By: Kassie Rehorn
INTRODUCTION Hey there! Today I am going to tell you about a really interesting butterfly called the Pipevine Swallowtail. This butterfly is bright and colorful, so you might be surprised to find out that it lives in the Sonoran Desert! The Pipevine Swallowtail eats nectar that it finds from honeysuckles, milkweeds, and thistles. It also gets moisture and nutrients from "puddling". Pipevine Swallowtails can be hard to identify because there are several other butterflies that are similar in size and color; but this one is black with blueish green metallic on its wings. They lay rust colored eggs, which hatch as caterpillars, and go into the pupa stage, later emerging as a beautiful butterfly! Now it is time for you to read more, check out the activities, and take the quiz! Good luck and happy exploring! WHO AM I?
I am a beautiful, colorful butterfly! But you can just call me Pipevine Swallowtail. I am not somebody you would usually expect to find in the Sonoran desert because I am colorful and bright, just like a jungle or a rain forest would be!  WHERE DO I LIVE?
I have many homes, but here are just a few of them: fields, meadows, gardens, parks, open woods, roadsides, and stream sides.
WHAT DO I EAT?
The food I eat is nectar! I visit honeysuckles, milkweeds, and thistles! While I am eating I like to help my plant friends out by pollinating them! I also get moisture and nutrients from “puddling”.
HOW DO I LOOK?
I am hard to identify because there are several other butterflies that are similar in size and color to me. I have a wingspan of up to 3 ½ inches. My wings are black with blueish green metallic on my hind wings. Females have a row of yellowish-white dots, but males do not. When I fold my wings while I am resting, You will see a curved row of bright orange dots underneath my wings!
HOW DO I REPRODUCE?
A male pipevine waits around for a female. After we mate, I lay several rust-colored eggs underneath a leaf. I only lay my eggs on host plants off which my baby larvae can eat. My babies, butterfly larvae, also known as caterpillars are very small and stick together when they are born. My caterpillars go into the pupa stage and it will emerge later as a beautiful butterfly, just like me!  I have chemicals inside of me that make me poisonous to other creatures! This means I can usually eat in peace! How sweet is that?!
 ACTIVITIES Kindergarten: Find a picture of the Pipevine Swallowtail on the Internet. Print the picture and show it to your teacher and parents. Tell them about all the cool facts you learned about the pipevine swallowtail today!
1st & 2nd Grade: Use the Internet to find three images: one picture of the pipevine swallowtail, one of the environment it lives in, and one of what it eats. Print your pictures off the computer and paste them onto a piece of paper. Now you have made your very own pipevine swallowtail habitat!
3rd Grade: Click HERE to view different pictures of the pipevine swallowtail. Pick three pictures to print off, then write two sentences about each of the pictures. Use the information you have just learned and descriptive words to describe what is in each picture.
YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ME BELOW.
Fairfax County Public Schools
The Fairfax County Public Schools is the website of a public school district. Island Creeks Elementary School conducted a study of Northern Virginia Ecology. The site is run Mark Moran, and was designed for use by elementary students in Northern Virginia to learn more about their local ecology-similar to the goal the creators of the Sonoran Desert Explorers & Detective websites had in mind!
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