A perfect combination for butterfly watching is a purple-flowered butterfly bush with colorful swallowtail butterflies. This gardener spent many hours on our porch on warm sunny days watching them ...

The colors and patterns of black swallowtails reveal the diversity of evolutionary dynamics acting on the sexes and the various life-history stages Six species of swallowtail butterflies occur locally ...

While hopscotching between Sabine Pass and Freeport over the past several weeks to enjoy the annual spectacle of migratory birds, I also enjoyed the sight of giant swallowtail butterflies. The big ...

We keep finding caterpillars in our garden. I wrote about a silkworm caterpillar we raised indoors until a winged Io moth emerged in July. In August, my wife, Kathy, found another caterpillar — aka ...

We have a large patch of bronze fennel growing out back — this is unfortunate because it can be an aggressive invasive plant and is currently attempting to overrun my blueberry patch, but, on the ...

The female spicebush swallowtail butterfly was fluttering down, landing for a moment or two on a leaf on my sassafras tree and moving on to do the same thing on other leaves over and over again. It ...

A swallowtail butterfly resting on a green leaf - rai106/Shutterstock Gardens and yards feel dull without butterflies. These tiny fliers bring movement, splashes of color, and a soft kind of magic ...

The delicate charm of a butterfly, with its fabulous fluttering wings and jewel-toned hues, is a sight to behold. Even so, you may have, at some point in your life, wondered if these colorful ...

Last week I had a picture of a dark form of the eastern tiger swallowtail with my column. The obvious question about any species with more than one color form is: What is the advantage? The advantage ...

Right now, the landscape is filled with nectar-producing plants that are especially attractive to butterflies and other pollinators. The top-performing plants include mistflower, porter weed, zinnia, ...

Imagine a meadow of flowers: a kaleidoscope of colors with butterflies aflutter in all their prismatic splendor. Add a warm sunny day and it’s a picture of perfection. What more does a butterfly need?

Six species of swallowtail butterflies occur locally, and they combine yellow, black, orange, blue and red in several diverse patterns that invariably catch the eye. We can marvel at them, but our ...