The butterfly guide

Large butterflies. As shown on Plate B, Fig. 10, the hind wings lack the internal vein, its place being held by the submedian vein. There is great diversity of form in this group. Many species are tailed, as are the three occurring in Europe, and the name common in England has come in popular phrase to be loosely applied to the whole genus.

There are many hundreds of species and varietal forms, most of which occur in the tropics of the eastern and western hemispheres. There are only three species found in all Europe; there are about thirty found in the United States and Canada.

This great genus has been subdivided for purposes of classification into a number of smaller groups or subgenera, which are useful when dealing with the whole assemblage of species, but which in a manual like this, dealing with only a few forms, may consistently be overlooked.

(1) Papilio ajax Linnæus. Winter form walshi Edwards, Plate CXII, ♂; summer form marcellus Boisduval, Plate CXIII, ♂ (The Papaw Butterfly).

The species is more or less polymorphic. Plate CXII represents the form which emerges in the spring of the year from chrysalids which have overwintered; Plate CXIII shows the form which appears in the second brood and in which the tails are twice as long as in the first. There are other forms. Expanse 2.50-3.25 inches.

The caterpillar feeds upon the leaves of the Papaw ( Asimina triloba) and wherever this plant grows the insect may be found. It ranges from New England and Ontario to Florida and far westward through the valley of the Mississippi.

(2) Papilio turnus Linnæus, Plate CXIV, ♂; Plate CXV, P. glaucus Linnæus, dark dimorphic ♀, under side (The Tiger Swallow-tail).

In the Middle States and southward a large proportion of the females are black, belonging to the form glaucus; in Ontario and northward and westward to Alaska the females are yellow, like the males. The Alaskan form is very small, dwarfed by the cold and poor feeding. The figure on Plate CXIV is that of a male from Alaska of the natural size; a specimen taken in Pennsylvania would be nearly twice as large. The metropolis of the species is the Appalachian uplift; but it ranges northwestward to Alaska and south to the Gulf States. Expanse 3.00-5.00 inches.

The caterpillars are partial to the foliage of wild cherry trees, but are found on a great variety of plants.

The dark female form reveals its relationship to the paler form by the stripes on the under side. On the upper side the insect shown on Plate CXV is very black and shows no stripes at all. I possess females with yellow wings on one side and black on the other. The identity of the forms named by Linnæus turnus and glaucus could not be more forcibly shown than by these specimens, in which the two are united by the vital force which called them into being.

(3) Papilio rutulus Boisduval, Plate CXVI, ♂ (The Pacific Tiger).

Closely resembling P. turnus, which it replaces on the Pacific Coast in Washington and southward. The female is never dimorphic; the marginal light spots on the under side of the fore wings run together forming a continuous band, and are not separate as in P. turnus. Expanse 3.50-4.25 inches.

The larva feeds on alder and willows.

(4) Papilio eurymedon Boisduval, Plate CXVII, ♂ (The White-striped Tiger).

Belonging to the same group as the two preceding species, but distinguished by the pale creamy white color of the ground-color of the wings, and by the fact that the submarginal spots on the under side of the fore wings form, as in P. rutulus, a continuous band. Expanse 3.50-4.00 inches.

The caterpillar feeds on Rhamnus californicus and other plants. The insect ranges from Mexico to British Columbia and eastward to Colorado.

(5) Papilio daunus Boisduval, Plate CXVIII, ♂ (The Two-tailed Swallow-tail).

This fine insect is even larger than P. turnus, which it somewhat resembles, but from which it can at once be distinguished by the two tails on the hind wings, followed by a lobe at the anal angle. Expanse 4.00-5.25 inches.

Found in the region of the Rocky Mountains from Idaho south to Mexico, but not found west of the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges in California.

(6) Papilio pilumnus Boisduval, Plate CXIX, ♂ (The Three-tailed Swallow-tail).

Easily recognized from our figure. The lobe at the anal angle is so much produced as to give the hind wing the appearance of having three tails. Expanse 3.80-4.30 inches.

A Mexican species which occasionally is found in Arizona. It is one of the most beautiful species of the group to which it belongs and is rare in collections.

(7) Papilio cresphontes Cramer, Plate CXX, ♀ (The Giant Swallow-tail).

One of the largest and most showy species of the genus found in our territory. The caterpillar feeds upon Ptelea, Xanthoxylon, and Citrus. It has a wide range from southern Ontario to Florida and through the Mississippi Valley to Mexico. Expanse 3.75-5.50 inches.

(8) Papilio Troilus Linnæus, Plate CXXI, ♂ (The Spice-bush Swallow-tail).

The caterpillar, which is green, with two big eye-spots on the back a little behind the head, lives on the foliage of the sassafras and spice-wood, where it folds together a leaf, in which it conceals itself from view during the daytime, coming out to feed at night. The insect is found throughout the eastern United States and the Mississippi Valley, wherever its food-plant occurs. Expanse 3.75-4.25 inches.

(9) Papilio palamedes Drury, Plate CXXII, ♂ (The Magnolia Swallow-tail). (See next page.)

The upper side of this fine insect is well shown on our plate; the under side is prevalently yellow. The larva feeds on the foliage of Magnolia glauca and the Lauraceæ. Expanse 3.50-4.50 inches.

Ranges from southern Virginia near the coast to the extreme southern end of Florida and westward to southern Missouri and eastern Texas.

(10) Papilio polyxenes Fabricius, Plate CXXIII, ♂ (The Eastern Swallow-tail). (See next page.)

This butterfly and the three which follow belong to a group of the genus which in England is represented by P. machaon of the fens of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. There are many species evidently derived in past time from common stock, which are found in America, and the writer believes that the original centre of dispersion was this continent, and that the English Swallow-tail represents the most western range of the migration, which probably began in Tertiary times, when the horse, the camel, and other North American animals passed over into Asia and became subsequently extinct in the land of their origin. P. machaon still exists in Alaska as the variety P. aliaska Scudder.

P. polyxenes, more commonly known by its later name P. asterius, or P. asterias, is found all over the Atlantic States and the Mississippi Valley. The caterpillar feeds upon umbelliferous plants, and is very partial to fennel. Expanse 2.75-3.25 inches.

(11) Papilio brevicauda Saunders, Plate CXXIV, ♀ (The Newfoundland Swallow-tail).

There are two forms, one found on Anticosti, in which the spots on the upper side of the wings are bright yellow, the other in which they are more or less red in color. The latter form is common in Newfoundland, and is shown in the Plate. Closely related to P. polyxenes, but with shorter tails. Expanse 2.75-3.00 inches.

(12) Papilio indra Reakirt, Plate CXXV, ♂ (The Mountain Swallow-tail).

The resemblance to P. polyxenes is marked, but it will be observed that the tails have undergone even greater reduction in length than in P. brevicauda, and that the band of yellow spots traversing the wings has been reduced in width. Expanse 2.50-2.75 inches.

Found on the high mountains of Colorado, Nevada, and California.

(13) Papilio zelicaon Boisduval, Plate CXXVI, ♂ (The Western Swallow-tail).

In many respects like P. polyxenes, but having the median bands of yellow greatly widened, until on the hind wing the band covers almost the entire basal half of the wing. Expanse 2.75-3.25 inches.

Ranges from Vancouver Island to Arizona and eastward as far as Colorado.

(Note. The name zolicaon, often given by authors, must be replaced by the original name zelicaon.)

(14) Papilio philenor Linnæus, Plate CXXVII, ♂ (The Pipe-vine Swallow-tail).

The caterpillar feeds upon the foliage of Aristolochia sipho, or the “Dutchman’s Pipe,” a plant extensively grown about verandas and porches, and native to the Allegheny Mountains. It also eats the leaves of Aristolochia serpentaria, a smaller plant of the same genus. The wings have an expanse of 3.75-4.25 inches.

The range is from Massachusetts to California and south into Mexico.

(15) Papilio polydamas Linnæus, Plate CXXVIII, ♂ (The Reef Butterfly). (See Plate on p. 198.)

This is the sole representant in our fauna of a great group of splendid butterflies peculiar to the tropics of the New World, which are true papilionids, but without tails, their wings generally of some shade of green, and wonderfully adorned with spots of other colors, generally yellow or crimson. It may easily be recognized from our figure. Expanse 3.00-3.50 inches.

It is found in the extreme southern part of Florida and on the adjoining reefs. It also has a wide range through the Antilles, Mexico, and Central America.