Swallowtail - Papilio rumiko

Moved

… David J. Ferguson, 11 February, 2015 - 8:49pm

Moved

Moved from Papilio.

… Jason Forbes, 20 August, 2008 - 7:59pm

Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes)

The circular notch in the yellow of the fore-wing apes is not a distinguishing feature between the species. The pattern on the underside of the hind-wing is one of the most reliable way to tell.

… Alan Chin Lee, 2 October, 2007 - 9:23pm

Would range info help with this ID?

It's good to have an expert tackle this one. Checking at butterfliesandmoths.org, Schaus is listed only for the southern tip of Florida, while Thoas shows up in south Texas and very spottedly throughout the state. Does this dovetail with information you have? (I've been told butterfliesandmoths is very dated.)

… Ron Hemberger, 2 October, 2007 - 11:56pm

Papilio cresphontes

Hi, I have collected both this species and P. thoas in the US. They aren't as hard to tell apart as most of the literature claims, and they do look different, but not by much. This looks like a very average specimen of the very common P. cresphontes (P. thoas is very rare in the US).

… David J. Ferguson, 11 November, 2007 - 9:04pm

average?

I shouldn't have said average. It is beautiful! :o)

… David J. Ferguson, 16 November, 2007 - 11:28am

Thanks for the clarification.

As noted earlier, they certainly look different to me. I think there's a ton of online misidentification with these. It's great to hear from someone who's collected both.

… Ron Hemberger, 11 November, 2007 - 9:30pm

So this photo

cannot positively identify the butterfly? Next time I need to get a photo of the underside.

… Penny Crispin, 2 October, 2007 - 10:09pm

I'd say Giant Swallowtail. And I think the notch is telling.

Let me start with a disclaimer: I'm not an expert on anything valued at this site.

A cursory look at Googled photos for Thoas Butterfly shows two very different insects with the same name. (There's also a mis-IDed Giant or so.) Neither looks like yours. Schaus also looks different. Most of the difference is in the yellow "crossbar" that goes over the body at right angles on the three butterflies.

While the stripe thing may be a bit hard to define, only the Giant has that circular notch, at least in the photos I've checked.

Note also that we have had the Thoas question raised before in this post.

… Ron Hemberger, 2 October, 2007 - 1:05am