Black Swallowtail. Was it laying eggs? Or did it just eclose? Looks like it's on some parsely, which is a host plant.

I planted a new butterfly garden this year, since I moved into a new house. The bed turned out to be much shadier than I expected, but I was glad when the season ended up being so hot and dry. I'm sure I would have lost a lot of my seedlings if they'd had to endure the severe weather before being well established. I haven't seen any Monarchs, but was lucky to get a donation of eggs from NaturesFolly. They are just eclosing now. I did have tons of Red Admirals earlier, and will occasionally see a pair of them chasing around the back yard. I've only seen one Eastern Tiger Swallowtail actually nectaring on a flower in the garden. Hopefully next year will be busier, once the plants are better established and (hopefully) the weather improves. Good luck to everyone! Martha

They like most of the same nectar plants that other butterflies like, Gardenparty, but they like red flowers more than most. Do you have any turk's cap/malvaviscus drummondii? They like that, also butterfly bush. The host plant is the various types of redbay - persea borbonia, p. palustris, etc. This has been something of an off year for palamedes swallowtails here, maybe because the redbays/swampbays are looking so bad. The caterpillars look very much like spicebush swallowtails, as do the eggs and chrysalids. MissSherry

Ralph, This is going to sound strange, but, the first chance you get, walk around the plants in the daylight, a little away from them too. Check the ground all around them and see if you can find any ant nests. I'll make you a bet, you will find ant nests, and if you do, go buy some Amdro ant killer and feed it to the ant hills or nests only. Wherever there are alot of alphids, there are ants behind in somewhere. LOL It will cut down your infestation considerably. Just go see outside, it works.