This year, the lilacs really put on an impressive show in late May - early June. I spent a week (4-6 hrs. each afternoon) sitting in a lawn chair with my newly acquired close focus binoculars & naturally, of course, haha, my net. As an aside, I would highly recommend these binoculars, Pentax - "Papilio II" - 6.5X x 21... they are small, light weight, have a crystal clear image & can focus down to only 18"... & were, to boot, very reasonably sale priced... around $125.00 CAD @ Amazon. I continually scanned the lilac blossoms every day & was finally rewarded, late on 30th May, @ 6:00 pm, with the collection of a stunning aberration of our common Canadian Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio canadensis pictured below
In the distant past I've had the good fortune to collect 2 other interesting abs. of P. canadensis... ab. "fletcheri" which is familiar to long time members/viewers of insectnet.com & the unusual ab. pictured in my avatar... ab. "radianthus"?
The next day, 1st of June, on the same lilac bushes, I collected a perfect, freshly emerged, male Black Swallowtail (P. polyxenes asterius)... only the 3rd ever collected in my area. I can post photos later, if wanted, of this latest P. canadensis ab., as it is still on the spreading board ... I leave all my lepidoptera specimens on the boards for a month, minimum, to ensure complete dry down with no drooping.
John K.
[attachment=2]Ab. Tiger S-tail 30 May 2025 - III.jpg[/attachme