A Swallowtail - Papilio troilus

Moved

Moved from Papilio.

… Cliff Ivy, 24 October, 2014 - 9:29am

Moved

… John Stanard, 9 October, 2014 - 6:44am

My two cents worth.

I agree with Jeff and John that this is a male Spicebush Swallowtail. Above it has the distinctive large half moon "pac man" shaped markings on the hindwing and the red area of the HW does not have a black dot. Below the median spot band has the usual six orange spots with the normally dark cursor spot showing some orange. Black swallowtails have a black dot in the red area of the HW and below in the median spotband have eight orange spots with one usually offset.

… Cliff Ivy, 8 October, 2014 - 10:39pm

Papilio troilus on the right

Papilio troilus on the right and Papilio palamedes on the left. Both are mud puddling, has nothing to do with mating.

… Xi Wang, 8 October, 2014 - 10:35pm

Yep

Just a couple of guys, Spice and Pal, out having a drink together.

… Cliff Ivy, 9 October, 2014 - 9:43am

Haha.

That's funny.
I just went out looking for butterflies recently, and now I am looking at this post, and I had a mental 'duh' moment. I clearly see that this is a Spicebush now. I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I was just getting rusty.

… Nikole Loomis (Bush Cricket and Buckeye Lover), 24 October, 2014 - 8:34am

Jeff is right

Forget the minutaie involving the red spot, but look at the "pac-man" shaped light spots along the edge of the hindwings; those are diagnostic of P. troilus.

… John Stanard, 8 October, 2014 - 9:57pm

Spicebush Swallowtail

I believe it is a male Spicebush Swallowtail, Papilio troilus.
It is a little strange, the spot on underside of hindwing which is normally all blue has some orange.

… Jeff Brown, 8 October, 2014 - 7:55pm

Hmmm...

Actually, this appears to be, not a spicebush, but a black swallowtail . See here:

Note the orange that you mentioned, Jeff. And the one with the orange would be the female.

Also, the photo doesn't show the two mating. Butterflies have been known to congregate together in certain areas. This is especially true of Swallowtails.
So this could just be a Palamedes and a Black Swallowtail, hanging out together.
Or they could be mating, since the Palamedes appears to be a male, in which case, this would be an example of interspecies breeding. Either way, this is a really cool find, Chris! :)

… Nikole Loomis (Bush Cricket and Buckeye Lover), 8 October, 2014 - 8:18pm

Interesting

It seems to me that a Black swallowtail should have another orange spot closer to base of underside of back wings.
Some examples (as well as the one you linked):

The underside of the forewings is usually a lot sronger marked as well, whereas a Spicebush is mostly black

… Jeff Brown, 8 October, 2014 - 8:47pm

Interesting

Hmmm...Interesting indeed. Many thanks for all the comments. While I was photographing these two swallowtails, I recall they were following each other for at least 30mins before they flew off together out of range of my camera.

… Chris Harper, 8 October, 2014 - 9:10pm