Congrats, congrats!! It's a giant swallowtail, and they lay eggs on citrus trees. The only giant swallowtails that have shown up around here have been males, no eggs, of course, but yours looks like a female.

If you don't want those eggs, let me know and I'll send you my address and some mail money, so you can send them to me!

Sherry

thank you..not sure that I've see one around here before, or maybe I have but just didn't notice..I think I'll hang on to the eggs on the off chance that I'll get some more butterflies..I also saw this guy a week ago..had a chunk out of the one wing seemed like he may have been on his last leg. Any idea what this is?

That's a female spicebush swallowtail. Too bad she got bitten! Hopefully, she can fly alright. If you have any sassafras or spicebush on your property, she may lay you a few eggs.

Giant swallowtails don't lay eggs in large groups, just a few on each medium sized tree, so your orange tree shouldn't be hurt. Unfortunately, the caterpillars may very well get eaten by wasps or other predators, they seem to be a favorite. Have you ever raised your own caterpillars?

Sherry

cool..never realized we had this kind of butterfly diversity here...she didn't look like she was going make it, I came right up to her on the fence and she barely moved..as far as I know we don't have any spicebush or sassafras, although I might get some now that I know it will attract these.

Never raised my own caterpillars, we had lots of monarch caterpillars in our milkweed patch, but I'm thinking they were probably picked off by predators..maybe I'll give it try.

So pretty!!! I have giant swallowtail butterflies around here and I have lemon tree and RUE plants and for some reason they seem to like to lay eggs on my rues. As soon as I see them hatch (I could see the difference between black swallowtail and giant swallowtail), I took them in. I have three giant swallowtail cats in the cage right now. They are cool looking. I have been wanting to get spicebush butterflies. I know they have been visiting my garden but I never see them lay eggs because I dont have sassfras or spicebush, they are hard to find. Until one day, I saw a spicebush swallowtail caterpillar climbed on my back window. I was like what the heck? Where is it getting its food from. I found out that my BIG tree in the backyard near the garden is a Camphor Tree which is also a host plant for the spicebush butterflies as well. Yay!