Really, I do love nature. I love watching the seasons change--a wonderful benefit from living in central PA--I love watching birds, and all manner of outdoor creatures, I love the animals living with us. I love tending to my flower gardens.
So, it was a thrill to spot a lovely butterfly as we returned home from a brief shopping trip today. I dashed downstairs (dog hot on my trail wondering where I was going) to grab my camera. The butterfly was first spotted on red zinnias, and then flitted away to some pink zinnias and some dianthus. She (or he?) was not too cooperative in maintaining an open wing stance so I could photograph the lovely design clearly.
I was convinced that all I needed to do was download the photos, type "butterfly" and maybe even "eastern U.S." into Google, and I would find a quick ID. No such luck. 
So, I give up. I have a series of photos of a lovely unidentified butterfly. Anyone able to help me?
UPDATE: here's a great site for photos to ID butterflies.
15 comments:
Looks like an Eastern Yellow Swallowtail to me.
Donna, never give up! I'm happy you ran for the camera.
Looks like a dark female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail to me. The males are bright yellow. I'm not a butterfly expert so I hope I'm right. Large, wasn't it? They're hard to miss.
Beautiful photos, caught at every angle!
Mary
I say it is a Black Swallowtail. I chased one for my entire lunch hour a couple of weeks ago and got one picture. Your shots are gorgeous!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Swallowtail
Beautiful.
Yeah... those swallowtails switch between black and yellow to keep us all confused!
Beautiful shots, Donna. They're not easy to find sitting still.
All-thanks for your help. I was thrown by the orange spots along the outer wings--all the Internet photos showed yellow.
And then there's the abdomen. The Internet photos of tiger swallowtails show the abdomen as stropede. My photo clearly shows spots.
So, then I thought pipevine swallowtail, but mine HAS an orange spot on dorsal hindwing (pipevines don't).
So, I think Ruth is right--black swallowtail.
Whew!
Thanks, all.
Thanks, butterfly for your absolute beauty.
No wonder I am confused.
Ahhhh-that would be STRIPED, not stropede. Sounds like a new biology term, doesn't it. It's just my clumsy fingers on the little computer keyboard.
That's why I usually show butterflies on my blog without naming them :o), i.e. "pretty butterfly".
Those photos are so pretty. You did a good job.
Donna, at least you got beautiful shots of a beautiful butterfly. I'm lucky if I can get any kind of a shot of one; they are never (and I mean *never*) still long enough to get the camera focused. ;o) But I'm still hopeful that one day I'll succeed, and then I won't know its identification. lol
Let us not overlook the spectacular clarity, detail, and color of your zinnia shots!
Lovely photographs. We seem to have many more swallowtails this year than we usually have.
Yes, definitely Eastern Black Swallowtail.
I thought at first it was a Mourning Cloak Butterfly (I raised two of them from caterpillars when I was a kid) but they have a wider stripe of white on the outer edges of their wings.
Lovely pictures!
Yay, Donna, a Black Swallowtail, for sure!
(because I was lucky enough to spend an hour with one, hanging motionless as he waited for his wings to firm up) Come see!
Pictures of them on the move are few and far between. Nice job!
I have to agree, black swallowtail!
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