Papilio multicaudatus

[Sharyn Fernandez]

Hello -

Re: Wing-color
For: Two-tailed swallowtail (Papilio multicaudatus)

I MAY HAVE misidentified, HOWSOMEEVER, going by same black stripe width
(narrowness) of this species to distinguish it from Tiger (Western), or
Pale ST (sorry for common names, ahem.. P. rutulus, and P. eurymedon), I
just had on eof each and one was as light as the "Pale ST" and the other,
the darker 'banana' yellow; I think both female - no claspers seen) both
caught the same day - unfortunately I let them go - but because it's easy
to confuse the lighter one with a "pale" and I can't find any mention of
this wing color difference in my resources, I just wondered if any of you
the the Western US had made note of this - or are aware of any collections
showing this difference, or do I need to get my eyes checked again?

thanks for any thoughts...

sff

Sharyn Fernandez
Concord CA
botany at flash.net