Thanks theparsley(7b Philly, yo) for suggestion, I have a few golden rods/asters. Will increase the qty and variety next year. Thanks!

Thanks for the swamp sunflower flower suggestion Iris Stoiser(SC, 7b) I have a pond so it will probably grow well there although it sounds like it needs plenty of room! I pinned it to Pinterest for reference for 2017 plans. I looked on Prairie Moon, it's host caterpillars of Silvery Checkerspot, Gorgone Checkerspot, Bordered Patch and Painted Lady butterflies. Nice!

Mine are doing fine with just getting some water now and then ( even with this unusual hot dry summer), so might get even bigger for you. If you remind me in Spring and give me an address I can try to send you some seedlings. Always happy to find a home for plants.

This NewScientist article says that according to recently analyzed date from butterfly counts in Britain Extreme weather is behind record lows in butterfly populations. This might be a factor in fluctuating butterfly numbers here as well.

Is that a Seaside Goldenrod, Parsley?

You tell me! It was by the seaside. And not labeled :-)

I'm lucky to be in South Florida. I have over 20 Giant Swallowtail and Zebra Longwing caterpillars, also Monarch caterpillars I leave outside because so many have OE, my bringing cats in doesn't seem to increase their odds. Saw a beautiful Monarch the last 2 days laying more eggs : )

Pics · More Info

Central FL.
Batch of ten Monarch beautiful chrysales soon showed serious OE.
No emergence; just as well, because adults would have been deformed.
My large population of Zebra LW fast became small after the
hurricane battered the vines.
I do not know how the population had continued large before that, because
most caterpillars, and half of chrysales, long have been dying of NVP.

https://phys.org/news/2017-02-monarch-butterfly-percent-mexico.html

Monarch butterfly numbers drop by 27 percent in Mexico

February 9, 2017 by Mark Stevenson

The number of monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped by 27 percent this year, reversing last year's recovery from historically low numbers, according to a study by government and independent experts released Thursday.

The experts say the decline could be due to late winter storms last year that blew down more than 100 acres (40 hectares) of forests where migrating monarch butterflies spend the winter in central Mexico.

Millions of monarchs make the 3,400-mile (5,500-kilometer) migration from the United States and Canada each year, and they cluster tightly in the pine and fir forests west of Mexico City. They are counted not by individuals, but by the area they cover.

"The reduction in the area of forest they occupied this year is most probably due to the high mortality caused by storms and cold weather last year," said Omar Vidal, the head of the Mexico office of the World Wildlife Fund. "It is a clear reminder for the three countries that they must step up actions to protect breeding, feeding and migratory habitat."

A possible reason to consider : weaker butterflies, incapable.
The thought arises from my microcosom in which
nearly all of the last few dozen new adult Monarchs released over many weeks
remained for 16 - 20 hours on the plants where I placed them,
before they went who-knows-where. Conditions warm, sunny.
The few that I did see flew in casual stints of several meters.
I have found no remains, as often I do in the cases of the extremely feeble.

I have no idea whether any of the egg-layers that show up briefly,
in times that have no connection to releases,
are ones that I released. Makes me think that I might look into tagging.

Today.

Gets naked fast :

Not many butterflies around yet, but I think this little guy is too cute not to share.

Cute! Plus that's certainly some good camouflage he's got going there. From a distance he'd be hard to spot.

Beautiful colors!

make a good 1,000 piece puzzle to put together.

If it wouldn't have moved, I would not have seen it. This was actually the first time I ever saw it here. Never thought of my red cedars as host plants ( they don't look tasty)

Saw a cabbage white today. Spring has sprung.

Saw my first pearl crescent this year. It was beautiful.Such a tiny little thing.

Yeah, I agree. Before, there's a group of butterflies and bees that would surround my garden with freshly bloomed flowers but now, not even one butterfly or bee that visited my garden. I also wonder why.

What zone are you in, Erlinda? I don't think there are many butterflies around up north yet.

The only plant blooming right now is butterfly weed. No activity yet. I haven't see any butterfly activity on Homestead Verbena. I saw a Carpenter Bee. Haha.

I have already seen more bumblebees this year than all of last I think. I also had a lot of cabbage whites earlier in the spring and a couple TST's and a couple other unidentified. Seems to be a bit of a bounce back season so far. Here in NJ I already have daisys, catmint, hardy geranium, roses, peonies, etc. blooming.

I also am seeing lots of bumblebees. Since I have heard the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee is the first one in the continental US to be on the endangered species list, I have been paying close attention. Have to admit I am really bad at keeping them apart though.

I'm very late on this post, but as of now, I've seen an increase in butterflies, especially the Zebra Longwing. I added another passion vine, that they seem to love. It's either a Maypop or a P. Incense, mostly dark purple, extremely beautiful. I have Gulfs on the other ones, and a few Julias. I have seen less Monarchs, but I've had to run to get Milkweeds, 4 times already. I have plenty of Sulphurs, and started getting the Oleander Moths on my Desert Roses.

Had nice thunderstorms last night, and I woke up to the first blooms of asclepias incarnata. I didn't notice any scent, but I'll wait til later to notice.

I have been seeing some smaller bees, I don't know which ones they are. I would have to try and take pictures of them, so I can look for them. There are some plants that they seem to love over others. I have a bush, that has very tiny flowers on it, they seem to love it. I will take a picture of it, and post it later. My Cleome, the only one that survived, it setting seeds. I was going to be done with this plant, but it gave me seeds. I guess I'll try planting them again. They are very beautiful, but mines got something on the leaves and pretty much died, except for one.

I have planted cleomes a number of times. They always set seeds but only come back in other locations throughout my yard and not in any large frequency. They are self seeding annuals if I remember correctly and come back year after year in places not far from me but not in my yard.

I loved them when I saw them, got seeds and tried planting them. When we transplanted them, they started to whiter and died. The one I left where we put the seeds got very big and beautiful. I posted in the forum, trying to find out what they had. Someone told me maybe too much water. We tried not watering as much, but they still died. I later read on the net, that they get diseases. I posted it on the one that I asked what was wrong with it. I've given up on trying to replant, now it's given me seeds. I might try just because I will have the seeds. I didn't see any cats on it, which that was the reason I got it. It's a host plant for 3 butterflies. I don't know how much longer it will live, I'm in zone 10b, Miami, FL. I planted my seeds a little late this year, most have come up, but too small to transplant. I have a butterfly garden, but it's spread thru out my yard, all along the edge of the fence, and underneath all the fruit trees, which I have a lot of. I'm always looking for something new to add.

Yay! Look who is finally back for the Summer! Missed these guys.

Is that a zebra swallowtail? You lucky dog!

Yes it is. I have three little paw paws that look pretty good. The fourth one got snapped off by a deer. But there would be enough for a few caterpillars. One can hope.

The activity lately has been sparse where I am. Swamp Milkweed is blooming, but has not attracted one butterfly. I'll be honest, the most butterflies I usually see are in June/July/ AUgust/ September. My one sweet joe pye is getting ready to bloom. I'm just perplexed with the ghost town.

I do have a lot of the smaller ones like buckeye, ladies, hairstreak and skipper. The bigger ones like the swallowtails, Monarch I just see one or two at a time so far. Today was the first for the zebra and the gulf fritillary. Hopefully they will pick up soon.

Wow! Very nice,hope they layed some eggs for you.

Thought I would share a picture of the last 5 black swallowtails that were released this morning. It was taken through a glass aquarium so you can see the reflection of the one on the bottom. There is one on the top left which is hard to see. The two on the top right are not reflections, they build a chrysalis on the same branch. There were eggs on our green fennel in zone 5 Brunswick, Ohio. This is the third year that we have found eggs on the fennel in the same flower bed in our yard. Sandy

Wow! I have no swallowtails at all this year, havent seen a Tiger, or a Black all season, i am quite worried about them.

I think they get a bad rap.....I can remember when I was little and we would go outside and you would see butterflies all over every day not just one a year! I will be 70 fyi.......times have changes. I try to do as much as possible since our first visit of the black swallowtail on fennel in 2015. They are just so easy to take care of!!!

Oh surprise ...... after a long bike ride today I checked all my plants around the yard and found 9 more black swallowtail eggs. How exciting......

Lucky! My cabin useally has caterpillars on the Poinson Hemlock, but none to be found, nor on the golden alexanders in the ditch, none to be seen, something has happened in my area, to the point of no butterflies, except Painted Ladies and Monarchs.

I have all kinds of butterfly-attracting flowers. I have all sorts of bees, very many, but few butterflies. I saw a brown /orange moth today on Brazilian Verbena. Nothing has fed on my flowering parsley and dill. What is going on?

Hey, Andrea. I hope you get to see more butterflies soon. I'm sure you know that to get more butterflies one needs larval plants as well as flowers or nectar plants.

About the only butterflies I'm seeing this year are the Pipevine swallowtails and that's because they're using the scores of little Aristolochia fimbriata plants I've planted throughout the garden. As they strip one I have to carry the caterpillars to another.

Nothing has touched the Passiflra caerulea that has fed many generations of Gulf fritillaries, nor have they used the several small native Texas passion vines which are usually eaten to the ground. I've seen only one Gulf frit and it did not lay eggs.

I haven't seen but maybe one or two skippers but no sulfurs although I have senna for them, no giant swallowtails, no buckeyes, and I have host plants for them; not even one little hairstreak has been seen, nor any cabbage whites. No Monarchs either. Nothing has used the fennel. There were a few Painted ladies this spring.

The only thing using the many nectar plants are bumblebees, a few honey bees and the Pipevine swallowtails. It seems very strange not to have butterflies everywhere, but according to these articles it's happening not only in the US, but in the UK as well.

Here, here and here are recent articles that discuss the dearth of butterflies.

Roselee, how did you get so many A fimbriatas? I have two, which are doing well in pots, but I haven't been able to get more from cuttings. You wait until they throw out seeds?

Lots of butterflies here in Florida, but I have heard of the dearth in other places.

Thanks Tom, I looked it up and I do have many larval plants. And thanks for the links, Roselee. From the middle one I think at least part of the problem here was a very warm February and then a deep freeze in March. Even hardy flowers (that had bloomed very early) turned to mush. Climate change.

Tom, I have been planting every seed I'd get for years and have finally gotten enough plants to support a pretty good population of caterpillars. They are mostly in large pots with other plants as a filler. Once a vine is stripped of leaves it grows back fast if the roots are mature. Now that it's hot their growth has slowed down so there won't be enough to support any more caterpillars until fall. But it's been nice to have butterfly activity in the garden even if it is just Pipevine swallowtails.

Andrea, a hard freeze after a very warm winter was the case here as well. Every thing was green, insects were active, I had a few butterflies and bees on winter honeysuckle flowers. Then we had two nights in a row of 15 degrees which is pretty low for us. That did a lot damage to the plants which were slow to recover and killed the early butterflies. And then we had a LOT of rain this spring which also lessens any overwintering butterflies chances of survival.

And then there's the ever increasing use of insecticides ...

Seen some activity pick up. Couple male tiger swallowtails and a fritillarie. I see skippers about.

GOOD NEWS! We had a female monarch visit our garden here in zone 5 Brunswick, Ohio and I was able to find six eggs she left us. Isn't that exciting? Now I just have to figure out what generations that mother would be in our area. Can anyone give me some insight?

Sandy

Tom, a Palamedes in my yard briefly today
prompts me to ask about sightings in your yard
during the year since you wrote above about Palamedes.

Yesterday another rarely in my yard : Sleepy Orange.
(Always many of the other two FL sulphurs.)

I see Palamedes all the time at the park where I ride my bike and walk. I also see many Zebra Swallowtails there. In my yard I see Palamedes once in a while. Maybe once a week now? On the other had I am seeing a lot of Spicebush and Pipevines, along with Tigers and Giants and others.

The Palamedes feed largely on Red Bay, I have a few of these trees, but there are many more in the park. They seem to like wet areas.

No monarchs this year.

Just Skippers, Gulf frits, and a mysterious yellow butterfly.

We have Passionfruit, Pigeon Peas, Cow Peas, Roses.

Flowers: Passionfruit, Zinnias, Roses.

Good season for skippers though.

Tons of those.

Ps: I saw Bird Poop Caterpillars on our citrus trees in spring.