Pretty! and look how he blends in with his surroundings.

Sherry, Is raising the Spicebush Swallowtail basically the same as raising say, the Red Admirals? I know that you had told me that the false nettle should be kept in containers or otherwise kept in water, as the leaves wilt quickly. So far I've only raised Monarchs, Black Swallowtails, Giant Swallowtails, a few American Ladies, and a Wild Indigo Duskywing (it basically raised itself...I discovered it after I brought a potted B. australis in on our back porch and saw that it had been on it awhile eating the leaves). I wish I knew which species are somewhat on the difficult side to raise so I could be prepared how to raise them. For instance, I know that you had said American Ladies are that way (I think you had said that anyway) and so instead of just bringing some leaves in off of the plants, I sat some potted Pearly Everlasting out by the pussytoes that the AL's where on. They crawled onto the potted plants and I brought them in on our back porch and raised them. Although I would love to raise every cat and egg I see outside, I don't see how that's possible. I had a difficult enough time a couple years ago raising over 500 Monarchs. I've planted lots of kinds of host plants to get probably at least two dozen species of butterflies. If I gets lots of each kind, I think I'd just have to begin dabbling in each one instead of going gung ho on the Monarchs. If I'd attempt to rescue every cat and egg out there, not only would time be an issue, but I'd imagine that I'd have to have tons of potted plants to sit in a protected area, which I just can't do. You'd almost need a whole greenhouse just for that. You don't raise every single cat you find outside, do you? I'd like to protect them all, but I just don't see how I can. What I want to understand is what makes raising American Ladies more difficult than raising Monarchs or Black Swallowtails. Is it because cats that are in nests aren't as adaptable to a new location, i.e. being moved from their nest to a potted plant? Or did you mean that the plants that they're on (mine were on pussytoes at the time) aren't easy to keep from wilting? I just wondering if the AL's are better off left outside on the plants? Perhaps a person could build a screened container that's open at one end and turn it upside down in a particular area of the bed of pussytoes and put the cats in that area. Then when they've pretty much ravished that area, the container could be moved to another part of the bed. Hopefully all of those cats will have gotten their fill of the plants and be ready to pupate by that time. In the meantime, I'm sure the plants in the other part of the bed acquired eggs/cats. I always worry about having enough food for the cats here, no matter what kind of cat it is. I bought a few Lindera benzoin in 2007 online. They were only half a foot or so tall back then, but now they're 3-4 feet tall. I keep looking forward to someday finding cats on them. I think SBST are just the cutest cats with those eyespots! Being that you've raised pretty many kinds of butterflies, are there are that you find especially difficult to raise for one reason or another? Cathy

Thanks, everyone. The pics of the spicebush swallowtail butterfly, on a piece of kyanite, were taken at my current residence and personal gardens. In the pic below you can get a little better view of the property, which is about five to eight hundred yards from the San Jacinto River, it is heavily wooded, mostly thick but some open area with Turk's Cap Hibiscus and palmettos among other various trees. The adjacent property has a small winding field with lots of Monarda. There is also some False-Aloe, Manfreda, growing along the abandoned road that I hope to develop an educational wildlife trail along. One of the times I was down there scouting out the area, up on bluff overlooking the river, there was an area with lots of Passiflora incarnata growing and swarms of pipevine swallowtails fluttering around. I was trying to get a positive ID on an Aristolochia, but no such luck. However, I had a pretty strong feeling that there was some in the area. Can you all see the video with the Louisiana Milk Snake, Lampropeltis triangulum amaura ? It has a cool bird calling in the background. Can anyone identify the bird? Here is a link that might be useful: Milksnake Video

I'll add a story from yesterday's volunteer naturalist training that I am doing at the local nature center. Our teacher/leader "D" took us out on one of the trails and we caught sight of a butterfly caught in a spider web. So D released it from the web and brought it back for us to examine. She asked us if we could ID it. She turned it over noting the white spots in the cells on the ventral forewing and told us it was a female Black Swallowtail. I chimed in and said as gently as possible, "I think it's a Spicebush Swallowtail male." I showed her and the group the aqua coloring and the spots on the wing margin that were also aqua colored. I explained that the females have blue coloring with the wing margin spots colored blue. D and I are doing a Skipper workshop together on Saturdays in preparation for our next NABA BF count on the 30th, and are good friends. She turned to me and said, "It's a good thing I'm not teaching a Swallowtail workshop!" BTW, she's good at IDing the skippers! Also, I found Spicebush caterpillars and showed the group, and Pipevine caterpillars. When D was doing closure, she asked for the favorite thing from the hike, the two guys both thought seeing the caterpillars was best! Think I'll enjoy my new "job". I just have to learn to ID scat, smells, leaves, plants, animal tracks, critters in pond scum, etc. D has me down on the mat for the count when it comes to those things. But then she's the paid trained naturalist. Sandy