Beautiful Giant Swallowtail. Did you raise it on an orange tree? I really would like to raise that specie of butterfly.

Here is a link that might be useful: my blog

Mostly on Meyer lemon, also some wild lime and hercules' club. They are beautiful! Your secret garden pics are beautiful!

BFGardenGirl (Elizabeth),

I went to your blog and read your entries. It's exciting to see what you're doing with butterflies. I wish I had had the same opportunities when I was your age. I think it's wonderful how your parents support you.

I also read your article about the Blue Morpho. I have Blue Morphos (pinned) that were given to me in Guyana, South America when I went there to do a literacy workshop for teachers. These Morphos were found already dead. Sometimes just parts of several butterflies are put together to make a specimen. I treasure my Morphos, and I also feel like you do, that butterflies should not be caught in the wild and sold as mounted specimens.

I encourage you to follow your dreams.

Butterflymomok - Sandy

Well I learned something new today Elizabeth! I learned about lady bugs! I had no idea what they looked like before their final stage, and I was wondering what those bugs were!

You and I have the same last name! I wonder if we are related because I do have family in Florida!

Beautiful pics fighting8r!! I am glad you posted the pic of a male, so i could see one. I have had two gsts eclose thus far and both were females, one eclosed today but still has wings hanging and I cannot see the black side to check if male or female yet. I purchased a meyer lemon tree last week and from what I have seen, this seems to be a gst favorite!! They were eating navel and satsuma leaves before i got the lemon tree, but they have really grown fast since eating these lemon leaves, and seem to favor them over the navel and satsuma quite a bit. thanks for the pics!!

well i was able to get some pics of my latest butterfly that eclosed this afternoon, and not sure if male or female, lol. Looks like there is a small, barely visible black mark in the third yellow spot on each wing, but not nearly as big and definite as female in your pic, or the two females that recently eclosed from my group, but the third yellow mark on each wing is not solid like the markings are on the male in your pic, and the yellow "stripes" on back look wide like the male in your pic, so I am not sure what I have here, lol. What do you think?

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Hmm... My guess is that is a female. I've noticed that the spot on the 3rd yellow mark can really vary, but also notice that the main part of the yellow band seems to be VERY wide and solid in the males. In my (limited) experience anyway!

I had three more gsts eclose since this one, and they are all definitely females, and I was able to get a good look at this one side by side with one of the females, and the band on this one is wider than the other females, and this he/she is a quite a bit smaller than the female he/she was sitting side by side with. So idk, I was wondering this though, if you have a male and female eclose around same time in same reptarium, will they mate? even if eggs are from same mother? just curious, thanks!

I've never tried, but one thing I've noticed is that once they are ready to fly they are only focused on getting OUT and being FREE. And they are pretty anxious about being enclosed. I doubt they would mate on their own in a small enclosure, but that is only my opinion.
When they eclose in my pool screen area, mostly they never even bother to nectar, just stay up by the top and keep looking for escape, until I can shoo them out. (Although some of the sulphurs have seemed pretty comfortable with hanging out and nectaring until I release them.)

I see you have not gotten much response on your other posts lately, which is I am sure due to this being a naturally slow time on this forum. So wish I could help but many times all you can do is the best you can do and hope things work out!

Thanks for the info Fighting8r. I have noticed the same about the gsts being focused on "getting out" and nothing else, lol, I have yet to see one nectar on the lantana that I put in the reptarium when I have to keep them in a while depending on when they eclose, I don't think I have had to keep one over 24 hrs yet though, or not much longer than that anyway. You are so right about this forum slowing down, lol, this is my first "season" raising caterpillars, and I think those last cats I found were late babies, so to speak, I haven't seen anymore eggs since I found those cats. I wonder do the females that are released late still lay eggs even at this time of year? Hopefuly if they do, they won't lay them in my yard, hehe, I am hoping that I will be done when these last two cats I have pupate. Hopefully they will do so before I leave for Miami, in less than two weeks, or I will have to find a "sitter" for them. Sadly, I did lose two last instar cats this weekend, still clueless as to what happened to them, one of them was about 6 wks old, but he appeared to be perfectly healthy, I was shocked when I saw something was wrong because he was doing so well. Totally unexpected! And the other one that died, had already purged and began process of preparing to pupate, he either fell out of his sling or did not make a sling, and flipped upside down, eventually he got detached from the silk pad anchoring his lower body, he laid on his side and moved around for a while, and he was still in j looking form, and had even shrunk so that his body looked really segmented, if that makes sense, but he never pupated, I guess sometimes, nature steps in and takes its course, no matter what you do, who knows.

Fighting8r, I noticed something else since my male GST (only male out of about idk, 20 that have eclosed) eclosed last night, and this time, I am pretty sure I finally have a boy, lol. The red markings on the outer wings, are curved downward on each end on all of the female butterflies that i have right now, but on the new one, the boy, the red markings are shaped more like a horizontal rectangle, like the markings on the male in your pics, the edges don't curve downward. I wonder if this is a consistent male characteristic?? I also noticed that my boy has smaller blue markings on his back wings than my females do, but he is smaller than most of the females so that may be why.

I live in Miami and I have tons of Giant Swallowtails in my yard, I attract them on my wild lime tree but it's so hard to get pictures of them! Your pictures are awesome!
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Giant Swallowtail
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Giant Swallowtail
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Giant Swallowtail
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On my Wild Lime
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Monarch
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Skipper
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Sulpher
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Zebra
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I've added this because no one believes there are hummingbirds in the middle of Miami, Here he is!! :~)
Blessings to all! Jan

NICE pics! I have never seen hummingbirds in S Florida, ever. (When I was little they were kinda like unicorns, you'd see pics but never a real one!) Living in Gainesville and Tallahassee for awhile, saw some up there, but never here, or in Davie where I grew up.
Anyway, thanks for sharing, really good shots!
kelly

Kelly,
Thanks so much I am sooooooooo Proud of my hummingbirds, From November till March they are around. I enjoy them immensely! I got started in my butterfly garden by receiving one milkweed plant from a cousin, didn't even put it in the ground, can in the house and set it outside by my front door next morning when I walked out and saw a Monarch on it it hooked me, now my entire yard is a butterfly sanctuary!

Funny-summer 2008 my son went to a nature camp at a local place with a butterfly aviary, learned about the cycle. We came home with "one little milkweed" plant, now have tons of MW, and any other host that we can grow!

BTW Jan - what kind of camera made those??

Thats just how it began for me, One Milkweed plant and now i have people walk by my house and stop and stare!!
My camera is Cannon G-9
I also have a Cannon D-30 But the G-9 takes almost as nice pictures
I love it!!