Swallow Tail?
Location:  Yenibogazici, Northern Cyprus
October 5, 2010 2:52 am
I can tell from your wonderful site that this is a swallow tail, but which one. It’s pattern doesn’t seem to match with any pics.
Signature:  Senny

Swallowtail Caterpillar: Papilio machaon

Hi Senny,
We just learned on the Butterflies of Cyprus website that Papilio machaon is the only Swallowtail on Cyprus and that it is “Common throughout most months of the year and widely distributed throughout the island.“  The EuroButterflies website has images of the caterpillar that look exactly like your photo, and they indicate the caterpillars feed on “many species of the Umbelliferae (Carrots) and Rutaceae (Rues).“   You may also read more on the UK Butterflies website.  It is listed on the Butterflies and Moths of North America website where it is called the Old World Swallowtail, but it is unclear if it is considered an introduced species, however this information on the larval foods is interesting:  “Sagebrushes (Artemisia species), including Arctic wormwood and wild tarragon, rarely plants in the parsley family.“  Finally, the Butterflies of Europe website has interesting information, including this:
“Throughout most of it’s range the Swallowtail shows itself to be highly adaptable, utilising a wide variety of habitats including sub-arctic tundra in Canada, prairies, woodlands and arid canyons in the south of the USA; hay meadows, roadside verges, river banks and sub-alpine pastures in Europe; high montane habitats in the Atlas mountains of north Africa, and semi-cultivated habitats in the Mediterranean area.
It’s adaptability extends also to it’s choice of foodplants – in North America the caterpillars usually feed on Compositae ( Artimesia, Petasites ), while in Europe Rutaceae ( Ruta, Haplophyllum ) and Umbelliferae ( Foeniculum, Peucidanum etc  ) are used instead. In Britain however the butterfly is restricted to a single foodplant – milk parsley, and breeds only at a very small number of wet fenland habitats in north-east Norfolk. Individual specimens have been tagged and found to fly over quite a large area, often reaching adjacent fens, but the butterflies do not stray beyond the general area of the broads.
Several centuries ago the species almost certainly occurred as a resident species over a much wider area of southern and eastern England, but later contracted it’s range to the Great Fen – a vast area of wetlands covering Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Following the drainage of this area, and it’s conversion to agriculture, the butterfly was forced to contract it’s range even further – to the Norfolk Broads. In such isolation the genetic diversity would have diminished, causing the so-called “sub-species” machaon brittanicus to become far less adaptable, and to acquire minor differences in appearance from the ancestral stock. “

Mysterious under-log chrysalis and clearwing sphinx
Location:  Southern Illinois
September 27, 2010 8:05 pm
Was out flipping over logs with the boyos today, and found this chrysalis on the underside of a log, surrounded by fungus, but apparently none the worse for the wear. Still wiggled when we teased it.
I’ve googled my first few guesses as to what forest butterfly it may belong to. Doesn’t seem to be a Mourning Cloak or a Comma. No particularly distinctive protrusions, and no metallic reflector bits. Found in open forest, under a log.
Does it look familiar to you?
Also attaching a clearwing sphinx shot that turned out well from the other week.
Signature:  Bert

Tiger Swallowtail Chrysalis

Hi Bert,
We do not recognize this pupa, and we did a quick check on BugGuide, but did not have any luck.  We suspect this may be a moth pupa and not a butterfly pupa.  Perhaps one of our readers will be able to supply a response and identification.

Karl Identifies the Mystery Pupa
Hi Daniel and Bert:
I can’t be entirely certain but this looks very much like the overwintering pupa of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). Swallowtail chrysalids are typically attached to a twig, branch or tree trunk by a silk girdle, but some species do pupate on the ground. Eastern Swallowtail caterpillars always chose a pupation site near the ground, and they quite often pupate on or among the leaf litter on the forest floor where the chrysalis is protected by its cryptic texture and coloration. In addition to the grey-brown coloration, characteristics include greenish patches of varying extent and intensity, two horns on the head and one horn at the top of the thorax. It looks to me as if all of these features are evident on this individual. How it got under the log remains a bit of a mystery, but I suppose the caterpillar could have crawled under it, or perhaps the chrysalis somehow rolled under. Anyway, that is my best guess. Regards.  Karl

Thank you Karl,
It appears you have identified yet another mystery for us.

Chipmunk Caterpillar
Location:  North central West Virginia
September 26, 2010 6:52 am
My friend and I found this cute little guy on the first day of fall, September 22, crawling towards us as we sat in the shade of a sycamore tree, close to the creek bank in my horse field. When it got within a foot or so it raised the front portion of its body and kind of swayed side to side, reminiscent of a curious snake, but it really reminds us of a chipmunk (pic #1). When she agitated it with the leaf (trying to contain it while I was getting the camera) 2 horn/antennae came out but were withdrawn quickly. The black spots look just like eyes, while the smaller spots behind them look like ears. When we were trying to photograph the ”horns” she tried to pick it up and it put off an ugly odor (pic #2). Unlike other caterpillars I have seen, this one has a round mouth on the underside, (pic #3) that made me think of some kind of a sucker. Please help us with this, it was a great experience to run into this little guy but we are flashing his picture around like cops looking for a missing person to no avail. No one we know has ever seen anything like this.
Signature:  Jerri Kelley

Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar

Hi Jerri,
You encountered a Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar, and the eyespots are a very effective means for discouraging predators into thinking the bite-sized caterpillar might actually be a larger and significantly dangerous predator like a snake.  The horns are a scent organ that produced the odor you noticed and they are known as the osmetrium.  You can get more information on BugGuide.

Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar

Thank you so much for your help.  2 pages after I submitted my request I found the picture identifying the little bugger.  As many swallowtail butterflies that we have around here, it’s surprising that this was my first encounter with the caterpillar.  Again, thank you.  Jerri

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