Jan noticed many of these butterflies mating on the beach at the lake house. This is a female (Eastern) black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes). Polyxena was the youngest daughter of King Priam of Troy.
Females have a prominent blue area between its wing spots and this gives rise to effective dorsal wing Batesian mimicry. Henry Walter Bates was an English mid nineteenth century naturalist who offered an hypothesis that close resemblance between unrelated species was evolved antipredator adaptation. The female markings on the black swallowtail mimic those of B.philenon reducing the risk of predation by birds that preferably prey on black swallowtails.
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