Eastern tiger swallowtail, black

Beautiful find, Ginni! These dark Swallowtails can be tricky to identify since many of them are quite similar (mostly mimics of the Pipevine Swallowtail, which is distasteful to predators). Note the differences. Black Swallowtail has row of yellow above the blue on the hindwings, often two rows of yellow dots on the forewings: Female Black Swallowtail: http://bugguide.net/node/view/108953 http://bugguide.net/node/view/684603/bgimage Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, dark form: http://bugguide.net/node/view/133270 http://bugguide.net/node/view/690667/bgimage http://bugguide.net/node/view/746406/bgimage Hope this helps!

Very pretty!