404 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1935 



Most of our swallowtails are rather generally distributed, and in 

 a favorable locality, at least in the eastern States, every local species 

 will be found in greater or lesser numbers. But in the Tropics this 

 is not the case — ^you must search the various kinds out in their own 

 special haunts. 



Sometimes it happens that of a certain kind you get only males. 

 This often means that the females are to be found elsewhere, and a 

 special search for them must be made. Of course, in many species 

 females are far less common than the males — indeed, in quite a 

 number no females ever have been captured. 



Swallowtails have four main weaknesses that greatly aid in catch- 

 ing them. Practically all of them are extremely fond of flowers 

 growing at a fair height above the ground. Some flowers are attrac- 

 tive to all, or nearly all, the swallowtails in a given region, as, for 

 instance, the lilac, the butterfly bush, and the white lantana. Other 

 flowers attract only certain kinds. Thus in the east the zebra 

 swallowtail {Papilio marcellus) is the only one that will visit the 

 flowers on low blueberry bushes; our other spring swallowtails will 

 not descend to them. Also the giant swallowtail {Papilio cres- 

 phontes) seems to be the only one that appreciates the flowers of the 

 trumpet vine. 



When visiting a region, therefore, the first thing a collector does 

 is to locate the most likely looking gardens, and the proper flowering 

 shrubs along the forest edge and in the glades and clearings in the 

 woods. Often it is necessary to cut a cleared space about the flower- 

 ing shrubs in and near the woods to give both the swallowtails and 

 the collector freer access to them. After a number of the proper 

 sort of gardens and of wild flowering bushes have been located, they 

 are visited in rotation until a good series of all the local kinds has 

 been secured. 



Many swallowtails, though by no means all, are extremely fond of 

 sucking up water from the wet banks of streams, or from barnyard 

 puddles. Our yellow swallowtail {Papilio glaucus), where it is 

 abundant, sometimes congregates in hundreds on wet mud. All of 

 those found on mud, at least with us, are males; the females prefer 

 nectar. But well-patronized mud banl^s are most excellent places 

 in which to secure good series of the males of many different species. 

 Often after having been disturbed, the butterflies become wary and 

 suspicious. Their confidence can be restored by cutting out imitation 

 butterflies from paper of the proper color and placing these in ap- 

 propriate positions as decoys on the mud. 



Like the epicures of old, meat-eating swallowtails like their meat 

 " high." Or, to put the matter in another way, many of the swal- 

 lowtails are inordinately fond of the juices from decaying flesh. 



