Bug FAQZebra Swallowtail
Eurytides marcellus · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Papilionidae
Source: Wikipedia
Adult zebra swallowtails have white to greenish wings with black stripes and two sword-like tails on the hindwings, plus blue and red spots on the inner hindwing margin. Their caterpillars eat pawpaw leaves and can harm these trees, while adults sip nectar, fruit, and minerals from damp soil.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
The inner hindwing margin shows two blue spots near the corner and a red spot close to the body. A red stripe runs down the middle of the underside of the hindwing.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
They stay close to pawpaw trees, which are their host plants. Males fly quickly near host plants while looking for females. Both sexes often visit a variety of flowers for nectar.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Caterpillars eat leaves of various pawpaw species. Adults feed on flower nectar, minerals from damp soil, rotting fruit, and even urine.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
Females lay single eggs on pawpaw leaves or trunks because the caterpillars are cannibalistic. The chrysalis overwinters in colder parts of its range.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
In the north they appear from late March to August; in the south they can be seen from February to December.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
The species has two seasonal forms, one in spring and another in summer.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 35 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Virginia, Florida, Maryland, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
Can they damage my garden?
Their caterpillars feed on pawpaw leaves and can harm those trees.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Papilionidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurytides_marcellus
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.