Papilio cf. eurymedon - Papilio canadensis

Going to go ahead and put with the Canadian

with the qualifying statement that it is indeed a very unusually colored one.

Moved from Papilio.

… David J. Ferguson, 20 November, 2008 - 3:56pm

looks like P. canadensis to me

Disposition of pattern matches P. canadensis, not P. eurymedon, and shape of wings does too. I'd say it is just an abnormally pale individual of this species, and the black scaling is a bit heavy. She is an odd looking lady.

Here are a couple female Canadian Tigers to compare. Ignoring the yellowing color and the lesser black scaling, one can see that they are basically the same.

… David J. Ferguson, 29 June, 2008 - 12:12am

Off the map

Butterflies through Binoculars The West is a bit cryptic on this one. I'll bet Canadian Tiger is right, but there's a chance it's Pale Swallowtail. If you have a better source on range, you can probably rule out Pale. Nice shot, either way.

… Ron Hemberger, 8 October, 2007 - 9:50pm

Re: Pale

Thanks Ron. According to the Butterflies of Canada (Layberry, Hall and Lafontaine 1998), the Pale Swallowtail's range doesn't extend very much east of British Columbia. It does look similar to a Pale, but I ruled it out because of its range. It didn't show much yellow, that's for sure. I haven't been able to find a P. canadensis photo that looked similar.

… Jay Cossey, 9 October, 2007 - 7:34am

I'd have to say Canadian, though yours is even paler than Pale.

After looking at more images, I see what you mean. I've noticed an increasing number of posts of whiter-than-the-norm sulphurs and others and wonder if that isn't what you have here.

… Ron Hemberger, 9 October, 2007 - 11:52am

Pale

I can't get away from wanting to call this a Pale swallowtail. Range is definitely important, but it isn't the end all be all, especially with global climate change. Not to mention, butterflies aren't too keen on keeping up with the latest range info and sometimes break the rules. :)

But this specimen looks quite convincingly like a Pale. Not only is the color very pale, but the bands across the forewing, and especially the band crossing the hindwing, look much too broad and diffuse to be anything else. On the HW in particular, the others have fine, pencil-like bands, whereas the Pale (and this specimen) have broad diffuse bands (Compare here).

I'm having a hard time seeing this as anything other than a Pale swallowtail outside of generally accepted range. Although, the other possibility I would consider is a pale intermediate form, female Papilio glaucus ... one example here:

… Jason D. Roberts, 25 October, 2007 - 3:12pm

Thanks

I appreciate your comments. I agree wholeheartedly about range maps. They're helpful, but not definitive on their own. I love a mystery!

… Jay Cossey, 25 October, 2007 - 3:45pm