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misssherryg

Pipevine Swallowtail Eggs!

15 years ago

I've been going out to my garden in the middle of the day every day hoping to find a female out there laying eggs, with no luck. I've only gotten one small group of cats this year - about 15 or so - and it was getting pretty depressing. I've been taking care of my A. tomentosas, cutting them back, fertilizing them with chicken manure and liming them, and they've got a lot of nice new growth on them.

When I went out today, I saw the underside of a pipevine swallowtail, and I thought it looked like a female, but I've been disappointed before. But today the butterfly was mostly black with a black body and those big white spots on the forewings! She's not as pretty as a male, but she looked beautiful to me - I got her picture -

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I've found two small clusters of eggs so far, and by the way she's continuing to nectar furiously, I imagine she'll lay quite a few more clusters. Now I'm really glad I took care of the pipevines!

Sherry

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