Butterfly Spotlight: Pipevine Swallowtail

There are four dark swallowtails in Middle Tennessee: spicebush swallowtail, pipevine swallowtail, black swallowtail, and eastern tiger swallowtail (dark morph).

Identifying them can definitely be confusing! You can tell a pipevine swallowtail apart from the others because it only has one row of orange spots on the underside of its hindwing (smaller wing).

Pipevine swallowtail larvae feed on pipevine, or Dutchman’s pipe, which makes them poisonous to predators.