Today we caught three Western Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio rutulus) for the first time at Albany Hill (Albany, CA) using our handy new butterfly net but they turned out all to be males! If you have been keeping up with our other posts about the Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus), you'll probably know that we have been chasing this particular species this entire year at various locations in an attempt to catch a live female to lay some eggs for us (See Lepidoptera Rearing Guide for more information). As a recap, exactly two weeks ago on 6/27 when we went to Albany Hill, we saw at least two of the swallowtails flying around the bottom of the mountain right by Cerrito Creek, their natural riparian corridor habitat, but weren't able to catch any since we didn't have a net. Two days ago on 7/9 when we went down to Tilden we had a net but still weren't able to catch the three or four of them we saw along the trail because they were flying too high. This afternoon around 2 PM we decided to go back to Albany Hill, this time equipped with the new net. For some reason, in the past we had only really seen a lot of Western Tigers in May and June even though they are supposed to be bivoltine or multivoltine in our region so we weren't too sure if we would see any today as we had two weeks ago. And, indeed, when we first stepped on to the scene, there was nothing. Not even little butterflies like Common Buckeyes (Junonia coenia), Cabbage Whites (Pieris rapae), or Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui) along the dry grasses. But within half an hour of walking a around the trail near the creek where we had seen the Western Tigers last time, we saw one. It didn't look particularly big, but we were certain that it was the right yellow swallowtail and we chased after it excitedly from one side of the trail to another. Finally, after failing several time to capture it, we succeeded in capturing it. Immediately after snagging it in the net, we grabbed its abdomen brutally, needing to know whether the butterfly we had finally gotten was an egg bearing female or a useless male. It turned out to be the latter -- a beautiful male in mint condition (we think it must of very recently emerged and was virgin) but completely useless for providing us with eggs. We weren't terribly surprised by this since males are usually smaller than females and it had been small, but it was disappointing nonetheless. Soon after catching our first Western Tiger, we spotted at least two more in the same area. We chased each one for a while but eventually got them one after another within a short amount of time. They both also turned out to be males. The second butterfly was more beat up than the first one we caught and the third, largest one was even more beat up than the second -- it was losing both tails and so many scales that the yellow areas looked almost white and we could have mistaken it for the rare Pale Swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon). When we caught the first one we thought it might have just been bad luck that it was a male but after catching three males, a coincidence was not likely. We concluded that most of the butterflies around this area were simply males patrolling the mountainside for newly emerged females (yes, we weren't the only one that day looking for those ever so elusive females!). They were just flying about, scanning the area and not doing much else -- typical male behavior in any butterfly. When we were just about to leave, we saw another Western Tiger that we had missed earlier fly out of nowhere. It was much faster than the other ones and we couldn't catch it to save our life. It would be incredibly tragic if that had been the only female that day! At any rate, we are more determined than ever to come back and keep catching more in hopes that we do somehow manage to get a female. As long as we show up on the scene, the chance of us catching more is guaranteed with our trusty new net, as long as we are patient enough. - 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 |