The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly or Papilio glaucus is found all along the eastern area of the United States. Both males and females come in a yellow variety with black stripes on the top of the wing. There's a band of pale yellow spots along the outer edge of the wing. Females can also come in a black variety. The inside of the wings (the upper side) is a brighter yellow, while the outside of the wings (the underside) is more of a pale yellow, almost parchment color, with charcoal black decorations on it. There are several orange spots along the outside of the lower wing. The orange spots are within darker black rings.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies seem to adore orange day lilies, which are extremely common in Massachusetts (although it's an introduced plant). I often see these beautiful butterflies on my day lilies.

The below photos were taken in July 2011. Note that the band of orange dots is the edge of the lower wing which is overlapping on top of the upper wing. The head of the butterfly is stuffed down into the lily, enjoying it. It appears the wing is damaged - you can see that the furthest orange dot to the right is a triangle shape where it was ripped off by something.















This set is from July 10, 2011.




























Note that this version of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail that I see is in Sutton not the "typical" version with the four or five tiger stripes on the top of the wing. In fact in this photo you can't see any tiger stripes at all. Rather, they seem to match more closely a version that I find online from North Carolina. The top of the wing has a black "hook" shape that is almost like a notch going into the pale white area. This is what I see on the butterflies around here.

You can also see the same hook on this photo taken in North Carolina.

North Carolina Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Photos

Butterflies in Sutton Massachusetts
Animals and Birds in Sutton Massachusetts

Sutton Massachusetts Photo Collection