Wild Facts About The Black Swallowtail Butterfly

Similar Species

When A Black Swallowtail Isn’t

• Black Swallowtail butterflies belong to a genus of swallowtail butterflies called Papilio.
  • While this genus contains many different species found in various areas around the United States, several species found in the eastern United States resemble each other.
• At first glance, Black Swallowtail butterflies can look a lot like:
  • Palamedes Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio palamedes)
  • Eastern Giant Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio cresphontes)
• The differences are subtle because all three butterflies are mostly black, have a yellow band of color on the dorsal (back) side of their wings, and have long, distinct hind wing tails.

How To Tell The Black Swallowtail Butterfly Apart From Other Swallowtails

Dorsal Wing Markings

• All three swallowtail butterfly species have slightly different yellow wing bands on the top surface of their wings.
  • Black Swallowtail butterflies have a single, wide, yellow band made up of many small, distinct spots and patches that runs along the angle of their wings.
  • Palamedes Swallowtail butterflies have a single, wide, yellow band made up of many yellow patches smeared together into a smudged line that runs along the angle of their wings.
  • Eastern Giant Swallowtail butterflies have two yellow bands on their wings:
    • A single, wide, yellow band made up of many small distinct spots and patches that runs along the angle of their wings,
    • A second wide, yellow band that connects to the angled band at the wing points and cuts across the forewing towards the body.

Hind Wing Tails

• The hind wing tails of all three swallowtail species vary in color and pattern.
  • The Black Swallowtail’s hind wing tails are solid black.
  • The Palamedes Swallowtail’s hind wing tails are rimmed in black and filled with yellow.
  • The Eastern Giant Swallowtail’s hind wing tails are black with a yellow, teardrop-shaped center.

Size

• All three eastern black and yellow swallowtail species vary in size, with the Black Swallowtail being the smallest, the Eastern Giant Swallowtail being the largest butterfly in the entire United States, and the Palamedes Swallowtail being in the middle.
  • Black Swallowtail butterfly wing spans: Nearly 9 cm,
  • Palamedes Swallowtail butterfly wing spans: Up to 14 cm,
  • Eastern Giant Swallowtail butterfly wing spans: Up to 19 cm.

Range

• Palamedes Swallowtail butterflies live only in a distinct arc that starts in the eastern half of North Carolina, sweeps down the eastern half of South Carolina, covers the southern half of Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, extends through all of Florida, and ends in the southeastern half of Texas.
• Black Swallowtail butterflies live across the entire United States, west through the states of the Great Plains, north into Canada, and south into Mexico.
• Eastern Giant Swallowtails can live throughout the eastern United States, although their range stops short of Canada in the north, and they are less common overall in most of the United States than the Black Swallowtail (they are more common in the southern-most portions of the country and in Mexico).