Thoas Swallowtail in KY?

[Stelenes at aol.com]

Chris, Barring an unusual event it was probably a Giant Swallowtail (P.
cresphontes) whose range does bring it into your area.  The yellow bands
(squareness and number of dashes) on the FW are what I use to distinguish
these species by sight where ranges do overlap.  Also I suspect that the
tails and amount of yellow in them are narrower for thoas though I don't
recall reading that as a meaningful difference.  Personally it has taken
seeing lots and lots of each species to classify them confidently.  Are you
sure it wasn't a cresphontes?  You did mention it was the first time you saw
anything like it.
 
Doug Dawn
Woodland CA
Monterrey MX