The pictures are great, Nick! What variety of lantana is that? I love the bright orange coloring, and apparently so do the butterflies! That's a great close-up picture of the long-tailed skipper!
Your pipevine must be A. gigantea? I'm not really that familiar with the tropical pipevines, but I know that mine prefer part sun/part shade, too.
Congrats, congrats on those darling cats! Polydamas cats are very similar to pipevine swallowtail cats, but polys are more mottled brown and red, whereas pipevine swallowtails are more red at this stage, then black with red later on.
You can keep your vine making new growth by pruning it when it stops growing, which it will do when it gets real big, and the weather gets real hot. Fertilizing it and watering it when it doesn't rain helps, too. Mama butterflies really prefer the new growth for ovipositing.
Sherry

I bought that lantana at walmart because every time I google pictures of butterflies they are usually on orange/red lantanas. I notice you have one like mine, but yours is lankier, is yours in more shade? Mine gets almost all sun.

I wish I remembered which aristolochia this was, but It seems to grow well, like you said it likes very fertile dirt

I am very excited to have these guests. You are so lucky to have pipevine swallowtails so readily available, I haven't seen one yet.

Mine is in part sun/shade, and it's Sonset, which gets tall (about 6') wide(about 8') and lanky. Most of the newer lantanas are MUCH more compact. I just made this picture - I had to hold my camera up to take it -
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Sherry

Is that wild lime in the background? behind the lantana and GST

There are a combination of things growing in that area - yaupon, lead plant, blueberries, that %#*! Chinese privet - but none of them are wild lime/Zanthoxylum fagara.
I've thought about planting some to see how it'd do here. Do you have any, Nick? Is it thorny like Hercules club/Z. clava-herculis? My Hercules club only got one GST egg in its life, so I dug it up and got rid of it. Maybe they'd like wild lime better.
Sherry

Great pics, and love that butterfly!

I never see cats on wild lime here, not that I look all that much as none of said lime is growing in my yard. But when I do come across one I am looking for the little guys. Inspected a couple at a local bf garden yesterday and found no cats nor any evidence of them, bite marks, etc.

And the thorns on the wild lime are actually more like fish hooks! They hook your skin and hang on, very nasty!!

I have Wild Lime and the thorns are wicked. I have raised a ton of Giants on the Wild Lime. The Momma doesn't lay too many eggs s whenever I see one, I bring it in. I have about a half dozen now (cats) and several chrysalis, which are taking forever to eclose.

I have a tangerine tree but never see cats on it or my Rue.

Nick,
I have SO MANY Polydamas. They have literally eaten all the new growth off my established vine TWICE this year. DH estimated that I had at least 2 dozen flying around in the yard the other day. They are like little boys playing tag, they chase each other around and then scatter to regroup. They are also linda territoral. They will chase away other species over my Pentas and nectar flowers.

Hmmm....I don't think I'll try wild lime - I didn't like the thorns on the hercules club, so I'm sure I won't like them on the lime.
I've got rue, a few Ptelea trifoliatas, and a big orange tree - those will do.
Sherry

Same "problem" here as Mary, poor pipevine barely gets a couple of sprouts of green and they eat it down again. I'm going around town cutting vines to feed.

Nick maybe I can post a map to your vine outside for them?

to mboston: nice, I haven't had personal experience with wild lime, they always use my tangelo tree. Or just come from the woods. Nice insight on the polydamas. What county are you close to?

to Sherry: Yes, I would think the citrus is the best, maybe in zones 8 and south? Recently, I was at a nature preserve park locally, there was lime every where and I saw giants.

to fighting82: haha, wow. Send them my way!I wish pipevines were plants that were readily available at nurseries.

Nick, yes pipevine is not available in many places, nor do I see it growing many places (usually only where people have purposely planted butterfly hosts). Which makes it even more amazing how many polys we have.

I'm on Lakeland, Nick. My vine covers the depth of my yard and partially across the width of it. Its up in the Cassia tree, too and they have eaten it all. Just on the gate to my backyard, we counted over 2 dozen chrysalis that have opened. They are obvious cause there's no new growth there.

I am growing an Ichang lemon in hopes of attracting GSTs, but they readily use my Rue as well. The Ichang is hardy to 0 degrees and has made it thru 2 winters here so far. It is well protected by my hardy lantana 'Miss Huff', and will hopefully attract GSTs once it is larger. Made it to 3' tall this summer. I feed; it grows. I think a lot of people use Prickly Ash in the northern states.

Susan

The cats are very large and ready to pupate any day now.
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I hope I can find chrysali.

Woohoo! They look to be full size alright!
I brought in 9 tiny pipevine swallowtail hatchlings yesterday, and I'll probably bring in more - they're so much fun to raise!
I sure hope you find some chrysalides, too! I saw some newly emerged polys when I was visiting my daughter and we traveled to a native plant nursery in Sarasota - their colors had that newly-emerged-vividness!
Sherry

Well, I had another batch of Polydamas caterpillars, and I took in three, one died left with two. I am determined to take some high-res closeups of a freshly emerged Polydamas.
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Nick

Nice! I have two (or three) in pupa now, these 50-some degree nights are really slowing the process though.
Have bunches of teeny polys too, my pipevines cannot get a break!!
Good luck with yours and catching 'em in photos!

My poor vine is trying to recover but I am still having some ladies laying on it. I move all the babies to the only area that has much vine left on it. Hoping that we have warm enough weather for the next month so that when it does frost/freeze at least the main stems will have some protection. I am really concerned about next year. I am back to where I was the first couple of years I planted it - like 10 years ago! Am thinking about potting up some baby plants to keep sheltered for next spring.

Yesterday was a horrible day to eclose, it was very cold and rainy. This little one, sat and waited all day inside my butterfly bush for protection. Last night was going to drop to 45 degrees, so I brought him in to sleep. This morning, I managed to take a couple half-way decent photos!

with flash in my breakfast nook.
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direct sunlight
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I still have one more chrysalis to go.

Today as well as the rest of the week should be warmer.

Nick

Beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing your adventures with the Polys.