The Eastern Tiger Swallowtails were out this afternoon in the biggest numbers I’ve seen this spring. Also present were Zebra Swallowtail, tons of Juvenal’s Duskywing and a couple Sleepy Duskywings. An image is posted here. I look forward to any comments.
I believe you are correct
FOY Eastern Tiger Swallowtail here in Norton this morning.
Yes, I saw duskywings at Springhill Cemetary yesterday 4-22-13, enjoying the redbuds.
Awesome! (Thanks for posting to the birdlist.) I too saw a large number of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails on 4.21 while hiking at Watters Smith State Park.
Thanks for starting a Lepidoptera blog. The photo of your Duskwing is pretty intriquing, but I would actually lean more toward a male Sleepy Duskywing, based mainly on the very short palps. Perhaps the palps are drooped such that I cannot see them, but Dreamy Duskywings have distinctly longer palps in my experience. The forewings seem to be a blend of what I would expect from either species, making positive ID difficult, which is why I went with Sleepy based on the palps.
Cheers,
Matt:
I think it’s a Sleepy for, among other reasons;
the black wavy markings on the cell and farther
down the upperside of the forewing, there’s a
faint thin line on the leading edge of the forewing,
which matches Sleepy and the grayish tinge
to the upperside of the forewing.
I think Juvenals would show large white dots on
the uppwerwing and I don’t see any on your
butterfly.
Gary