Sunday, August 20, 2017

Anise Swallowtail Butterfly

The Anise Swallowtail Butterfly is a butterfly more common to Western United States, but is occasionally seen in the Southeast. When I observed this particular butterfly on August 10th at the Lake County Extension Service's Discovery Gardens, I wasn't sure which type of swallowtail butterfly it was.

Anise Swallowtail Butterfly - Discovery Gardens
Anise Swallowtail Butterfly - Discovery Gardens
Observing this butterfly, I noticed it was smaller than the other swallowtails and had an interesting body that was yellow with black stripings running head to toe, so to speak. The Wikipedia reference states the opposite: "the body is predominantly black, with yellow stripes running laterally along the abdomen."

Anise Swallowtail Butterfly - Discovery Gardens
Anise Swallowtail Butterfly - Discovery Gardens
This was a difficult butterfly to photograph in Discovery Gardens as I observed it quickly flitting from one part of the park to the other. It did seem to gravitate to the Jatropha integerrima which was just outside the Butterfly House and also in other locations.

Anise Swallowtail Butterfly - Discovery Gardens
Anise Swallowtail Butterfly - Discovery Gardens
When I photographed this swallowtail, I had just photographed the Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly near the Butterfly House. Trying to correctly identify the Anise Swallowtail, it is smaller than the Tiger Swallowtail and lacks the vertical black striping patterns. "There are yellowish-orange to red eyespots near the tails of each wing, each containing a black pupil."~Wikipedia

Anise Swallowtail Butterfly - Discovery Gardens
Anise Swallowtail Butterfly - Discovery Gardens

Check out my other sightings of butterflies in Leesburg and Jacksonville, Florida:

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