Butterfly Bush Update '14

There haven't been nearly as many butterflies around my butterfly bush this year as in years past.  I haven't seen a single Monarch butterfly.  There have been a few Painted Ladies, but again not as many as last year.  There have been quite a few skippers though, too many to try to identify. 

But one regular has been the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - the female, unlike many bird species, is flashier and larger...

than the male.

Actually the female is a dimorph and can either be yellow or black.  This black butterfly showed up this year...

but is it the dimorph or a Pipevine Swallowtail...

a Spicebush Swallowtail...

or a female Black Swallowtail???

Pretty sure it's a female Black Swallowtail.  Here are a couple of pictures of the female black form of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail courtesy of wisconsinbutterflies.org:

I've also seen photos where the female was half black and half yellow.

FYI here is a photo of the male Black Swallowtail.

Another visitor was this beautiful little green dragonfly.

And the ever present snowberry clearwing.  Lots of those this year.  You can really see where it gets its name in these photos.

So that's the report from the butterfly bush.  More on the Steel Blue Cricket Hunter in the next post.