East Tennessee Beauty High And Low

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly – Staff Photo by Jeff Depew

The Swallowtail Butterfly is a beautiful sight and one that is fairly common in East Tennessee. In fact, Tennessee is fortunate to have around 130 species of butterflies hovering among its hills and valleys. The Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly is the State Butterfly of Tennessee and can be found across the State. In recent years, there has been an exciting discovery among butterfly enthusiasts. Though the Tiger Swallowtail has been a fairly common butterfly in the Southeastern States, the Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail has been identified in the Southern Appalachians. These high altitude Tiger Swallowtails are a new branch of the species and it is believed that the East Tiger Swallowtail was slowly invaded by the genes of the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail over tens of thousands of years. May is the time to find these beauties in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Enthusiasts looking to view a rare glimpse of the Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail will need to look in elevations above 3500 feet. Visually, the difference between the Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail and the East Tiger Swallowtail lies in size and small color differences. The Appalachian version is larger than its East brethren and has less blue and paler yellow colors.  Altitude is another factor in determining which Swallowtail is viewed, with Tiger Swallowtails in lower elevations generally being East Tiger Swallowtails in their equally beautiful, but more common, form.