Spicebush Swallowtail

The Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus)

Life cycle

The butterfly lifecycle always starts with an egg. Spicebush swallowtails lay their eggs on the underside of spicebush leaves. These eggs resemble small pearls or crystal balls, being round and white colored. When the caterpillar is ready to hatch, the egg darkens.

Next, the caterpillar emerges. These caterpillars are first colored like bird poop, being brown and white. The reason for this is camouflage. The caterpillars grow and shed their skin until the turn into a green, snake-looking caterpillar. On the tops of their heads you can see they have markings that look like eyes, however their eyes are actually on the front of their bodies. This is another way this species uses camouflage. They will eat several leaves worth of spicebush throughout their time as a caterpillar. When these caterpillars are ready to become chrysalises, they turn orange and spin a string to hold them, while letting go with their legs and leaning backwards until they transform into their chrysalis.

Here are some facts about these caterpillars:

-They have a cool horn that is shaped like a snake tongue. When these caterpillars feel threatened, they stick out their horns as an attempt to scare whatever bothers them away.

-These caterpillars like to roll the leaves around them as an attempt to hide. If you visit our Metamorphosis room, you will often see these caterpillars hiding in the leaves that they roll.

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Up next is the chrysalis. The spicebush swallowtails use a lot of camouflage as caterpillars, but they also do as chrysalises as well. When the caterpillars go into their chrysalises, they do not hang upside down in a J-shape like some other caterpillars. They create a sling out of web-material that they make and use it to hang from sticks or leaves. Their chrysalises often look like dead leaves or slugs and they are very hard to find in the wild because of how well they are hidden.

Spicebush Swallowtails hatch from the top part of their chrysalis and dry off their wings. They have the signature "tail" part of their wings, which allows us to easily tell they are part of the swallowtail family. These butterflies dry off their wings after they emerge from their chrysalis and when they are done, they are able to fly around and live out their lives

Here are some fun facts about these butterflies:

-You can tell the male and female Spicebush Swallowtails apart because of the blue on the lower parts of their wings. The males have a large amount of light blue coloring while the females have a lesser amount of dark blue

-They look a lot like their close relatives, the black swallowtail. The way you can tell the two apart is because the spicebush has a lot more blue coloration while the black swallowtail has a lot more yellow

Spicebush Swallowtail Data Card

Habitat: Open Woodlands
Food: Nectar
Nesting: Leaves (Spicebush)
Behavior: Pollinator
Conservation: Low Concern (Population Stable)
Native status: Native

Fun Fact

Spicebush Swallowtails avoid predators by mimicking the poisonous Pipevine Swallowtail

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