This CD-ROM has the information on the hybridizing of Black Swallowtails. It has pictures of the same butterfly, sure looks like the P p. ssp. coloro. "The wings are mostly black in e N. Amer., mostly yellow in Calif. and vicinity, but most adults everywhere have orange in most of the unh median and submarginal spots. Ssp. asterias (most of the range except w Ariz. westward and Sask.-Man.) is black, with most unh (and often unf) spots strongly orange, rather than mostly yellow as in P. machaon (5) and zelicaon (6). The tegulae (Fig. 59) are mostly or completely black (yellow in machaon), and the abdomen (Fig. 58) is black with two rows (plus a partial row) of yellow dots on each side. The yellow uph postmedian bands of males are highly variable, from absent (form ampliata, which resembles a female) to 1 cm wide. Females usually have narrow postmedian bands (or none) in N. Amer. in order to mimic Battus philenor (25); the bands are wide in Cuba (ssp. polyxenes), where B. philenor is absent and the Battus species also have light bands. The median bands are narrower when the larvae are raised under low light intensity (J. Heitzman). A yellow form (ssp. asterias form pseudoamericus) appears very rarely (Ill., Colo., N.M., w Tex., se Ariz., but commoner in e Mex.); its abdomen (Fig. 58) is suffused with yellow on each side between the yellow dots (or rarely blacker with rows of dots). P. "joanae," slightly darker, from c Mo. (possibly ranging east to the Appalachians), I treat as a synonym of asterias; Heitzman treats it as a distinct species because it is said to occur only in woods, to lack orange larval spots and melanic larvae, and to normally have the black segmental larval bands broken into spots. The status of joanae should be studied further. Ssp. kahli (se Sask. in aspen parkland, s Man. east to Winnipeg and north to c Man., and Turtle Mts., N.D.) resembles ssp. asterias, but the black eyespot dot or bar is usually below the center and often connected to the margin, the black line between the blue and red in the eyespot is often narrow or absent, the unh usually has less orange (from none to completely orange in each spot), the female ups median bands are sometimes as wide as those of males, and the tegulae often have a trace of yellow. In form comstocki of ssp. kahli (rare: 0.003 of the larvae found on Zizia plants and raised to adults by J. Troubridge) the yellow covers most of the unh, but the uph median band of females is only 1 cm wide (probably about 1.5 cm in males), and the abdomen has yellow stripes on each side. P. machaon hudsonianus form comstocki may have a slightly hairier abdomen than kahli form comstocki, and more yellow in the unf cell, though the distinction is unclear because P. polyxenes and machaon probably hybridize occasionally in Man. and Sask. C. Remington raised both typical kahli and kahli form comstocki from a cross of two wild black kahli adults with fairly wide yellow median bands. Ssp. kahli evolved through a transfer of genes from P. machaon to polyxenes in past hybridization. Ssp. coloro (= rudkini; in deserts from c Ariz. and sw Utah west to s Calif. east of the South Coast Range) has yellow (coloro) and black (clarki) forms; the frequency of yellow forms increases westward but never reaches 100 percent (10 percent of adults are the yellow form ne of Phoenix, 50 percent at Yuma, Ariz., about 80 percent in the Providence Mts., Calif., 86 percent in Clark Co., Nev., about 98 percent in the Ivanpah Mts. and in San Diego Co., Calif.). Both forms almost always have orange in most of the yellow unh median and submarginal spots and the unf median band. Yellow-wing ssp. coloro adults always have the unh base yellow, but rarely have narrow uph median bands (1 cm, form comstocki of ssp. coloro). The coloro tegulae are slightly yellow. The abdomen of yellow forms (Fig. 58) in males usually has a fairly narrow yellow stripe and above it often a row of yellow dots, and in females one (plus a partial stripe) or two yellow stripes and often dots. Ssp. coloro meets P. zelicaon at the w edge of the s Calif. deserts, where yellow coloro forms are distinguished by having the male abdomen and red unh spots usually differing from those in zelicaon, the unf submarginal spots usually more rounded (rarely in a band as in most zelicaon), the yellow uph streak in cell CuA2 usually longer than the one in CuA1 (usually shorter in zelicaon), and the black uph postmedian band wider. Black form clarki is like ssp. asterias (on the abdomen also), but the unh spots usually have less red, and females have a narrow yellow fw median band. F. Thorne hybridized coloro and asterias and their offspring for many generations in the lab, and he and D. Bauer both raised both black and yellow forms from eggs laid by either yellow or black females, proving that they belong to one species. Other ssp. of polyxenes occur south to Colombia-Peru, where black and yellow forms also fly together. P. polyxenes seems to hybridize occasionally with P. machaon, zelicaon, and brevicauda."

Hey Bob, No doubt many of us now have to deal with "Old Eyes" in the final instar of our own metamorphsis, especially when we misplace or loose our galasses (like I recently did). Common species variation hinders instead of helps as well, so alot of what we think we see can be way off base. It doesn't help that we see what we what to see either. Fortunately you take such awesome and clear photographs that you can always go back to scrutinize your firat impressions until it clears up the old eyes. Enhancing with graphics software helps that along too. I sometimes blow things up and clarify them, sometimes change contrast, light angle, saturation, texture, etc so I can better figure out what I am looking at. That second picture is a one in a million IMO with exactly the right camera angle, light and exposure to blend the torn RFW into the LFW, is further spectacular as it just happened to be a species with just the right dorsal and ventral colors/patterns to help hide it AND that it is a very fresh specimen with the damage so fresh it isn't tattered yet. Talk about getting all the ducks in a row! ;) It's obvious after you've seen the third picture and go back to the second how the typical dorsal pattern is not quite complete, and the rest of it shows through. But not at first glance with these Old Eyes it wasn't. Wonderful series of pictures Bob that made a groggy old phart who stayed up all night wake up, pay more attention and get another cup of coffee. Thanks, Larry

Most people think science is always definitive, and expect to get a definite answer. That is not always the case. We know far more about cholesterol now than we did in the 70's, when the mantra was avoid all cholesterol. Now we know there are beneficial as well as much more harmful forms. However most people do not realize this is because of the learning and correction process has continued and still continues. As for the trees in your example, there is the added complication that the classification into species is purely artificial. The plants don't care. Plus speciation is a process that can go either way at a particular time. Therefore the "lines" are not always clear cut, as in the case of the Sugar Maple group. Often the answer you will get as to their species status will depend upon who you ask. Some will be "lumpers" and lump them all together into a single species with sub-species. Others will be "splitters" and consider them all as distinct species. For our purposes, use whichever you prefer, although considering them separate species could help with identification in the nursery trade. And FYI, a similar circumstance exist for many redbuds. Arktrees

Cherry has more of a "wild" grain than oak does due to the mix of heart and sapwood. It can be pretty dramatic. You could do rift and quartered white oak, which would be less of the flatsawn "arch" look, and then do a medium to dark stain with it. You'll end up with the classic "tiger" oak used in older homes and furniture. It's a lot more subtle than flatsawn though. If you want very little visible grain though, you should choose maple. Maple is difficult to stain without blotching though, so it's not as good of a choice for a dark floor unless you buy prefinished flooring.