#black swallowtail

[morgansram]

Black swallowtail larva enjoying dill plant

Photo: Anne DuPont

[the-isopodcalypse]

ANNOYING APE- BEAST DETECTED. DEPLOYING DEFENSIVE STINK MEASURES.

[textless]

[lilybug-02]

I have kidnapped more babies ///JOKING

If anyone has followed me for a long time you may remember a few years ago I raised and released wild Black Swallowtail Butterflies I found off Dill in my backyard. I’ve been hoping they’d come back some day… and they have! Now I can do the whole process over again in a new light :)

((these spoiled caterpillars get store bought organic dill bc the dill in my backyard is hanging on by a thread and would not have sustained these animals for long.))

[ostdrossel]

There has been hardly any bird activity so here is part of something else I have been watching - I bought a little dill a couple of weeks ago, and soon after, I spotted a Black Swallowtail caterpillar on it. I set up a camera and have been doing timelapses for more than a week now.

Meet Dillon Dingler. He has shed his skin once, rests a lot and has doubled in size. Today, he ate a lot, so I think he will probably go into shedding mode again. I hope he knows what he is doing with the plant and there will be enough left until he pupates. I will keep the cam on there as long as he is there. Fingers crossed we can see the entire process.

[northerlyy]

Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes), taken May 1, 2026, in Georgia, US

A beautiful swallowtail butterfly taking a break from flying against the wind! This guy was a fun lifer for me, as I had only ever seen tiger and spicebush swallowtails previously. I saw this individual fly by and immediately clocked it as something new. Luckily, it was content to land and rest its wings on the stones around me, allowing me to come in for pictures. Hopefully, one will grace me with its presence again in the future!

[teeth--king]

Okay, I am having a hard time finding anything on this, but why are they blue? Aside from that they look like an anise or black swallowtail caterpillar. Is this a color morph?

[vandaliatraveler]

August on the Mon River Trail is marked by towering stands of Joe Pye weed, bowed by the weight of their enormous flowerheads, curtains of bobbing sunflowers, and the creeping tendrils of our beautiful native legumes, including the maroon-flowered groundnut (Apios americana), also known as wild potato and Indian potato, whose edible tubers were once a staple food of Native Americans. But my favorite by far is hairy leafcup (Smallanthus uvedalia), a shrubby, sunflower-like aster that can produce up to one hundred flowers from a single plant. Its enormous leaves, which are opposite and palmately-lobed, are reminiscent of a large animal's paws, which have earned this perennial beauty an alternative common name - bear's foot.