Swallowtail Butterfly

Photo of Swallowtails on Mesa Peak
Swallowtail butterflies on Mesa Peak, April 2018

The beginning of this collage dates back to April, 2018. I was on Mesa Peak where lots of Swallowtails were congregating. They are very fast and acrobatic fliers, impossible to photograph with a simple camera. I resorted to the video feature in my camera phone to catch some video from which I might later be able to extract some images. The collage was nearly done by summer but I dropped it for something else. I circled back to the collage earlier this week. Four species of swallowtail butterflies make their home in the Santa Monica Mountains. The swallowtails shown here are the Western Tiger, Papilio Rutus; or the Pale, Papilio eurymedon, or possibly both. The Complete Butterfly Field Guide of the Santa Monica Mountains provides helpful details about the local Swallowtails and many other butterflies that are endemic to the area.

By S. Felton

S. Felton is a writer, photographer and amateur naturalist.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.