My Favorite Butterfly

12 years ago

I've finished raising my second batch of pipevine swallowtail cats this year, and I've started raising a few more. I left a lot more cats outside to raise themselves from the second group than I brought in, and they're beginning to emerge outside. They haven't yet done so for the ones I raised on the porch. For whatever reason, maybe because the're in the shade all day, the porch-raised cats take a little longer to emerge.

There's nothing like a newly emerged male! This handsome dude has been all over the garden for the past several days, and a newly emerged female showed up today - I caught them flirting!

I made a few pictures of him nectaring on pentas. These pictures were taken with my cheapo camera - the new one hasn't gotten here yet -

{{gwi:529908}}

Sherry

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Comments (11)

docmom_gw
12 years ago
Sherry,
What is that beautiful plant he is on? Probably not hardy in zone 5, right?

Martha
MissSherry
Original Author
12 years ago
It's pentas, definitely not hardy in Zone5, because it's not hardy here on the border between Zones 8 and 9. This is my first time to grow pink pentas, and the nursery where I ordered them said it was the most vigorous of the various colors of pentas they grow. I'm hoping that this vigor will mean more cold tolerance, but I doubt it, I'll see.
Sherry
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Mourning cloaks? Now I'd love to raise some of those, Tiffy, but I've only gotten one visit from one, and that was years ago - it was a very worn looking individual, surely on its last legs. I'm on the southern boundary of their range, so it probably came a long way. That burgundy or eggplant coloring on their wings with the gold rims is gorgeous! Hopefully, the monarchs will find your milkweed. I've got a lot of milkweed this year in my garden. I decided to go ahead and plant more, because the A. curassavica is so easy to grow, it comes back every spring, and it flowers all summer and fall with flowers that are as nearly as popular with the butterflies as lantana and butterfly bush. I'm hoping to get some monarchs in late summer or early fall - that's the only time I get eggs and cats. I just see a few individuals in the spring, flying through. I keep finding more giant swallowtail eggs, but a few of them look like duds, I'm not sure. I've also found a few more black swallowtail eggs, also more gulf frit eggs. Something weird happened yesterday with gulf frit eggs. I walked through the gate on my picket fence to go into the house, because it was about to rain. I saw a gulf frit flying away from a passionvine just as I was going through the gate, so I checked it out, and she'd laid three eggs. Just then, a downpour of rain came, didn't last too long, followed by light rain. After the rain, two of the eggs were gone! This is the first time I've ever seen eggs washed off a leaf. I assume that, since she had apparently just laid them, the 'stick-em' hadn't had time to do its job. There were a few other eggs on other vines that I'd seen earlier that stayed put, thank goodness. The little gulf frits I'm raising are getting less little every day - their growth rate is amazing, so much faster than swallowtails! It rained a little again today, and there's a good chance for more tomorrow, so the drought is better, but, as we've discussed before, I'm not seeing the butterflies like I did when it wasn't raining. They couldn't have all suddenly left, so I guess they're just hanging out somewhere waiting for fair weather! :) Sherry
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I've found them on Echinacea purpurea more often than any other flower, but, as you can see in the picture, Tom, they like milkweed, too. I don't know of a particular aster they prefer, never having found a caterpillar - it's on my 'bucket list' of cats to find. They must be somewhere, because I see the adults every year. I HAVE raised common checkered skippers when I was lucky enough to find some tiny cats embedded in the top, newest leaves of fan petals/Sida. Pearl crescents are about the same size as they are, so I know they'd be very tiny. I just keep checking asters for signs of being chewed. My favorite field guide shows the females with a lot of markings on their undersides, and the males nearly pure yellow, so this pearl crescent from a year or two ago was a female - I wish I had gotten a picture of the undersides of the one on the milkweed, so I'd have a better idea if it was a male or female. Sherry
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Sherry, The Spring Mountains are certainly beautiful and typical riparian western mountains like found in the Rocky, Sierra Nevada and Coastal mountain ranges (although small as western mountains go). There are no Parnassians in the Spring Mountains unfortunately, which is an "island" surrounded by hundreds of miles of desert right between the RM's and SN's. That isolation is why many of the living things in the SM have developed into their own species/subspecies. But I was referring to the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness NE of Yellowstone Nat'l Park where this bug flies in the arctic/alpine habitats from about 9,000' up to almost 13,000'. That picture I posted in the "Show us your BF Garden" thread is on the Beartooth Plateau at about 11,000' and shows some of the wildflowers and a run-off seep from the year-round glaciers there (it's not a river as per se). The BTP is home of the famous Bear's Tooth, Hell Roaring Plateau and Grasshopper Glacier to name a few. It is also a Lepidopterists paradise. Larry
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Those are great nectar plants for butterflies Justin! I agree that tithonia is tops, and I also planted the Fiesta del Sol this year - it's not grown as tall, and flowers freely. And lantana can't be beat for popularity with butterflies and the ease of growing it. I've never tried marigolds, but being in the same family as other really good nectar flowers, I'm sure they provide lots of nectar. Sherry
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tomatoworm59
12 years ago
I hope your Pentas also draw in some tersa sphinx cats, too. Those are a real treat.
MissSherry
Original Author
12 years ago
I do too, TW. I haven't gotten any tersas in a long time, maybe before Katrina. They used to show up on every pentas plant, and I enjoyed raising some of them myself - so cute!
Sherry
klflorida
12 years ago
Yep, those are some lovely pentas! The butterfly is a beauty also.

Isn't it funny how we get a tickle out of budding butterfly romance? I had to laugh at a male monarch that sat for well over an hour waiting for what must eventually come around the giant milkweed.
butterflymomok
12 years ago
The only butterfly I can count on to see everyday is the Pipevine Swallowtail. I love them. They are all over my large perennial NOID (No ID) lantana.

sandy
bandjzmom
12 years ago
Simply stunning alright! I have not yet seen one in my yard this year. I do finally have a bit of host plant for them when they show. Are the cats very voracious eaters?
MissSherry
Original Author
12 years ago
Yes, Angie, they eat a lot, but I don't think each individual caterpillar eats that much. It's just that there are so many of them!
Sherry
ladobe
12 years ago
Always love your pictures Sherry. The Battus are magnificent, and your Pentas are beautiful.

With so many species/subspecies over so many years its kind of hard to pick a favorite. All of them seeked out, studied and reared were very enjoyable experiences. I guess since the Parnassiini where the first tribe I seriously studied to learn and discover the life histories of, they are probably still my favorites. Out of all of them I especially like the Parnassius autocrator complex from the Pamir Mountains in Afganistan and Tajikistan. For the North American species it's hard to beat the Parnassius eversmanni thor in Alaska.

{{gwi:529911}}
MissSherry
Original Author
12 years ago
Those are beautiful and exotic looking butterflies, Larry!
I assume you were in Afghanistan when you studied them? I don't recall you mentioning having been in that country before. THAT must have been quite an experience!!
For that matter, studying the Alaskan species was probably an experience, too.

Gulf frits are a strong second favorite for me. Both Battus philenor and Agraulis vanillae cover your garden with their beautiful iridescent turquoise and bright red/orange colorings when they're at their peak, like they are now. Seeing pipevines and passionvines covered with caterpillars is a great sight!
Sherry
ladobe
12 years ago
Sherry,
Nope, I never even came close to a chance to visit the home range of any of the Parnassius found in the USSR in person. But I did rear some of their livestock sent to me by a friend that was a lepidopterist for the Russian government. That was before the end of the Cold War too. Lepidopterists don't pay much mind to differences in politics IOW. ;)
L.

My Favorite Butterfly

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My Favorite Butterfly

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