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Photo#1023028
Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papillio canadensis) - Papilio canadensis - male

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papillio canadensis) - Papilio canadensis - Male
Three Mile Bay, White Lake, Lanark, Ontario, Canada
June 20, 2014
It is difficult to discern the difference between the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail, but I think this image is of the latter. I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Images of this individual: tag all
Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papillio canadensis) - Papilio canadensis - male Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papillio canadensis) - Papilio canadensis - male

Moved

An excellent example to have in the guide
which clearly shows a pale continuous marginal band when ventral view is expanded whereas normal view appears to have broken band. Thus I agree a Canadian Tiger.

I've seen this a lot in photos of these (and in real life)
The same happens with all the Tiger Swallowtials, but is often less noticeable on Eastern Tigers because upper and lower spots are commonly more nearly the same size and shape. You can see it, for example, on these photos of P. canadensis, P. multicaudatus, and P. glaucus, but the backlighting is less in these, so the lower side pattern is more clear. You can commonly see it on the hind wings too, and in fact on the individual posted here.

The sun is shining through from the top and not as much light is being reflected from the bottom, so where the spots are yellow on both sides they look bright yellow. But the yellow spots / bands on the lower side border are bigger than the spots on the upper side, so the black of the upper side is also showing through the lower side yellow pattern (just as the black marginal band shows through plainly on backlit Sulphurs). The underside yellow is indeed yellow, but it looks dull and grayish where the black is showing through. I'm pretty sure that if not backlit, these areas would look entirely yellow. Also, notice that in the dorsal shot, you can see the yellow ventral band showing through the black of the upper side.

This effect is very noticeable in some photos of Giant Swallowtails, where one side is mostly near black, and the other side is mostly yellow. When the underside is seen backlit, it almost looks like the pattern is the same as it is on the upper side.

second opinions welcomed, but I think this is a Canadian
The band on the lower side of the front wing looks continuous to me (it is backlighted, the broken band of spots is showing through from above), and some other traits look more like a Canadian than an Eastern to me.

 
An unusual appearance
when image is expanded to max there are bright disconnected spots over a light continuous band at the ventral FW margin. I was unable to find a similar image at BOA or BugGuide with either species. All Easterns had a dark base surrounding the disconnected spots which supports Canadian in this case. This could be a backlight phenomenon but I'm still uncertain since the bright spots appear to me as being on the surface rather than shining through. A hybrid ?

 
We'll watch for them this yea
We'll watch for them this year, and get the best pictures possible on our little Nikon P600. Perhaps that will help discussion.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
The forewing below marginal yellow band is broken which is characteristic of Eastern Tiger whereas the band is continuous on Canadian. A male.

Likely Canadian
but did you get an underside view ?

 
Yes, I just uploaded a half d
Yes, I just uploaded a half decent underside view but I accidently unlinked it. So it is in "id request" as a separate entry. Can you (re)link the two photos?

 
I uploaded it again to relink
I uploaded it again to relink the 2 photos.

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