Wing span: 9 to 15.5 cm.

Flight time: Multiple brooded with first from early May through June, second from mid-July through August, and a partial third from mid-September through frost.

Status: Breeding resident.

Distinguishing features: The Giant Swallowtail is black-brown with a band of yellow spots running from the upper forewing tip through the base of the upper hindwing. The ground color below is mostly yellow.

Distribution and habitat: Widely scattered throughout the state in a wide variety of brushy habitats.

Natural History: This species is particularly fond of brushy open woods and margins where its larval hosts (prickly ash and hop tree, Iowa's only members of the citrus family) occur.