Unknown Swallowtail Butterfly from “Only Eddie Knows Where” is a Common Mormon
(02/09/2008) Please help to identify this butterfly
Hi there,
I managed to keep 3 caterpillars that were destroying my curry leaf plant & one of them transformed into this beautiful butterfly. Attached is the shot of the butterfly that I took before I set it off free. Please can you help identify this species of butterfly? Thanks a lot for your help. Cheers,
Eddie
Hi Eddie,
The best we can do without a location of origin is a Swallowtail Butterfly in the family Papilio.
Oh I’m so sorry Daniel…..I’m from Singapore. Appreciate your help. Cheers,
Eddie
That was a big help Eddie. Your butterfly is a Common Mormon, Papilio polytes romulus. We are thrilled that our search led us to a Butterflies of Singapore website.
Hi Daniel,
You & Lisa are the greatest 
Thanks for everything & also leading me to the Butterflies of Singapore website. Never knew it existed. If you need photos of the Common Mormon in the caterpillar & chrysalis stages, I will be glad to forward them to you for your “What’s that bug?” website. Thanks once again & keep up the good work.
Eddie
Wow Eddie,
We couldn’t have hoped for better photos. Thanks for creating this awesome metamorphosis documentation of the Common Mormon from Singapore for our site. Your photos demonstrate two significant characteristics of the genus Papilio. First, the caterpillar photo shows the Osmeterium or scent gland. Caterpillars in the genus Papilio possess a hidden scent gland that is often brightly colored and forked in shape. It is hidden and only appears when the caterpillar is threatened. Your chrysalis photo shows the silken girdle that keeps the pupa upright, another characteristic of the genus Papilio.
Please help to identify this butterfly
Hi there,
I managed to keep 3 caterpillars that were destroying my curry leaf plant & one of them transformed into this beautiful butterfly. Attached is the shot of the butterfly that I took before I set it off free. Please can you help identify this species of butterfly? Thanks a lot for your help. Cheers,
Eddie
Hi Eddie,
The best we can do without a location of origin is a Swallowtail Butterfly in the family Papilio.
Oh I’m so sorry Daniel…..I’m from Singapore. Appreciate your help. Cheers,
Eddie
That was a big help Eddie. Your butterfly is a Common Mormon, Papilio polytes romulus. We are thrilled that our search led us to a Butterflies of Singapore website.
Hi Daniel,
You & Lisa are the greatest Thanks for everything & also leading me to the Butterflies of Singapore website. Never knew it existed. If you need photos of the Common Mormon in the caterpillar & chrysalis stages, I will be glad to forward them to you for your “What’s that bug?” website. Thanks once again & keep up the good work.
Eddie
Wow Eddie,
We couldn’t have hoped for better photos. Thanks for creating this awesome metamorphosis documentation of the Common Mormon from Singapore for our site. Your photos demonstrate two significant characteristics of the genus Papilio. First, the caterpillar photo shows the Osmeterium or scent gland. Caterpillars in the genus Papilio possess a hidden scent gland that is often brightly colored and forked in shape. It is hidden and only appears when the caterpillar is threatened. Your chrysalis photo shows the silken girdle that keeps the pupa upright, another characteristic of the genus Papilio.
swallowtail
I think this is some type of swallowtail. I found it in Shenandoah National Park. Could you identify it for me? I plan on printing out a poster of it. I also thought you could post it cause I thought it was a very good pic. Thanks,
Brady
Hi Brady,
This is a Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar and it should make a lovely poster.
¶ Posted 18 November 2007 § ‡ ° what is this?
We found this in a tree next to our house, in cool, rainy Washington state. What is it???? We have never seen anything like it. Thanks,
The Dennis family
Dear Dennis Family,
This is a Western Tiger Swallowtail Caterpillar. You might have seen the adult butterflies which are showy large black and yellow striped butterflies.
¶ Posted 05 October 2007 § ‡ ° Cool catepillar
Here is picture of a catepillar with eyes and a goatee I found crawling across my driveway in northeast Texas (Texarkana). The ‘goatee’ is actually not hairy but the bottom of its mouth — just looks like a goatee in the picture. It looks similar to a few on your site but not quite like any of them. I’ve never seen one before — any idea what it is?? You can use the pictures if you want — I enjoyed looking through your site.
Michael
Hi Michael,
We have 11 Caterpillar pages on our site and several images of your species, the Spicebush Swallowtail, Papilio troilus.
¶ Posted 02 October 2007 § ‡ ° I didn’t see these caterpillars on your site…
Hello,
I’ve been able to identify many bugs from your site, thanks. But these two, which were both crawling on the same plant, I can’t find on your site. I was happy to find one in the bushes and even happier to see two at the same time! I was wondering if they might belong to the same family. They look similar to a Black Swallowtail Butterfly caterpillar you have posted, but the color patterns are different. Maybe one is a male and the other a female?? I’m located in northern Florida, next to the south GA border. I just found them today (9/17/07). Thanks,
Ann
Hi Ann,
You couldn’t find your Zebra Swallowtail Caterpillar, Eurytides marcellus, on our website because your photo is the first we have received of Zebra Swallowtail Caterpillars. The food plant is listed as pawpaw, and the leaves on the plant in your photo look considerably thinner than the leaves in the photos on BugGuide.
¶ Posted 17 September 2007 § ‡ ° Interesting Critter
Hi there,
My neighbor referred me to your site when I showed her these strange little creatures that have taken up residence on my orange tree. They’ve probably been there since last year when I first noticed the “snail trail” they leave on the leaves. I never found the bugs and the local nursery wasn’t able to identify the bug that might leave the snail trail. It nearly killed my orange tree last year. So this year everything was going along swimmingly, my orange tree has quite a bounty of fruit, but I started seeing the snail trails again. I’ve been trimming off the affected leaves as I see them. In hunting out damaged leaves I came across a whole branch in the very back of the tree that was covered with these guys. I thought they were bird poop at first! They really look like it. But on closer inspection I realized they were way too uniform and then I see it looks like they even have a face!! Like little dragons. One even reared its head as I was trying to take the picture. Any ideas? Thanks so much.
Susan
Hi Susan,
You have two different unrelated caterpillars here. The caterpillar that resemble bird poop are Giant Swallowtails, lovely large brown and yellow butterflies whose caterpillars are known as Orange Dogs. The snail’s trail is being made by the Citrus Leaf Miner, Phyllocnistis citrella, the caterpillar of a tiny moth that feeds on the tissues between the epideral layers of the leaves of citrus trees.
Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) developmental series
Hi Lisa Anne and Daniel,
Glad to see that you are keeping up your great work with your website. Last year I submitted some picture series about the development of butterflies. This year I would like to share my Giant Swallowtail shots with you.
I found 6 caterpillars on Prickley Ash during the summer in Wisconsin, and breeding this species is a wonderful experience. My girlfriend Megan will be delighted to see “her” caterpillar on your page, which she got as a present from me to encourage her slightly increasing interested in bugs. Keep up the great job! Best wishes from Madison/Wisconsin,
Thomas Werner
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for sending us your wonderful Giant Swallowtail metamorphosis images.
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