BST's done really have a time table that they stick to, at least in my back yard. I had a bunch pupate 2 years ago (in June & July I believe) and none of them eclosed that year; they all overwintered! Last year I had quite a bit pupate and eclose within weeks. If you're going to be away, your best bet would be to either leave the chrysalid outside and somewhat protected from predators. If it does eclose, at least it will be on it's way and not confined. Or leave it with someone you trust. How are you raising your cats; in a cage or individual containers? Full plant or feeding them as they need? I have a butterfly cage on my deck. I put the potted plants inside and let the cats do their thing, eat, pupate & eclose. If I go away on vacation, I have someone to water the plants and release any possible eclosures...

I don't know what the problem could be. Giant swallowtails are one of the easiest caterpillars for me to raise. I rarely ever have a death at any stage, and I only lose cats when I get so overwhelmed with their numbers that I don't bring some in and they get eaten outside by predatory stink bugs or wasps. I've found nearly all my hatchlings on rue this year - they've ignored the wafer ash and only used my orange tree a few times, odd! - so there's nothing wrong with rue. It could be that something happens to the eggs during their trip from Florida to Pennsylvania that changes them, or maybe the environment you're raising them in isn't to their liking - are you raising them in a cool/air-conditioned house? They like the heat, they're thriving on my shaded but still hot front porch right now. Are you feeding them fresh food? No caterpillars, giant swallowtails included, like wilted/old food. It's odd that yours are going off their food plant - mine never do that, clinging to their host plants like glue. I think it's most likely that they're not getting the heat that they like. As I remember from years past, you raise your cats inside, and, even if you're now raising them outside, I keep reading and hearing about the cool, wet weather up north. Sherry

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

Sounds like this one didn't make it. Take heart...2 out of 3 isn't bad. Black coloration (Totally Black) is not good in any species where chrysalids are concerned. This usually indicates a fungus or bacteria is busy breaking down the now dead pupa. This is common and is natures way of insuring the strongest individuals survive.