This giant yellow swallowtail (Papilo cresphontes) is the largest of all North American butterflies although the female tiger swallowtails approach the same size. Both male and female have dark brown wings with yellow markings, including a large horizontal yellow stripe across the wings. This yellow swallowtail is on some lilacs of McBride resident Vern Pawloske in his yard. These aren’t just any ordinary lilacs as they are really large in size. “They are special as nobody else in the Valley has this subspecies,” Vern says. “It came from Alberta back in the 1940s.” / SANDRA JAMES
