 Our Eastern Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) chrysalises arrived today from an Ohio breeder. The Eastern Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) is our first swallowtail in the Rutaceae feeding subgenus of Papilio, Heraclides. While this is probably the most well known and widespread of these swallowtails, this group of swallowtails as a whole are probably the least well-known and are not as widely distributed in North America as the tiger (Pterourus) and black (Papilio) group swallowtails since there are fewer species in the subgenus. The closely related sister species, the Western Giant Swallowtail (Papilio rumiko), is here in California, but its introduction in the south is extremely recent; they have yet to increase their range to Albany. Today we had 12 Eastern Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) chrysalises arrive from a breeder in Ohio, the same one who sent us Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) chrysalises. He also sent us another four glaucuses this time as well, one of which was pharate, but we are really just excited about the cresphontes since, as mentioned before, this is the first time we have had this species. The first thing we did (as always) was find the mass of the chrysalises, since it is interesting to us to see the relation between pupal mass and adult wingspan. We got the following numbers in grams for these twelve cresphontes: 0.8, 0.9, 0.9, 1.0, 1.1, 1.1, 1.1, 1.1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.2, 1.3. The average is 1.067 grams, which is only slightly higher than the 1.028 gram average for 25 of our wild-sourced Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) chrysalises and only a bit higher than the 0.95 average of 44 of our captive raised and wild-sourced Hairy Pipevine Swallowtails (Battus philenor hirsuta). We never found the exact average of the Eastern Tiger chrysalises but the minimum was 0.7 grams and the maximum was 1.2 grams and based on memory, the majority were around the 1.0 or below. Based on these results, it is a bit odd that all four of these species have such close pupal weights even though the average adult wingspan differs so greatly between them. Cresphontes' wingspan is much larger than the zelicaon or B. p. hirsuta, averaging a whopping 14 cm (5.5 in) for males and 14.7 cm (5.8 in) for females according to one source (after all, why call it the "giant" swallowtail if it wasn't big?). In our experience, zelicaon reaches 4.5 inches from enormous 1.5 gram chrysalises at the very maximum when reared under laboratory conditions (how unfair!) and is often marked lower by field guides; our B. p. hirsuta is even smaller, with our largest individuals less than 4 inches though field guides sometimes report 5 inches. Glaucus reportedly averages slightly smaller than cresphontes, which corresponds better to pupal mass (our largest glaucus was 5 inches). Clearly, both cresphontes and glaucus have much larger wings in proportion to their pupal mass as compared to the other two species. Following this kind of crazy pupal mass to wingspan ratio, the Two-tailed swallowtail (Papilio multicaudatus) would be monstrous, considering that our largest chrysalis of this species is 2.9 grams (none of them have eclosed properly yet, so we have yet to see)! Shape-wise, the cresphontes chrysalises are typical swallowtail shape, somewhat like members of the other two groups except there is a large bulge in the middle (must be from the elongated wing shape) and the spikes on the thorax and head are softer. They somewhat resemble B. philenor of an entirely separate swallowtail tribe, chrysalises more because of the bulge. The coloration very closely matches tree bark, being a greyish bark colored brown with varying amounts of green along the sides. Now that we have these Eastern Giant Swallowtail chrysalises, we aren't quite sure what to do. Since it is so late in the season, it is reasonable to assume they are going to diapause until next spring which the breeder also suspects (diapause patterns, however, can be hard to predict with this species since they are of tropical origin [Central America] where it is warm year round). This is fortunate since if they eclosed now, they would probably not survive a whole brood in the fall weather, though obtaining citrus wouldn't be a problem. For now, we haven't done anything with the 12 chrysalises yet and have left them in the container they were sent in, but we will eventually set up a safe container for them to overwinter. - Alan, Brian
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Timeline 2012–2017
Albany, California This timeline is a series of daily posts recording our observations on and experiences with various insects in Albany California and surrounding areas, from 2012-2017. Since we did not publish this site until 2016, posts before that were constructed retroactively. Starting in August 2017, we moved to Ithaca, New York; posts from there on can be viewed at Timeline 2017-present: Ithaca, New York. Archives (1,011)
August 2017 (49) July 2017 (121) June 2017 (79) May 2017 (77) April 2017 (91) March 2017 (35) February 2017 (12) January 2017 (10) December 2016 (12) November 2016 (26) October 2016 (49) September 2016 (84) August 2016 (94) July 2016 (99) June 2016 (53) May 2016 (21) April 2016 (4) January 2016 (1) August 2015 (3) July 2015 (3) June 2015 (2) June 2014 (3) May 2014 (1) April 2014 (3) March 2014 (3) December 2013 (2) November 2013 (2) October 2013 (5) September 2013 (11) August 2013 (15) July 2013 (9) June 2013 (5) May 2013 (4) April 2013 (3) March 2013 (2) February 2013 (3) January 2013 (2) December 2012 (2) November 2012 (1) October 2012 (2) September 2012 (2) August 2012 (5) July 2012 (1) June 2012 (1) Authors
Full Species List (Alphabetical by scientific name) Note: - Not every species we encounter is necessarily presented on this site, rather a selection of those that were of particular interest to us and that we felt were worth documenting. - We can't guarantee that all species have been identified accurately, particularly taxa we are not as familiar with. Lepidoptera Actias luna Adelpha californica Agraulis vanillae Allancastria cerisyi Antheraea mylitta Antheraea polyphemus Anthocharis sara Argema mimosae Attacus atlas Battus philenor hirsuta Bombyx mori Caligo atreus Callosamia promethea Coenonympha tullia california Citheronia regalis Cricula trifenestrata Danaus plexippus Eacles imperialis Erynnis tristis Estigmene acrea Eumorpha achemon Eupackardia calleta Furcula cinereoides Heliconius erato Heliconius hecale Heliconius sapho Heliconius sara Hyalophora cecropia Hyalophora columbia Hyalophora euryalus Hylephila phyleus Hyles lineata Junonia coenia Langia zenzeroides formosana Lophocampa maculata Manduca sexta Morpho peleides Nymphalis antiopa Orgyia vetusta Orthosia hibisci quenquefasciata Pachysphinx modesta Papilio cresphontes Papilio eurymedon Papilio glaucus Papilio machaon oregonius Papilio multicaudata Papilio polyxenes asterius Papilio rumiko Papilio rutulus Papilio zelicaon Phyciodes mylitta Phyciodes pulchella Pieris rapae Plejebus acmon Poanes melane Polites sabuleti Polygonia satyrus Pyrgus communis Rothschildia jacobaeae Samia cynthia advena Samia ricini Smerinthus cerisyi Smerinthus ophthalmica Strymon melinus Trichoplusia ni Uresephita reversalis Vanessa annabella Vanessa atalanta Vanessa cardui Unidentified Lepidoptera Hybrids Papilio glaucus × Papilio rutulus Papilio polyxenes asterius × Papilio zelicaon Orthoptera Melanoplus devastator Phaneroptera nana Pristoceuthophilus pacificus Scudderia mexicana Trimerotropis pallidipennis Phasmatodea Carausius morosus Phyllium giganteum Mantodea Mantis religiosa Phyllocrania paradoxa Hymenoptera Apis mellifera Bombus vosnesenskii Brachymeria ovata Linepithema humile Pediobius sp. Polistes dominula Xylocopa varipuncta Unidentified Diptera Lucilia sericata Unidentified Hemiptera Brochymena sp. Leptoglossus sp. Nezara viridula Odonata Argia vivida Libellula croceipennis Coleoptera Coccinella septempunctata Cycloneda polita Diabrotica undecimpunctata Hippodamia convergens Araneae (Class: Arachnida) Araneus diadematus Phidippus johnsoni |
