''Papilio brevicauda'', the short-tailed swallowtail, is a North American
butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
in the family
Papilionidae
Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful butterflies in the family Papilionidae, and include over 550 species. Though the majority are tropical, members of the family inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The family includes the larges ...
.
Description
The short-tailed swallowtail is very similar to the male black swallowtail (''
Papilio polyxenes
''Papilio polyxenes'', the (eastern) black swallowtail, American swallowtail or parsnip swallowtail, is a butterfly found throughout much of North America. It is the state butterfly of Oklahoma and New Jersey. An extremely similar-appearing spec ...
'') but has shorter tails, and the forewing tip is rounder. The yellow bands of spots on the upperside of the wings are often more orange (except in the western part of its range).Jim P. Brock and Kenn Kaufman (2003). ''Butterflies of North America''. Houghton Mifflin, New York, NY.
Habitat
This butterfly primarily breeds on Scotch lovage (''
Ligusticum scoticum
''Ligusticum scoticum'', known as Scots lovage, or Scottish licorice-root, is a perennial flowering plant in the celery family Apiaceae (previously Umbelliferae) found near the coasts of northern Europe and north-eastern North America. It grows u ...
'') and is often found very near the ocean where its larval stage food sources grow. It is especially fond of headlands with Scotch lovage and members of the parsley family (
Apiaceae
Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plants ...
), including cow parsnip ( ''Heracleum'' species), angelica (''
Angelica atropurpurea
''Angelica atropurpurea'', known commonly as purplestem angelica, great angelica, American angelica, high angelica, and masterwort,awaiting them on hilltops. Females lay their
egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
s singly on host plant leaves. The eggs are cream and later obtain a reddish-brown ring. The pale green to creamish-green
larva
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
The ...
has black bands between segments with yellow spots on the black bands (these spots are orange in
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.
The island accounts for 18. ...
). The
chrysalis
A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...
is either green or black brown. The chrysalis hibernates. The short-tailed swallowtail has one
brood
Brood may refer to:
Nature
* Brood, a collective term for offspring
* Brooding, the incubation of bird eggs by their parents
* Bee brood, the young of a beehive
* Individual broods of North American Periodical Cicadas:
** Brood X, the largest b ...
per year, sometimes having a second partial brood.
Host plants
Here is a list of host plants used by the short-tailed swallowtail:
* ''
Angelica atropurpurea
''Angelica atropurpurea'', known commonly as purplestem angelica, great angelica, American angelica, high angelica, and masterwort,Angelica lucida
''Angelica lucida'' is a species of angelica known by the common names seacoast angelica and sea-watch. It is also one of many species in the Apiaceae, celery family which are casually called wild celery.
As its common names suggest, this plant ...
''
* Celery, ''
Apium graveolens
Celery (''Apium graveolens'') is a marshland plant in the family Apiaceae that has been cultivated as a vegetable since antiquity. Celery has a long fibrous stalk tapering into leaves. Depending on location and cultivar, either its stalks, lea ...
''
* Chinese hemlock-parsley, ''
Conioselinum chinense
''Conioselinum'' is a genus of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to Eurasia and North America. Its species are erect perennial plants with deeply toothed compound leaves and umbels of white flowers. Plants of this genus are known com ...
''
* Queen Anne's lace, ''
Daucus carota
''Daucus carota'', whose common names include wild carrot, European wild carrot, bird's nest, bishop's lace, and Queen Anne's lace (North America), is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae. It is native to temperate regions of the Old Wor ...
'' subspecies ''sativus''
* Cow parsnip, ''
Heracleum lanatum
''Heracleum maximum'', commonly known as cow parsnip, is the only member of the genus '' Heracleum'' native to North America. It is also known as American cow-parsnip, Satan celery, Indian celery, Indian rhubarb or pushki.
Description
Cow p ...
''
* Scotch lovage, ''
Ligusticum scoticum
''Ligusticum scoticum'', known as Scots lovage, or Scottish licorice-root, is a perennial flowering plant in the celery family Apiaceae (previously Umbelliferae) found near the coasts of northern Europe and north-eastern North America. It grows u ...
''
* Parsnip, ''
Pastinaca sativa
The parsnip (''Pastinaca sativa'') is a root vegetable closely related to carrot and parsley, all belonging to the flowering plant family Apiaceae. It is a biennial plant usually grown as an annual. Its long taproot has cream-colored skin and ...
''
* Parsley, ''
Petroselinum crispum
Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to the central and eastern Mediterranean region (Sardinia, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, southern Italy, Greece, Por ...