The lovely Eastern tiger swallowtail

The tiger in the Missouri woods is a butterfly. My picture shows a male eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly on the flower of a buttonbush. It has four black stripes along the shoulders of its front wings. Males may or may not have a bit of orange coloration on their hind wings.

The female Eastern tiger swallowtail [yellow phase)]is similar to the male except the female has a row of beautiful blue spots along the rear wings sometimes enhanced with a splash of orange. It is common to see a black butterfly or two of the same shape and size tending to the same flowers with the yellow tigers. The black ones are a dark form of the female and will show blue spots along the rear wings often splashed with a touch of orange.

The eastern tiger swallowtail is native only to the eastern half of the United States, where its range extends from the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico seaboard west to the eastern edge of Colorado. This butterfly does not migrate. It is the state butterfly of Delaware and three other states.

The swallowtail part of the name comes from the extended slender arm of the rear wings reaching out much like the extended tail feathers of the bird we call the barn swallow. It might be claimed that this is the truest butterfly of all because from a short distance it does resemble a flying yellow pat of butter!

Through the Woods is a weekly nature photo column by Aaron Horrell. Find this column at semissourian.com to order a reprint of the photo. Find more work by him at the Painted Wren Gallery.