You didn't say where you were from, but if the caterpillar is the shape, but dark, it could be one of several species -- the Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus), the Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus), or perhaps the Palamedes Swallowtail (Papilio palamedes). If you go to this page on Bugguide.net, you'll see several pages of caterpillars belonging to the Swallowtail family. You may be able to find a match for yours among them:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/347/bgimage
Guest
13-Sep-2007 20:42
hey i have a question i saw the pic of the caterpillar and noticed that the caterpillar was the same i saw in the usa it was the same shap but black is there any way that this could be the same speceis of caterpillar?
