Black swallowtail

When I first spotted this stunning but quite mini- butterfly working the rocks, my first thought was, "I know this guy... it's got to be the first of the dark swallowtails... but it just doesn't look right for anything obvious." Around here, there are really only three choices, and it was easy to rule out a Pipevine or a Spicebush swallowtail, since the patterning was wrong. That left, by default, the Black swallowtail—a male, in this case; the female is more drab—but all the Blacks that I'd seen in the past struck me as bigger, more robust fliers, with more rounded wings. While there was no doubt about the species, I was puzzled about the size: a Papilio polyxenes in miniature. According to my go-to source, Jeffrey Glassberg's Butterflies Through Binoculars, I wasn't seeing things. "Early spring males can be quite small," notes Glassberg. The good doctor doesn't say why—I'll have to consult the wizards on this one—but at least I know my eyes weren't playing early spring tricks on me. Mystery solved.