tigers appear

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I first posted this, nine years ago on April 2. Today I watched the same.
 
"After overwintering inside chrysalids, the first generation of adult tiger swallowtails was seen fluttering through the treetops today. And after the males and females find each other and mate, the she-tigers spend the rest of their lives laying spherical green eggs on the top of leaves of certain host plants: cottonwood, tulip tree (a.k.a. tulip poplar), sweet bay, spicebush, ash and wild cherry.

[Today it was a wild cherry just beginning to leaf out.]

The adults live only a matter of days, after which, all the tiger swallowtails in our area will exist as eggs that hatch into larvae that eat, grow, molt; eat, grow, molt; eat, grow, molt until they molt one last time and form chrysalises that in time metamorphose into a new wave of adults that we will see fluttering about in several weeks.
 
In the South, tiger swallowtails go though two or three broods between early spring and winter. The arrival of each new generation produces a natural pulse of the spectacular yellow and black adults.


In memory of Rikki Hall who took so much joy in noticing such as this.

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what is it?

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"A curious thing, Dr. Watson," a chagrinned Sherlock Holmes might say. "Most curious."

Hugh Morgan sent me the above photo. He and his grandson found the critter—measuring about 1.5 inches long—on Roaring Fork Motor Trail in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg.

He wondered, “Do you have any idea what it might be?”

My best guess is that it’s the caterpillar of a tiger swallowtail, although all the ones I have seen have been green, but here is a description I found on the Internet:

“The caterpillar of this species changes dramatically as it goes through its various molts. In the first two instars (those periods between molts) it looks just like a bird dropping. It then changes to be predominantly green with two large eyespots near the front end. Just before pupating, the larva turns dark reddish brown.”

Does anyone else have a better idea?

- Photo by Hugh Morgan

too soon?

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Surprisingly, I saw my first tiger swallowtail of the season flying high through the tulip trees near my home last Sunday, March 8.

It appeared to be patrolling, probably indicating it was a male. These swallowtails are a treetop species. The females, once they have mated, lay their eggs on the leaves of various trees, including wild cherry, sweet bay, basswood, tulip tree, birch, ash, cottonwood, mountain ash and willow, but at this time of the year, there are no leaves.

We are weeks away from leaves. WEEKS.

Adult tiger swallowtails only live about twelve days. They feed on the nectar of flowers from a variety of plants including wild cherry and lilac, which bring them lower to the ground. Yet, none of these are really blooming now.

But, eating is only secondary. Reproduction is its top priority. My lone swallowtail's window of opportunity is small. Twelve days. As I write this, his winged life is half over. He's middle aged. By Monday, he'll be elderly. By Wednesday, a shadow of his former self, tattered and torn. By Friday, his twelve days are spent.

Does this mean that the male emerged from his chrysalis too early? Was it tricked by the three-day warm spell we had earlier in the week? Did he take a risk? Will his search for a mate go unrewarded? Will he starve to death before its twelve-day lifespan comes to an end?

Will his eagerness go for naught? His genes leave the gene pool? Does evolution favor the tardy, those that play it safe?

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