Orchid Swallowtail

[John53]

Spotted this on the fence when I was watering the tomatoes this morning. Pretty sure it's an Orchard Swallowtail.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Pretty!

 

[ChristineM]

Spotted this on the fence when I was watering the tomatoes this morning. Pretty sure it's an Orchid Swallowtail.

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And im pretty sure you are right (according to Google images) beautiful breast beast

 

[VoidCat]

Spotted this on the fence when I was watering the tomatoes this morning. Pretty sure it's an Orchid Swallowtail.

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I like. Gorgeous

 

[exchemist]

Spotted this on the fence when I was watering the tomatoes this morning. Pretty sure it's an Orchid Swallowtail.

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Impressive. What's the wingspan? It's looks huge.

 

[John53]

It's an Orchard Swallowtail not Orchid. I'd like to blame autocorrect but it was all me.

 

[John53]

Impressive. What's the wingspan? It's looks huge.

It's gone but about 120mm or 5 inches I think

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Spotted this on the fence when I was watering the tomatoes this morning. Pretty sure it's an Orchard Swallowtail.

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Really nice. Looks like you are finding your light too.

 

[Subduction Zone]

And im pretty sure you are right (according to Google images) beautiful breast

Would that be about a C cup?

 

[John53]

Really nice. Looks like you are finding your light too.

All kudos goes to the camera, it was a gloomy rainy morning and I just whacked it on full auto and it worked it out.

 

[John53]

I've never typed kudos before, I assumed it would start with a q.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

All kudos goes to the camera, it was a gloomy rainy morning and I just whacked it on full auto and it worked it out.

I should be so lucky.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

I've never typed kudos before, I assumed it would start with a q.

That is correct as far as I know, but I'm a rabbit.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Here is a picture of a Mydas fly I took some years ago at a local state park. The plant it is on is a favorite of mine known as rattlesnake master.

 

[John53]

Here is a picture of a Mydas fly I took some years ago at a local state park. The plant it is on is a favorite of mine known as rattlesnake master.

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Looks like a small bee hovering next to it?

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Looks like a small bee hovering next to it?

That plant brings in a number of different insects, making it a good choice to find subjects to photograph. It is a wasp of some sort. I always called something similar a wood wasp when I was a child, but it was a name I made up. It might be species of the genus Euodynerus, but I don't know the Hymenoptera so well to know.

There are some bees on the flowerheads just below the fly, but they aren't in focus.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Looks like a small bee hovering next to it?

There are a couple of halictid bees in the picture. The little bees below and down the stem from the fly. We call them sweat bees here. Australia should have members of that family too. They are ground nesting, usually in lose groups of nests. Gregarious, but not eusocial like honeybees.

 

[exchemist]

I've never typed kudos before, I assumed it would start with a q.

Nah, it’s Greek. No letter q equivalent in Greek.

 

[exchemist]

It's gone but about 120mm or 5 inches I think

That’s big. How splendid. I don’t think we have anything like that in Britain.

 

[Subduction Zone]

That’s big. How splendid. I don’t think we have anything like that in Britain.

A bit bigger than the Monarch butterflies that I grew up with. But we had a species of swallowtail that would get as large. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail:

Minnesota Seasons - eastern tiger swallowtail