Day 236: I always feel a little like I should be singing "Here We Go Gathering Nuts In May" when I'm out chasing butterflies with the camera, but this one was very interested in the columbine. There were several others as well with varying amounts of bird damage to their wings. They tend to look rather tattered later in the season, so I was anxious to capture the ideal example while I could. The dorsal (topside) and ventral (underside) views are of the same specimen. This is Western Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio rutulus. It is very similar to P. eurymedon, and light individuals of Western are frequently mistaken for Pale where the ranges overlap as they do here. Had I only seen the ventral view, I might have questioned the identification, but the dorsal view showed distinctly yellow wings, fresh and bright, and probably only recently emerged.
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