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Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

June 2, 2017 by Beate Jensen 2 Comments

Picture2
Pipevine swallowtail on Monarda

The Pipevine Swallowtail, Battus philenor, is a beautiful butterfly that has an upper surface of iridescent blue or blue-green on its hind-wing.  The underside of the hind-wing has a row of 7 round orange spots in an iridescent blue field.

Aristolochia macrophylla – commonly known as Dutchman’s Pipe, is native to the eastern United States and is the primary food for the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly.

The vine gets its name from the small pipe-like flowers that hide in the dense foliage.

Picture3
Pipe-like flowers

The beautiful heart shaped leaves grow on old wood, and when the vine is established it will cover a structure providing dense shade.

Picture5
Vine growing on Pavilion

It grows at Belmont on the arbor by the Pavilion where the “pipes” and the larva are easily viewed.

The adults feed on flowers like Beebalm, Monarda sp., Phlox, Phlox paniculata, and plants in the Verbenaceae family, such as Verbena, Lantana and Purpletop Vervain, all which are abundant in our gardens and native grass fields.

The egg masses have not been spotted on thee vines yet this year, but we are keeping a watch and will report any

Picture4
Caterpillar on Pipevine plant summer of 201

sightings to  Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA). This organization has undertaken an ambitious effort to collect, store, and share butterfly species information and occurrence data. You can participate by taking and submitting photographs of butterflies, moths, and caterpillars.

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  1. Meadows and Gardens A-buzz with Life! – Gari Melchers Home and Studio's Blog says:
    August 15, 2017 at 12:50 pm

    […] Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly […]

    Reply
  2. Meadows and Gardens A-buzz with Life! - Gari Melchers Home and Studio says:
    November 3, 2021 at 1:26 pm

    […] pipevine, also known as the Dutchman’s pipe – Aristolochia macrophylla, was featured in a blog post in June where I discussed how important it is to the survival of Pipevine Swallowtail – […]

    Reply

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