Ken...just a bit of info from a butterfly fan. As you say, most flowers may be visited by butterflies, but some contain much more nectar and are like loaded buffet tables to them. Some hybrid flowers have very little nectar and are of little use to butterflies and are seldom visited. I see lots of butterflies visiting my zinnias, butterfly bush, and various species of milkweed. Many other flowers are in the area and few butterflies stop by them. When I survey for butterflies in our county parks I repeatedly find butterflies concentrated in areas with high quality nectar plants. You're right, planting certain plants doesn't guarantee butterflies will come, but it ups your chances tremendously. Other plants/trees are planted to provide food (leaves) for baby butterflies (caterpillars). These may or may not be plants that the adults use for nectar sources. If you plant these hoping to attract butterflies, you should be glad to see chewed up leaves and not use pesticides or you will kill the baby butterflies (caterpillars). Most species of caterpillars can only feed on one or a few closely related species of plants. Plant these "host plants" and there is a good chance the adults will find them and lay eggs there, and you may see the young and adults later in the season....or see birds, spiders, etc. snacking on the critters you tried to lure into the garden :) If you don't have the exact food the young need, you will only see adults that happen to make their way into the area for nectar. More adults show up if you have host plants sending out their scents to the prospective parents looking for egg laying spots. Denninmi, I haven't seen a zebra swallowtail in Michigan either...or anywhere else. Friends of mine have seen a few in Michigan....usually in low areas near rivers where paw paws are growing. Someday, I'm hoping one will fly by as I kayak through their river bottom.

Literally 99.999% of my rearing since the mid 60's was done from either wild collected livestock, from wild collected gravid females or from hand pairings of adults in the lab. Finding wild ovum and larvae can not only be very productive, it is also huge fun and can be quite thrilling when you find what you are looking for. Pupae, while possible with some species, are quite hard to find in the wild with most species. They usually are colored to blend in with what they are attached to, are camouflaged to look like something else, are wrapped in plant material or buried in leaf litter, soil or under rocks. You will have far more success going for ovum and larvae. Luckily, some species are so easy to find a blind man could find them. They have very conspicuous eggs and/or larva that sharply contrasts the color of their preferred larval food plant, and those that remain gregarious in the early instars can be easily seen for a very long ways away. While livestock may be where you find them, knowing a lot about the environmental requirements and habits of the species you are after greatly increases your odds of finding their livestock. Their temperature, humidity and elevation requirements, and of course within the range the species is known to fly in. You have to be looking at the right time of the season (or times for multiple brooded species), in the right habitat that has the preferred larval food plants and nectar sources for the particular species, and know the flight habits of that species within that habitat. IOW, it doesn't do much good to look for a desert species in a riparian habitat, or an arctic/alpine species on a high grass prairie for example, or any species on a mountain side covered in food plant without some idea of the species flight habits. With enough experience observing each species and their habits, learning from both your successes and your failures, eventually you can arrive at a likely looking spot and almost walk right to the plants that will have eggs or larva on them. As for your example, Everes comyntas, they are typical of many of the Lycaenidae with small, stocky larva that are usually the same color as the stems, leaves or blooms of their larval food plant, look very similar to the plant part, often hide very well deep in the plant or even off from it when not feeding which makes them quite easy to miss, and they also use plants that commonly grow in large stands of endless plant. Generally, the most productive way to obtain Lycaenidae livestock is to get fresh gravid females and setup a micro habitat designed to get eggs from them. That cage too requires species specific requirements, but they are easy to simulate. Many here have great fun on the hunt for livestock in thier own home gardens. But it is even more fun, satisfying and can be more productive to hunt in the wilds, especially if made into a family outing/picnic. L.

Thank You all for looking. As alameda says, it does grow in the wild, but I had to buy mine. Yes, Rita, it has a fragrance, pleasant to me. Jean, it is totally different and a much smaller tree than the giant snowballs...and I intend to prune it rather than allow it to be much larger. And, believe it or not, I actually do sit in that chair just about every time I work in the garden. Many times, it is just for breaks, but I love to sit and watch the butterflies and enjoy whatever is blooming. Once everything kind of gets situated in the garden, (everything is weeded, mulched, fertilized, sprayed, planted, etc...) I even sit under the big tree and read my Kindle or look at one of the rose books or a garden magazine and DH often brings me coffee or tea when I'm working, and I will take a break and sit in that chair. I work in the garden, sometimes for long days, but I never want to forget to take a little time to enjoy where I've been working. kay

According to the folks on the GW Butterfly Forum P. incarnata is a favorite host plant for Gulf fritillaries. Many of them bring the caterpillars inside and raise them on it. The FAQ Page on the butterfly forum lists host plants of many butterflies. This is their list for Gulf frits along with a warning of what is not good for them: "Most red-flowered and a few blue flowered passifloras will not support the butterflies that use these vines in the United States. Many red-flowered tropical passionvines are on the market. Please do not use them - they are similar enough to our own passionvines that our female butterflies will lay eggs on them, but the caterpillars will soon die. Gulf Fritillary - Passionvine family, passifloraceae 1. Passiflora incarnata - maypop 2. Passiflora suberosa - corky stemmed passionvine 3. Passiflora lutea - yellow passionflower 4. Passiflora alto - 'Amethyst'/'Lavender Lady'/'Star of Mikan' 5. Passiflora caerulea - blue passionflower/'Waterloo Blue' 6. Passiflora incarnata x cinnicata - incense passionflower 7. Passiflora vitifolia x caerulea - passionflower 'Lady Margaret' 8. Passiflora biflora - twin flower passionflower" ~ ~ ~ I don't see P. foetida on the list unless it is under another name. In my yard they used it as readily as they did P. caerulea (blue crown).