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Butterfly Garden

Spicebush Swallowtail Egg

17 years ago

I was working in my garden today, with a small sassafras only inches from me, when I noticed a female spicebush swallowtail fluttering around the little tree. She proceeded to lay an egg about 6" from my face - not modest, huh? I also found two SBST eggs on a nearby leaf, plus stacks of question mark eggs on another leaf! I've seen QM females laying their eggs all around my hops vines, on the fence it grows on, on the pipevine that grows right next to it, but this is the first time I've found any on sassafras! I'll probably go out this evening, cut off the leaf, put it into a water pick, cut all around the leaf so that the where the eggs are is the only part of the leaf left, and then add a tender hops vine leaf for the hatchling QMs to eat. QMs are the goofiest butterflies!

Here's the SBST egg -

{{gwi:445034}}
MissSherry

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Comments (10)

frecklejuice
17 years ago
Love the pic!!!! It is so moving to witness a butterfly lay eggs.

This has got to be a big year for my area SBS. I have found over sixty eggs so far.

Thanks for the pic and being so generous with your knowledge.

Sam
emmayct
17 years ago
Yep, I got a SBST egg yesterday too! My first. I was scoping out an area in a powerline cut while hiking. This beautiful Spicebush female was patrolling like crazy, trying to find something on which to lay eggs. She found a small sassafras clump only about a foot tall. I only found one egg but I know she laid more.

It will be my first attempt at rasing SBST!
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You're so welcome, Butterflyaddict - nature is my much-enjoyed hobby! Your local butterflies are probably in their caterpillar and/or chrysalis stage right now. Most of the ones you saw in Feb. were individuals that had overwintered - you should be seeing another influx soon. By late summer/fall, the generations will have overlapped, and you'll see them every day, not just in waves. I'm lucky to live in the country, close to the Desoto National Forest, where host plants are everywhere, so I get to see lots of butterflies. I saw two different tiger swallowtails this morning, a male and a yellow female. I made pictures of them, but they didn't turn out, because they were basking in the sun, and were overexposed. I used my editing functions, but they didn't make the pictures better. The female was really beautiful! I checked out the big false nettle patch for question marks - didn't find any cats - but got these pictures - As it turns out, there are still some parasitic critters doing their damage to the red admiral cats, because I found one of those little white cocoons in a nest. But fortunately, that was the only one I found - red admirals are beyond plentiful this year. Here's a cat in the patch, raising itself - I always find a lot of frogs in the nettle patch. This one was perched by a nest - Sherry
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I have read that tigers will use spicebush, Christie, so it could indeed be a tiger egg. In my experience the eggs are pure green, so green they blend in with the leaf they're on, but I also know that the color of butterfly eggs varies from one individual to the other. Giant swallowtail eggs can range from greenish yellow to orange, and pipevine swallowtail eggs come in various shades of red. Here's a picture of a tiger egg - Sherry
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If you can't find one growing nearby, start calling local nurseries to see if they have any spicebush left. They must be pesticide free. If you can't afford to buy one, go to the nursery, explain your situation, and offer what you can afford for a cutting. Nursery people tend to be very nice, and will probably help you. Re-cut the stem when you get home and keep it in room temperature water. Good luck with Mr. Cutie!
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'Found the first two red-spotted purple hatchlings yesterday, so I brought them in to raise - I'll be checking other eggs today. 'Also found the first American lady nests of the spring on some cudweed. I'd like to raise some of them also, so I'll undoubtedly be bringing some in to raise pretty soon. I've got two red admiral chrysalides, and another cat is in the 'J' - I'm looking forward to releasing these beauties! 'Found a few more little bitty spicebush swallowtail cats, brought them in, and now I'm up to seven. The biggest one has gotten to about the ?4th instar. In another thread, we were discussing pink-spotted hawkmoths, and it gave me the idea to plant morning glories along my road. I'll probably sow some of the seeds in pots and scatter some along the roadside - it would be so much easier if they'd just come up on their own! I also got some moonflower seeds, which I haven't planted in a few years. Morning glories and moonflowers are all beautiful, and the big moths are worth the trouble anyway! The luna cats are eating a lot and getting really big and fat, more fat than long in typical luna fashion. 'Won't be too long before the pipevine swallowtails should be emerging! I've got a sea of mock bishop's weed growing in my garden, plus rue and my wafer ash trees are growing nicely. 'Still no black or giant swallowtails, though. :( There's plenty of time for the rue and wafer ash to be used, but the mock bishop's weed doesn't fare too well in the heat of summer, so I wish they'd come on! :) My ears tell me the migrant spring birds are all here! I've been hearing great crested flycatchers, summer tanagers, orchard orioles, yellow-billed cuckoos, vireos, warblers, especially hooded warblers, chuck-will's-widows at night, and this morning I heard my first Mississippi kite of the season! Here's a picture I made last year of a Mississippi kite with the zoom lens of my camera - Sherry
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MissSherry
Original Author
17 years ago
Congrats, Mary Ann!
You'll love raising your SBST!
MissSherry
emmayct
17 years ago
I got my dad interested in butterfly rearing too. Just last week he said how cool he thought SBST cats looked. He's so happy to have one to raise! Now I just gotta find some sasafrass by the time it hatches!
emmayct
17 years ago
This week, at the same site, I found two more eggs. One in the same location as the first egg, and one was laid right in front of me.

And thankfully, I found several sasafrass right up the street from me!

Stangely, I remembered them from over 35 years ago when I walked down that street coming home from elementary school. I always thought how cute the little "mitten" leaves looked and what a beautiful shade they turned in the fall. I used to bring them home to iron in wax paper.

Oh OH, now I'm letting on my age! LOL.
MissSherry
Original Author
17 years ago
Hehehe!!
It could be worse, Mary Ann!
I was in elementary school 50 years ago! :(
MissSherry
emmayct
17 years ago
Misssherry, please notice I said, "over 35 years ago." And I refuse to be any more specific than that! LOL.

Anyways, today the first SBST egg that was laid about 12 days ago got dark. I had to drop everything and run up the street before work to cut some sasafrass leaves.

Why do people look at me so strangely when I jump out of my car, grab some leaves and take off?( I was really in a rush.)

Tonight I see he hatched and I now have a teeny-weeny little SBST cat!

I used a stapler to attach the little piece of leaf with the egg to the fresh new leaf.
MissSherry
Original Author
17 years ago
A stapler? Now why didn't I think of that?! And here I've been struggling to line the leaf with the egg on it that I've cut around in the right position so that the hatchling will have some fresh leaf to eat immediately!
MissSherry
emmayct
17 years ago
MissSherry, just be really careful to take into account that the head of the stapler clears the eggs. I really feared that I crushed one...Stapling is a really forceful act.. LOL...

I think that egg is ok...but only time will tell.

My egg that hatched became dark at about 10 am, I stapled the piece to a fresh leaf at 10:15 then went to work. Came home at 6 and couldn't find any sign of the egg. But low and behold, about three inches away, on the tip of the leaf was a tiny cat.

Apparently, he knew very well how to find fresh food.
emmayct
17 years ago
And today when I collected leaves, I found another egg!

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?what to do with this little guy?

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