Subject: Ichneumon
Geographic location of the bug: Campbell, Ohio
Date: 08/06/2021
Time: 5:58 PM EDT
Gentle Readers,
The Swallowtails visiting Daniel’s Ohio garden have been spectacular this year, but they were pretty spectacular last year as well.
Within a half an hour of one another one evening, Daniel spotted this male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail nectaring on the butterfly bush Daniel planted last summer, and then a female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (she has blue scales on her underwings and he does not) nectaring from the large thistles Daniel is allowing to grow. The Eastern Goldfinches are having a field day eating their seeds.
A week later, Daniel dug from his friend Hector’s wild garden, some Joe Pye Weed, Ironweed and Teasel, all attractive to pollinating insects, and the very next day, on August 12, this very tattered female black Eastern Tiger Swallowtail enjoyed the Joe Pye Weed for about a half an hour. As though she knew she was safe, she allowed Daniel to get quite close and as he got a really good look at the state of her wings, he couldn’t help but to wonder “How ever can she fly?”
