Thanks, Scott, for your nice and detailed comment. It's interesting that the F. has the dual morph apparently living as one set of colors or the other.

Thank you very much, Earl!!!! --Tom

Thank you, Rick!!!! --Tom

This large, beautiful butterfly is a dark morph of the yellow and black Eastern Tiger Swallowtail apparently. It apparently is attempting to imitate the appearance of the black with blue trim Pipevine Swallowtail which has the protection of being poisonous to birds. Here in SE Minnesota is the edge of the range of the Black ETSB and outside the range of the Pipevine (according to BAMONA) rendering the Black ETSB survival strategy rather doubtful locally. I never would have learned any of this interesting stuff if not for photography getting me involved with butterflies!

(Download)

UPDATE: Try this interesting article which covers the confusion of the Pipevine and BETS--Black Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies. The Pipevine is poisonous to birds and the BETS is trying to mimic it. No wonder they are so hard to tell apart!

http://trekohio.com/2012/09/27/male-and-female-eastern-tiger-swallowtail-butterflies-and-black-butterflies-of-all-sorts/

Two circumstantial reasons for my tentatively classifying this as a BETS:
- there is also a male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail feeding on the same site, easily identified.
- they are feeding on milkweed, which according to BAMONA is a primary food for ETS/BETS

These pictures led in interesting directions. Thanks to all who have been helping identify these butterflies. ---Tom

Thank you Janos for passing this information along. This is an interesting dilemma far beyond my capacity to resolve, as both species seem to have varients that look quite a bit like the butterfly I have observed here. The first ident has the advantage of being on the edge of the normal range while the second ident is distinctly outside that range (but not by much) as charted by BAMONA. Thanks, Janos, for posing an interesting issue for us!!! --Tom --p.s. Does anyone know the answer to this puzzle?

To M.T. -- --Tom

Thanks, Sue, for the ID you would have given me <lol>! And thanks indeed for your kind comment. --Tom

Thanks, Dee Dee, for the look and nice comment and information. I checked out Bamona and bookmarked it hoping it will help me if I get some more of these butterfly pictures. Thanks!!! It's a real good tip!!! --Tom

Thank you S-C for your comment and I can see how they'd confuse anybody. I'm surprised that our "season" isn't much later in the year and shorter than yours down there in VA, but I guess not apparently.

Double thanks to you, Donna, and H.T. for the ident. and nice comments. --Tom

Hi M.T. and thanks for the info... and for the nice comment. I think it might be a Black Eastern Tiger Swallowtail which is apparently a black female version of the Yellow and Black striped large Swallowtail butterfly. Whatever, it's a beautiful butterfly! Thanks for the look and comment!!! --Tom

Thanks, Don, for the look and nice comment. --Tom

Hi H.T., thanks for the identification. I think you are right, the dark phase female seems to look more like what I have here. Thanks for your help.

Thanks, Rick, for the identification. Now I can read up on it in Wickipedia, etc... --Tom