The Western Tiger Swallowtail
can be in our California gardens much of the year. The first flight
is often as early as February. In warmer coastal zones the Western
Tiger Swallowtail may have three broods or flights go to maturity.
The Western Tiger Swallowtail often drinks from moist earth or mud.
Large groupings can frequently be found on stream margins or gravel edges
of natural styled ponds. Encouraging the Western Tiger Swallowtail
to visit your butterfly garden
is relatively easy, they are one of the most common butterflies in the
Western United States and Canada. They like water and nectar filled
flowers. A list of flowers they could visit is too lengthy to
compose, but they seem to like blue flowers more than others. The
female will lay up to 100 eggs during her lifetime. The eggs are
laid singly and are shiny and green. The eggs take as little as 4
days to hatch. Western Tiger Swallowtail Caterpillars will molt 5
times before pupating into adult butterflies. The caterpillars often
feed on Sycamore, Cottonwood, Willows
and Alder.
This
image is available in high resolution and is part of our photo
collection.
