Tropical Conservancy

Many butterflies are found in Florida all year in diverse habitats. This tatered Eastern Tiger Swallowtail flies March to November in all of Florida, except the Keys, and is rare in Dade County. This one was seen near the edge of a deciduous broadleaf wood near a woody swamp, where it flew low and fast through shaded areas or the forest edge feeding on the nectar of various bright colored flowers including wild cherry and lilac; drinking on mud.

Btw, the larvae feed on wide variety of trees and sometimes shrubs such as wild cherry, yellow poplar and ash.

This species does not require conservation, unlike the Schaus Swallowtail (in an earlier blog entry) a rare Florida native which is an endangered species that prefers to fly higher, about the tree canopy, whose habitat is found more south of us in more tropical wooded areas like in southern Dade and the Keys.