Dark Swallowtail Butterflies

I have had a lot of butterflies in what I call my butterfly garden. It is actually a very small part of my flower beds. All zinnias. The butterflies love them. This year I didn't plant any zinnia seeds, but the seeds from last year have given me as many flowers as I have had in previous years. Last week I photographed butterflies on several different days. Notice the top photograph the dark swallowtail only has one row of orange spots. This tells me this is a dark Tiger Swallowtail. The Tiger can be up to 5 1/2 inches. These two photographs of the wings open are what really tells me it is a dark Tiger Swallowtail. Notice the blue highlights around the white dots, these are not present on the Spicebush Swallowtail.

Next we have a Spicebush Swallowtail, it has 2 rows of the orange spots.
The Spicebush is only up to 4 1/2 inches.

Notice the white dots on the upper wings, no second row of blue highlights.

The last photograph is a better photograph of the Spicebush.

Until I loaded the photos in the computer I did not even know I had two different types of swallowtails. The dark Tiger was photographed on 7/19. The Spicebush were photographed on 7/23 and 7/24. There were 2 Spicebush here at the same time.

Then there is the Pipevine Swallowtail, which only gets to 3 3/8 inches. When seen in the field it appears different right off, at least to me. I don't think I have ever seen a Pipevine in my own yard. The first time I photographed one was at Cataloochee Cove in the Smoky Mtns National Park. Still hope to see one this summer.

And I did see a Red Spotted Purple this summer at Rockwood, but could not get my camera quick enough for a photo. They are more rare in this area, and I have very few photographs of a Red Spotted Purple.