Originally published at: Help us identify this awesome butterfly | Boing Boing
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For sure a swallowtail, some species of Papilio. It looks a lot like a giant swallowtail (P. cresphontes), which are mostly eastern but apparently do extend into California, though I do not know the species well enough to know if others might be similar.
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r/whatisthisbug (seriously great subreddit for all your bug identification needs)
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Oh, that’s Robert, but he prefers to go by Bob the Awesome Butterfly.
Butterfly is his last name. It makes it really difficult when the restaurant is calling out parties waiting for a table since like 90% of the butterfly population has the same last name. The other common last names are Flutterby and Moth, the latter being a misunderstanding that occurred when they immigrated through Ellis Island.
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Certainly looks like a Giant swallowtail. I see black swallowtails here occasionally, but I haven’t seen a giant
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Yes it is a giant swallowtail
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I know that butterfly! That’s the bastard that flapped its wings, thereby changing the course of a tropical storm that ended up killing hundreds of people due to severe flooding and a generalized misunderstanding of how Chaos Theory works.
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At least it’s not the butterfly who got stomped by a time-travelling dinosaur hunter who stepped off the boardwalk, and is responsible for the rather crap time-line we’re in now.
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If you’re on FB, the entomology group is well moderated and has some excellent photography from around the world. Entomology
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Oh, it’s been many years. Thank you for the fond memory!
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@jlw I recommend the iNaturalist app for your phone. Take a pic and get an identification almost straight away. Here’s their website:
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We get Tiger and Zebra Swallowtails around here; more of the former than the latter.
5 Herbs for a Butterfly Garden
The aptly nicknamed butterfly bush (Buddleia) attracts lots of butterflies, and milkweed (Asclepias) is Monarchs’ only food plant. Both are beautiful plants. Many butterfly bushes have a luscious scent that humans can also appreciate. Even wild milkweed has wonderful flowers; a friend said they look like they’re made of porcelain.
I am fairly certain this is the King Swallowtail, Papilio Thoas. It’s often confused with the giant swallowtail. But hey, I’m not a lepidopterist.
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