Chrome yellow Tiger Swallowtails and purply Black Swallowtails are welcomed each year in southern Ontario. However, this spring another swallowtail flitted into the flowers in the mixed forest north of Kingston, Ontario. With wings that would span a slice of bread, and sporting a vivid triangle of thick yellow lines on an almost black background, it was unmistakably a Giant Swallowtail. To prove it wasn’t a fluke, several more arrived moments later.
Mild Winter and Warm Dry Spring Propel Butterfly Invasion Into Ontario
A few weeks earlier, record numbers of Red Admirals had fluttered into Ontario. Homeowners were astonished to count 50, 100, even several hundred Red Admirals hovering around blossoming trees sipping spring nectar.
This combination of temperate weather probably also promoted the conditions necessary for these Giant Swallowtails (Papilio cresphontes) to stretch north beyond their normal limits so early in the season.
Is There Anything to Eat Around Here?
Luckily for these adventurous Giants, the spring lilacs were blooming. They tanked up on nectar to keep fueled up for the cool nights.
Later in the summer, they were investigating all the flowers both wild and domestic. In this photo, one was checking out the non-stop begonias.
Will They Lay Eggs Here?
This is a question I’m still puzzling over. The Kaufman guide suggests Giant Swallowtails prefer citrus for their larvae. Despite the warmer winters, orange trees are still in short supply in south-eastern Ontario! Other suggested host plants (torch wood, wild lime and hopwood) also don’t seem likely.
In the Point Pelee Ontario region caterpillars do successfully feed on Hop tree and Northern Prickly Ash. Prickly Ash apparently is a member of the citrus family, not the ash family. So the Giants can likely reproduce at least as far north as the Prickly Ash grow.
Where there are no suitable hosts for the caterpillars, our only hope of admiring these gentle Giants will be when mature adults decide to push the boundaries of their range with a little cross-border fluttering.
Join in
Have you seen Giant Swallowtails in your neighbourhood? Or are the Tigers and Blacks more common? Share your views and news with a Comment.
Further Reading
Butterflies of Canada
http://www.cbif.gc.ca/spp_pages/butterflies/species/GiantSwallowtail_e.php
Toronto Star article: Species Migrating North at ‘Two and Three Times Faster’ Than Reported at http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1042003–species-migrating-no
In the Ottawa Citizen “Giant butterfly makes ‘astonishing’ Ottawa debut” http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/butterfly/6735008/story.html
Related Reading
Didn’t know what this giant butterfly. Thank you for helping me identify the swallowtail Was settled with wings open on our Spirea in our Markham garden today.
They are still quite new to southern Ontario. We were quite surprised with our first glimpse of one too. They have become residents in some parts of Ontario now, so with luck you’ll see them again next summer.
Thanks for sharing your sighting!
Found five Swallowtail caterpillars devouring my parsley plant this morning in Markham. What should I do with them?
Well, personally I would let them continue as I can buy parsley but I can’t buy Swallowtails. However, other choices include moving them onto carrot or Queen Anne’s Lace leaves, if there are some nearby, if they seem to be eating too much of your parsley. Hopefully there is some Queen Anne’s Lace in a nearby park if you don’t have a large vegetable garden.
August 15, 2014
A giant swallowtail spent a long period of time today on our butterfly bush. Beautiful. We live on the Bateau channel eastern end of Lake Ontario. First one that we have seen.
They’re lovely butterflies. Hopefully you have a few this year that will survive the winter to start a new resident population.
Thanks for sharing your sighting!
Had a Giant Swallowtail on our cosmos flowers in Brighton this morning. Had never seen one before. Got a great pic to show friends.
Congratulations on getting a photo! They often stay in flight while feeding which can make it difficult.
It seems like a good year for these butterflies. People are seeing them all across southern Ontario.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Hello Bet
Do you know when the giant swallowtail emerges from the chrysalis in the spring in southern Ontario
Thank you
Unfortunately, I don’t.
e-Butterfly.org has flight times for Ontario from mid-May on but that may include mature Swallowtails that flew up from the USA. http://www.e-butterfly.org/ebutterflyapp/#/observations/flighttimes/view
Similarly, the ROM Field Guide to Butterflies of Ontario lists flight times from mid-May till the beginning of October with peaks from mid-May to mid-June and again from late July through August. It doesn’t state whether those peaks correspond to migrants or local hatches, though.
If another reader has experience with Swallowtails over-wintering in their area, please chime in and let us know!
We just spotted a Giant Swallow a Tail in our garden. It was feeding on the Cone Flower. We have been watching it for about 15 min. Absolutely beautiful.(Brantford Ont.)
Wonderful! They are beautiful butterflies. Enjoy!
My wife and I watched a Giant Swallowtail circle and momentarily land on our mature Hop tree yesterday. It did this for hours. Finally it flew away at which time I looked closely at the leaves. My tree is covered in tiny reddish yellow eggs!!! All on the top side of the newest growth of leaves. I live in southeast Scarborough.
Thank you for sharing this! I knew they must be finding somewhere to lay their eggs but I wasn’t sure how many host plants they could find in Ontario. Hopefully some of the eggs will hatch in time to pupate before the fall. Keep us posted if you see any caterpillars. (I’m not even sure what the caterpillars look like; I guess I should go look them up.)
Thanks again!
August 27 2014
11:00 am 6 km north of Bridgenorth Ontario Chemong Lake – Took pics with I phone of giant swallowtail flitting from a hummingbird feeder to a cluster of Cleome flower to a pot of Diplodenias. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!!
Thanks for sharing your encounter! They really are striking and interesting to watch.
I saw the giant black swallowtail on Thurs. Aug. 13, 2015. I have a beautiful photo but your website does not allow me to attach it. The markings look like the open jaw of a skull. How did this species acquire such camoflage?!
I’m happy to hear you were able to get a great photo of one of these large swallowtails. The markings are quite showy. Thanks for sharing your sighting!
We have 7 caterpillars on our tiny hop tree in Ridgetown, Ontario – just planted it last year. I’m hoping they survive the winter!
Neat! I hope they make it too. They are very striking butterflies. Thanks for sharing your sighting!
They ate on my hop tree for a few days. I was watching carefully because I wasn’t sure my tiny tree could support them all. Then over a few days they disappered. I saw one heading down the trunk, so I don’t think they were eaten. They seem to have moved elsewhere. I guess I’ll have to wait until spring to see if any butterflies appear.
Hopefully some of them survived and went on to pupate. Thanks for sharing your sighting!
Prickly Ash, though a native, has w/in the past decade become invasive on much farm scrubland (and along fencelines) in Lanark country. I would love to know why it is suddenly booming (it’s a significant problem locally) — but that it is, is clearly of signif bonus for the increasing Giant Swallowtails.
Interesting that it’s spreading so aggressively. Cow Parsnip is doing that quite a few places too. Yes, I’m sure the Giants are pleased. If I see any info about the spread of Prickly Ash, I’ll post a link, but I haven’t seen anything yet. Thanks for sharing your sighting!
We have been raising Giants on Rue in our yard in St Catharines Ontario for about 6 years now
Wow! That sounds like a fun hobby. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I have citrus trees (bushes, really) in pots that I put out on my porch for the summer. There are two Giant Swallowtail caterpillars on them again this year devouring the leaves.
I imagine it’s hard to see them eating the leaves but getting to see the adult butterflies so close would be cool!
Saw a Giant Swallowtail in my garden in downtown Toronto (Queen & Spadina) August 18, 2017.
What a great place to see one!
Just saw one of these in my back yard in east-end Toronto. Really cool! It seems slow and is not flying much tho. Just hopping around a bit. Wondering if it’s dying? 🙁
It may be just about done as they do just hatch out, reproduce, and then die. Or it could be that it was a cold day (strange summer!) which makes it harder for them. Unfortunately, there are also diseases and mini-predators that can kill them. Hopefully it helped start to create the next generation!
I had one visiting my Lantana yesterday in Sombra Ontario!
This seems to be a very good year for them. Reports are flooding in from across Ontario. Thanks for sharing yours!
Saw a Giant Swallowtail in Toronto (near Yonge and Davisville) this morning on our buddleia (butterfly bush) August 29, 2017, got a nice video. Probably 5-6 inches wingspan. Not sure if male or female.
It’s turning into a great summer for these Giants. Thanks for sharing your sighting–and for offering the butterflies a place to rest and get a drink!
I just enjoyed watching a small flock of these beautiful butterflies feeding on my lilac shrub. 06/10/18 11:00. Carlisle, Ontario
Aren’t they great? I’m glad to see them in Ontario, too!
I planted a hop tree and prickly ash last year. I live in Bowmanville Ontario..(East of Toronto). Within about a month I had a tree full of eggs. I raised the cats after pupating in the late summer, early fall I kept them safe in an aquarium to winterized. In the spring of this year they successfully enclosed and I released them. This year there where many more giants in the tree and prickly ash laying eggs. It is now late August and many are enclosing! A few are still a pupa. I have been releasing them. It is so late in the season, I am concerned that they will just die. Is it the weather that is making them eclose or do they migrate south to the citrus trees in maybe Florida? How long do they live?
Monica
I’m not an expert but my understanding is that they do not officially ‘migrate’ although some may disperse to the south. Since they are at the north end of their expanding range they may not be ‘programmed’ to stop maturing and wait till after winter to emerge. It would be really interesting to know if some can over-winter as adults, though, like Eastern Commas and Mourning Cloaks can do. If you tag some of your late emerging adults, I wonder if you will find one again in the spring still alive? Might be an interesting thing to try. I’m glad you’ve had such good luck with them on your trees. You may want to see if anyone on the e-Butterfly.org or https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/onbutterflies Ontario Butterflies group has any more info on them.
I forgot to mention, they have also layed eggs in my rue! Lots of cats here too!
Monica
Sounds like quite a successful year for them!
Thanks for your response. Yes I thought about tagging them but not sure if the monarch .org would be okay with that. No one seems to have definitive info on them. Interesting:)
Monica
That’s true it would probably require finding another source of tagging stickers. Hadn’t thought of that road block! Either way, it’s great you’re getting to watch these beauties so closely!
On July 15, 2018 a Eastern Swallowtail visited my flower garden
What a wonderful butterfly to see!
Seen many of these this year (2019) in near Wellington in Prince Edward County
I think they may be able to over winter there. I think they are a really showy new (to Ontario) butterfly!
Mon Aug 19th Kemptville Ontario. Hubby was watering the plants around the yard when a Giant Swallowtail landed on the wet pavement, I assume to get a drink. It kind of followed us landing on newer patches of wet pavement as others began to dry. I had never seen one of these butterflies before, they are beautiful.
I think I’d be tempted to keep splashing a bit of water all morning to keep one nearby!
I saw 2 Giant Swallowtails today (Aug. 23) at the Perth Wildlife Reserve just outside of Perth, ON. (about an hour west of Ottawa). They were both flitting from bloom to bloom on Knapweed. I wouldn’t say they were a giant size — about the same as the Monarch. But I do know I’ve never seen one before in Lanark County.
The reports on eButterfly show that we now have Giant Swallowtails living and over-wintering in Ontario. So you may be seeing more over the next few years! Interesting that they were smaller–usually that means they had less than enough food to eat when caterpillars.
Sept 1, 2019
I have two giant swallowtails in my backyard, spending a lot of time and effort in my marigolds. Fluttering constantly, it took several minutes to identify, with the help of Google, of course.
Sept. 9,2019
My husband and I saw a giant swallow tail today at Rare, a nature reserve in Cambridge Ontario, that actively encourages a variety of butterflies. They have a prickly ash tree. Unfortunately one of its wings was torn but it was still flying.
Sorry for my slow reply. Thanks for sharing your sighting! I’ve noticed that butterflies will keep flying even with terrible damage–there’s probably a good lesson in that somewhere for me when I feel over-whelmed!
We have 3 Of the caterpillars in downtown Toronto on the parsley
I think it may be a Black Swallowtail caterpillar if it is on parsley. They are a beautiful butterfly too!
We have had Giant Swallowtails laying eggs on our gas plant (Dictamnus albus) for the past 3 years (in Pickering, ON), and caterpillars emerge and feed on it. But they do it so late in the season. Last year the caterpillars were still tiny in September, there were a few of them but they all disappeared as it got colder. This year there is one large caterpillar eating the leaves, we’ve had frost already two nights ago (so early!) and we’re concerned the caterpillar might die. Is there a way to overwinter it? Would it be kept indoors? What could we feed it? Or is this a bad idea and interfering too much with nature? They are such beautiful butterflies!
Sorry for the late reply. Hopefully it went on to mature and pupate. I don’t think there would be any practical way to raise it indoors. According to the ROM Field Guide, they over-winter as chrysalises, so perhaps it or one of its siblings will make it.
Just saw one of the these flitting aroundl our orange trees… we are located in Picton..
So we bring the trees indoors for winter.. are we going g to have caterpillars in January??
I hope not! It may be worth keeping an eye on the leaves though and removing any caterpillars–I doubt your trees are big enough to tolerate much munching. Thanks for sharing!