kc, Glad to hear that the GST left you some eggs. It seems like they start out slow and then after a few days they really go gangbusters. The female was here again today laying more eggs. Oh, I think about 2009 was the last time that I saw a Viceroy too, either that or 2010 but I know for sure that none was here last year. Good luck with your cat raising. I've never raised any Polys. Susan, Ha, yeah, that's a good way to describe the PVS and GST in a race! :-D It was slow here for the longest time in the way of butterflies, but now they're finally showing up here and they're so fun to watch! I'd love to see some Gorgone Checkerspots! You're lucky that you get those and Gulf Fritillaries. I plant passionvines but I'm almost certain that I'll never see any frits on them other than VFs. I think about you a lot too. You ought to see how my pussytoes and pipevines have grown...many many times their original size! They feed lots of cats, and as a matter of fact my son was walking past the pipevine today and spotted a bunch of little piggies, and now I also have 22 PVS to raise. Oh, and counting the 27 GST eggs that I collected today (mostly off the gas plants), I have 56 GSTs to raise. When I have GSTs and PVSs to raise, the Monarchs take a back seat, but I do have several dozen of those too. Christie, I hope that you soon get some GSTs to raise. It is actually pretty hard for me to spot eggs on the rue flower heads. I have to look out over my glasses or else take them off (gotta love bifocals). It takes me pretty long to comb through the rue and guess what...I'm itching again! Arg! I even washed my arms real good right after I came in, but it doesn't seem to have done anything. I also found eggs on the gas plants (actually a lot more on those today than on the rue), and maybe I'm allergic to those too. Ooh, lucky you to be raising a Tiger Swallowtail! I only had one of those one time and it ended up dying. I read later on where someone said they mist theirs, so if I ever get any again, I'll try that. It was nice reading about all that you have there. mostone, Nice pictures! I think Black Swallowtails are very pretty! I just had 3 pupate that I found in the rue when I was looking for Giant Swallowtail eggs a few days ago. Congrats on the BST find! It will probably eclose this year yet, but swallowtails are so unpredictable that I can't say for sure. Sherry, It sounds like the butterflies sure love your place! That's nice that you get such a wide variety. I haven't seen any Viceroys here this year either or last year. I also had Variegated Frits last year but not this year. Here I planted a whole bunch of violas for them (they loved them last year), but now they're pretty much spent. So if the VFs show up, they probably won't have much to eat. I can feed them passionvine leaves though. Yes, I most certainly will have fun raising the Giants! Now I also have about 2 dozen PVS to raise that we found on the A. macrophylla today. I also have several dozen Monarch cats and could have many dozen more if I'd collect them more regularly, but some things just can't be done and so something has to fall by the wayside. I figure what I raise is already more than what would have made it on their own. Almost every medium to large Monarch cat that I found and brought in this year had been parasitized by those darn tachinid flies. I brought them in just on the off chance that they were okay and also so that I could destroy the fly pupae in case the Monarchs weren't okay. It was nice hearing about others' butterfly adventures. I always enjoy reading about the kinds of butterflies that other people have in their yards/gardens. Cathy

I collected 4 Black Swallowtail eggs about 2 weeks ago - they were all laid at the same time on some Rue and Parlsey that has gone to seed. I was out in the garden and WATCHED the female lay the eggs, and that is probably the only reason I found them, otherwise it seems near impossible to find the eggs or small cats. I kid you not, all four cats are growing in the same container and they are 4 different sizes. The two growing on the Rue clippings are growing more slowly than the 2 on parsley seedheads. One is actually pupating today - another still looks like 2nd instar! Weird! Are some sickly? Could host plants make a difference how fast they grow? These cats preferred to stay on the host plant on which they were laid although they had access to the other. Or maybe, could this be a natural survival mechanism to space out the flight time of the species? I have no idea. We'll see if they all pupate okay.

Sorry terrene about your giant Swallowtail chrysalis. I was rooting for it. Thanks for the picture of GST butterfly in your garden, it is AMAZING! I've never seen one in my life!! This thread was so interesting, I learned a lot, thanks to all who shared. terrene, could you possibly put a fine netting over the rue after butterfly visiting time each day, or over some of the rue, to keep out the predatory insects? You may raise the odds of more eggs that way. That reminds me to put the blanket over my outside enclosure, I still have some outdoor Monarch chrysalises. Or grow some rue in a 4 sided netted area, leaving daytime access of the top, then cover it with netting at night? Next year is a new opportunity to get your GST. I can see why you were so excited! (The caterpillar was also amazing looking).

Susan, It sounds like you might have had the same trouble as me when you were raising them, with their disappearing. I don't know if they're cannibalistic or not but I have noticed how they stray off of their plant food and seem to wander around like they're looking for something and maybe never find their way back to the host plant, thus starving. I don't know if that's the case or not but I know that some/a lot seem to have a knack for crawling off of the rue and never finding their way back on. In the past I even put them back on, but I think that they managed to crawl back off again. It was so frustrating! Then last year for some reason I had lots of luck raising them and I thought that between leaving them alone (not attempting to put any back on the rue cutting) and raising them in a container on the back porch (rather than bringing them in the house) was the secret to raising them successfully. I guess not. I did everything the same as I did last year and am back to having only a fraction of the GSTs live. I am having the same problem as you with so many predators this year. I'm guessing that it's because it's so dry. I even saw tachinid flies just sitting on the milkweed waiting to find a cat to lay their eggs in. If I could have killed them, I would have. I always smash any fly pupae that show up in my containers (of course, a caterpillar with a string or pupa with a string is always a telltale sign that I'll find at least one fly pupa on or under the paper towel that I have in the bottom of the container. Sorry to hear about all of your RA cats being parasitized. A lot of my RA cats were parasitized too that I brought in. I thought the poor things don't stand much of a chance, the darn wasps get to them before they even have a chance to grow much at all! I feel especially bad for the Monarchs here because it's pretty difficult for me to collect the eggs and cats from the milkweed these days, so I imagine that mostly all of them are being parasitized and eaten by predators. I just do what I can do. I just hope that my garden won't eventually all get turned back into lawn, but I did plant grass in some of it to downsize somewhat. Lila, Sorry to hear about your Queen cats. That would be discouraging, but it's also ENcouraging that you have so many adults out in your garden. So something must be going well. I usually try to bring in eggs if possible of whatever species I'm raising, but if I miss them as eggs, then I try to bring them in as tiny cats. I always bring the GSTs in as eggs because I only ever see the GST mamas lay on the flower heads/seed heads and so they're relatively easy to find compared to if I'd have to go combing through the entire plants (and I have 15 altogether) for cats. Also, I'm allergic to the rue so the less I come into contact with it the better. It does make me wonder, though, if I'd end up releasing more GST cats if I'd wait awhile and collect the cats like you do. I don't know if I mentioned it but I have 8 GST cats on small potted wafer ash trees that I have left on the plants and not brought them in. I've watched them from the time that they were eggs and they all hatched and are doing fine, as opposed to my far worse success rate of bringing eggs in on the rue and raising the cats inside. The cats on the potted trees pretty soon won't have any more leaves to eat and at that point I'll bring them inside and raise in containers. I just hope that they will readily switch over to the rue. It's been hot and dry here too and the dill is all gone. I still have some fennel though and of course the rue, so if any BSTs ever do decide to show up this year, they'll have enough to eat (my parsley has seen its better days but doesn't look as bad as the dill). Yes, if the GST cats eat the eggs and each other, maybe that's what happened, I just don't know for sure. I guess I have to look at it like you said, that at least the ones I end up with are still probably a lot more than if they were outside. I'll continue to bring them in (only I think this mama I've had hanging around here is done laying eggs because I haven't found any lately) and hope for the best. Thanks to both of you for your insight. Cathy