Black Swallowtail Butterfly

The black swallowtail – also called the eastern black swallowtail or American swallowtail and a variety of other colloquial names such as parsley worm – is a common butterfly found throughout much of North America. (University of Wisconsin). Females tend to be larger than the males, with a wingspan of 3¼ to 4¼ inches. The female black swallowtail has more blue and less yellow on the wings. Although black swallowtails are fairly easy to identify, they are most likely to be confused with the pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor), which is black with an iridescent blue-green sheen and only faint white spots on the upper surface and has only a single row of spots below.

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