yellow morph of the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly is similar to that of the male butterfly, but it appears with a noticeable band of blue color spots along their back wing, whereas the dark morph is more or less entirely black.

The external edge of the front wing of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly is black in color with a line of yellow color spots. Their veins have black color markings and the post-median region of the back wing is black in color with yellow color spots down the margin. The interior margin of the back wing of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly has small blue and red color spots. The margin of the ventral front wing has a yellow color, which is broken into marks. The broken bar can be seen in both genders, and it is used to differentiate the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly from other butterfly varieties.

Diet

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly feed on the nectar of several varieties of flowers, regularly from the flowers of the Asteraceae, Apocynaceae and Fabaceae families. They also feed on carrion, dung and urine.

Breeding

The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies lay their green color eggs singly on the plants that belong to the Rosaceae and Magnoliaceae families. Juvenile caterpillars appear with brown and white color body, and the grown-up ones have a green color body, with two yellow, black and blue color eyespots on their thorax. The body color of the caterpillar will turn to brown before pupating. It will attain a maximum body length of 2.2 inches. The chrysalis of the caterpillar varies from a whitish brown color to dark brown color. Hibernation takes place during this stage in places with chilly winter months.

Behavior

The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly is diurnal, and usually they are solitary. Adult butterflies are well-known to fly high above the earth, and they usually fly above the canopy of trees. Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly look for female butterflies by patrolling homes, holding the larval host plants. At the time of courtship, the female and male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly will fly about each other before landing and mating. The male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly discharges cologne-like pheromones during the courtship to attract the female butterfly for mating. Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly take part in a behavior known as puddling, in which both Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly assemble on mud, wet gravel, or puddles. They take amino acids and sodium ions out of these resources, which assist them during reproduction. Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly are insects. A Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly is a herbivore; Meaning that as a caterpillar its first food is its own eggshell and than it will eat the leaves of the plant on which it is hatched. When it becomes a butterfly, it will feed mostly on nectar from flowers, rotting fruit and water with a "proboscis" - a long narrow tube in their mouth that looks like a straw.

Life cycle of a Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly comes in four stages, egg, larva "caterpillars", pupa "chrysalis" and adult Butterfly.
A Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly will attach its eggs to leaves with a special glue.

When caterpillars become fully grown they will attach to an appropriate leaf or small branch, than they will shed the outside layer of their skin and a hard skin underneath known as a "chrysalis" will be their new look
An adult Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly will come out from the "chrysalis" than it waits a few hours for its wings to dry and fill with blood, before it takes its first flight.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly can see yellow, green, and red. An adult Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly average life span is from a week to a year
The top flight speed of a Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly is 12 miles per hour and some moths can fly up to 25 miles per hour.
A Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly is cold-blooded, which means the body temperature is not regulated on its own. A Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly can't fly or eat if their body temperature is below 82 degrees fah (28 cel). Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly's are often basking in the sun with their wings open to gain heat and than the veins in the wings carry the heat to the body.
A Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly has sense organ, on their feet or tarsi, for tasting
The estimate is between 15000 and 20000 different species of butterfly.

A Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly has a small body, made up of three parts – the head, abdomen and thorax. A Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly has two large eyes, which are made up of many small parts which are called "compound eyes".
A Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly has two antenna's on the top of their heads, which they use to smell, hear and feel. A Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly’s mouth is a long tube a "proboscis" - a long narrow tube in their mouth that looks like a straw when its done eating, it rolls the tube back up.

A Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly has three pairs of legs and their feet have little claws that help them stand on flowers. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly's wings are made up of hard tubes that are covered with a thin tissue. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly wings are covered with fine dusty like scales. A Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly has four brightly colored wings having distinctive patterns made up of tiny scales. The bright patterns scales sometimes have hidden ultraviolet patterns for attracting mates. The bright colors are also used as camouflage to hide them or scare off predictors.