Male Papilio eurymedon Ecloses

The first of our pale swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon) pupae has eclosed. Originated from Utah and Oregon. 

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Late this afternoon, the first eurymedon (Papilio eurymedon) eclosed. It is a small male who has slightly crumpled, uneven wings (the left forewing is slightly indented upwards while the right one is indented inwards), a nasty abdomen, and scraggly looking third pair of legs. It is possible that this one is particularly weak or unhealthy or if the overwintering of the pupae generally took a tole on the pupae, seeing as so many of them have already died before making it this far. Nonetheless, it is still a stunning butterfly.

Now seeing and P. eurymedon up close and photographing it for the first time, the commonly described differences between it an the other tiger species (e.g. P. rutulus, P. multicaudata, P. glaucus) are self-evident. Compare to some previous photographs of males of these other species that we have taken (do excuse the quality of the latter two images). 

Besides the thickness of the black stripes and the paleness of the yellow, the eurymedon has a very characteristic triangular wing shape; the fore- and hindwings are straight and pointy. The rutulus is also fairly triangular compared to glaucus and multicaudata, but not quite to the extent of eurymedon. Interestingly enough, this eurymedon has quite a lot of blue for how much black there is; generally, with rutulus, we observe that the smaller and blacker an individual is, the less blue. Like the multicaudata, eurymedon usually has two pairs of the spots at the tails that are orange/red like the one that eclosed today does, whereas rutulus has only one. 

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Brian Liang
Brian Liang is a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York pursuing an undergraduate degree in entomology. He is co-owner and a main contributor of the Liang Insects blog, insects articles, and site design. ​​

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