Mystery Papilio larva

[kevinkk]

Found this day, in Lincoln county Oregon, at my house.
Image search says Papilio polyxenes. I say virtually impossible. Unfortunately, I did not find it myself, someone else,
trimming bushes found it.

Now, about 4 or possibly 5 years ago we raised a lot of polyxenes, none were released. We do get zelicaon here, and I see them
fly through, sometimes they land on the fennel bushes, but I haven't found larva for sometime now.

It doesn't look like the zelicaon I recall, maybe it's ready to pupate, it's in a container now warming up, it's 56f outside, and I'll see what it does,
the leaf it's on, I doubt anything eats that plant, I don't even know what it is, it's an old planting.

I'm thinking that I may have released some polyxenes . There were a lot of butterflies, but I'm not seeing how this can be from a few adults let go
4 years ago.If it actually happened, I'm not certain

Ok. I see after some searching, that this larva must be an immature Papilio zelicaon. Hopefully there is enough parsley and fennel left to feed it.

Today, it is a mystery, tomorrow?

mystery Papilio October 22.jpg (95.17 KiB) Viewed 1448 times

[eurytides]

There is a lot of variation on larval colour. It’s probably zelicaon.

[kevinkk]

here is a lot of variation on larval colour. It’s probably zelicaon.

Apparently so. Also zelicaon retains the "bird dropping" look for most of the instars. I raised them a number of years ago, but they were sleeved outdoors and I didn't see them much at all.
In the spirit of another topic- perhaps this is the "coastal species" of Papilio zelicaon