Papilio glaucus [Eastern Tiger Swallowtail]

[KaJashey]

 

KaJashey (2023) Papilio glaucus Linnaeus, 1758 (Papilionidae) Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Butterfly photographed in ultraviolet and visible light. LINK

 

Location:

North America

 

Comment:

This is an eastern tiger swallowtail that my wife collected as a dead specimen over the summer. I believe it's a male.

 

Reference:

1. Wikipedia (acc 29 Oct 2023) Papilio glaucus. Wikimedia Foundation, San Francisco, CA. LINK

 

Gear:

Camera is a full spectrum Sony A6000. Lens is a metal El Nikkor 80 at ƒ8. Filters are a BG 38 for visible light and a UVIROptics La La U for UV. Lights are visible and UV arms for an adaptalux lighting system. Both kinds of light are on at the same time. The lights are farther away from the subject than I would like.

 

Visible: The visible is a 2 second exposure at ISO 100.

 

Ultraviolet:  The UV is a 30 second exposure at ISO 1600 which was boosted two stops in post.

[Nate]

I always like how UV brings out the surface.

Nice pics

[Doug A]

Super UV capture. The intricate details are greatly enhanced. I pledged for the Adaptalux Pod Mini's with UV arms. If I only had time to use them more. 

Thanks for sharing and extra motivation,

Doug A

[Andrea B.]

It's very nice to have this excellent Swallowtail UV/Vis photo set. Thank you for posting it!

I am adding a nice header to top of the post. This helps when making an index or if somebody wants to reference this topic.

[Andrea B.]

Looks like this Swallowtail butterfly mainly absorbs UV except for the two white arrows on the bottom wing. The arrows are undoubtedly a mating signal as discussed in the linked article below. But -- this article does not mention possible protective aspects of UV absorption. We've certainly seen in flowers that there can be a dual function for UV patterns of absorption/reflection.

Ultraviolet communication in butterflies