Living in the Northeastern United States, I’ve long been partial to Monarch butterflies. When pressed to name my favorite, that’s what I always say. And even though I spend a lot of time creating and expanding and perfecting my live butterfly gardens, I’ve never been what you might call a connoisseur of butterflies.
That said, I do enjoy learning about different butterfly species. One of my long term goals is to take some butterfly vacations – traveling the world to see all the various species that you can, especially those that tend not to inhabit my particular climate and eco-region.
One of the butterflies I aim to spend a lot of time looking at are Swallowtail butterflies. They’re easy to spot – large, brilliantly colored. Technically, they hail from a single family – Papilionidae – but there are over five hundred different species. Tropical by nature, you can find them across the globe so long as you aren’t communing with penguins in Antarctica.
One of the telltale features of the adult Swallowtail is – surprise surprise – it’s forked tail which resembles in many ways a swallow’s tail.
The Swallowtail Butterfly actually resembles the Monarch in that the caterpillars often eat toxic plants. Absorbing the toxins is a protective feature – it discourages predators from snacking on them.
Given their size and color, these are popular butterflies amongst both collectors and butterfly farmers. For example, Delaware, Georgia, Oregon, South Carolina and Virginia all have a swallowtail as their state butterfly. Various species have shown up in popular culture including on Pokemon and other movies and shows.
They are in many respects, the quintessential global butterfly, and they are at the top of my butterfly viewing list.
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