The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucas) was designated the state butterfly and mascot of Alabama in 1989 at the request of Selma, Alabama's City Council (Selma is called The Butterfly Capital of Alabama and Selma's mascot is the tiger swallowtail).

The lovely eastern tiger swallowtail is one of the most common and widely distributed swallowtail butterflies, found throughout eastern USA and Canada. The male tiger swallowtail is always the familiar bright yellow with black striped markings. However, some females are dramatically camouflaged - they are dark brown to black, mimicking the poisonous pipevine swallowtail butterfly (which predators know to avoid because it tastes foul and can make them extremely ill).

Female eastern tiger swallowtail (black form) -
photo by HaarFager on Wikipedia published under
terms of the GNU Free Documentation license Version 1.2 or later

Tiger swallowtail butterfly photo by Luther C. Goldman /
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service