---
title: "Eastern Giant Swallowtail"
description: "Heraclides cresphontes — Insekten & Spinnen. The eastern giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) is the largest butterfly in North America."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/de/animal/eastern-giant-swallowtail
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Eastern Giant Swallowtail

> Heraclides cresphontes — Insekten & Spinnen. The eastern giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) is the largest butterfly in North America.

- Scientific name: *Heraclides cresphontes*
- Category: `insects` (Insekten & Spinnen)
- Habitats: `urban` (Stadt & Garten)
- iNaturalist observations: 41684
- iNaturalist taxon: [85024](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/85024)

## Names

- en: Eastern Giant Swallowtail
- es: Cometa gigante del Norte
- fr: Grand porte-queue

## Countries with the most observations

US (28364), CA (9276)

## Summary

The eastern giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) is the largest butterfly in North America. It is abundant through many parts of eastern North America; populations from western North America and down into Panama are now (as of 2014) considered to belong to a different species, Papilio rumiko. Though it is often valued in gardens for its striking appearance, its larval stage can be a serious pest to citrus farms, which has earned its caterpillars the names orange dog or orange puppy. The eastern giant swallowtail caterpillars possess remarkable camouflage from predators by closely resembling bird droppings. They…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_cresphontes

## Photo

![Eastern Giant Swallowtail](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/eastern-giant-swallowtail/medium.jpg)

Photo: Liz F · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94864999

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/eastern-giant-swallowtail?lang=de` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).