2003 Photograph, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus, Swallowtail Butterfly Family, Papilionidae) on Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica),
Carder Rock, Potomac, Maryland, © 2020.
An interesting side-line on this
butterfly is its scientific name. "Glaucus" means bluish-gray in
Latin. Linnaeus, who established the scientific name, had a black form female
which he used in naming the species based on her color. Even though the
majority of females and all males are the typical tiger-stripe form, the
name had been established and the Tiger has been, scientifically
speaking, the
Bluish-gray Swallowtail ever since. |
