This elegant swallowtail has a wingspan of approximately 3 inches. It is striped black and white with very long black and white tails. Dorsally, the hindwing has 2 blue spots at the base and a red spot closer to the body. Ventrally, the hindwing has a scarlet stripe bordered by thin black stripes running through the middle. The abdomen is black and white striped. The antennae are red. The spring individuals are smaller than ones hatched in the summer. The caterpillar is banded with black and yellow and when mature, it is 2 inches in length.
This species is rarely seen in Fontenelle Forest and Neale Woods, as the closest known breeding areas are in Indian Cave State Park in southeast Nebraska, and Waubonsie State Park in southwest iowa. However, there are one or two sightings of individuals in Fontenelle Forest and Neale Woods every year. Photos 1 – 4 were taken in Neale Woods.
The host plant for the larvae is Pawpaw (Asimina triloba). There is a colony of Pawpaw trees along Gifford Road in Fontenelle Forest and along Pawpaw trail in Neale Woods, so it is possible that there could be breeding here at some time. There have been caterpillars found in a large Pawpaw tree in a Bellevue yard about 3 miles south of Fontenelle Forest. This butterfly is the only regularly-occurring North American representative of the Neotropical genus Eurytides, or Kite Swallowtails.
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