This is a Swallow Tail butterfly. It's actually a perfect one. Sometimes you see a tail or two missing. At first I was disappointed when I saw that until I did a little research on them. If you look carefully you will see some little blue dots by the tail. These are actually there to confuse the birds as they think they are the butterflies eyes. When they swoop down for a bite of butterfly they are actually attacking the tail and not the head. This does little harm to the butterfly. They really seem to like the Marigolds as I have seen them there several times. They are so beautiful I'd like to get more pictures, but they really don't like me and my camera hovering around them.
