Thanks for all the good suggestions! Actually, I have nearly all the things you mentioned (or native alternatives), and more. At one point, looking through the plant index in the Audubon Guide to Butterflies I counted 80 species of butterfly host plants that I have here on my 20 acres. I'm restoring natives back to old farmland, so most of those are species I intentionally planted. Plenty others have just volunteered. This is my first year of planting paw paw and I got Zebra swallowtail cats with the plants but haven't had any since they grew up. I have some amazing Banded Sphinx moth caterpillars on my Ludwigia octovalvis (primrose willow) right now. In addition to the cats on my previous post, I also have Little Sulfurs on my sensitive plant, Giant Leopard Moth cats on Coral Honeysuckle, and probably some eggs of newly arriving Monarchs, but I haven't found the Monarch eggs yet. This has been a great year. What do you have, and where are you? I am just starting to see some Variegated Fritillaries, but haven't found the cats yet, lately. Biophilia, Elberta, Alabama

bernergrrl, Sorry, I'm not sure my feeble brain completely understands your questions. I'll attempt them with some additional information, but if I miss what you want to know please LMK and I'll try again. While finding wild ovum is not impossible, it also is not a way to get livestock in any kind of numbers. And it is all about getting the numbers because the OW will be so labor intensive. Speyeria females seldom go to the trouble to lay the single laid eggs right on a plant, and often lay them up to a yard away on whatever is handy (including dirt). It's up to the 1st instar larva to find a plant the following season when they come out of aestivation. When some species get around to laying eggs, the plants have already died back to where even finding the plant remnants down in the wild grasses, etc is a chore. Finding wild 1st instar larva is just as hard if not harder because they go into hiding so soon after they hatch. If you mean catching a gravid female for eggs, set up a very small egg laying cage that you can "stimulate" laying in. That's another long to write technique for another day though. "In what kind of containers and how did you keep the eggs/hatchlings?" If you mean while out collecting, I carried several sizes of small plastic containers with attached snap lids I use to temporarily hold ovum or small livestock collected in. I modified them with windows in the lids covered with small pieces of plastic screen hot melted on so they had air circulation while stuffed in a pocket or butt pack and not over heat. Back at the vehicle they went in ice chests, and when home the livestock is transfered to 4" square clear hard plastic boxes that have a non air tight lid and placed on a square cut from paper towel that I can lightly spray to keep humidity right. If 1st instar they are not fed. If 3rd instar they can be fed and the clear box allows watching for them to start wandering, a sign they are ready to go into the wooden blocks. Whether its ovum or early instar larva you transfer to the wood blocks, you want absolutly nothing in there with them other than if you have to move a silk pad with the larva. Leaf or any other kind of material will just promote the faster growth of MMF. They are contently hiding just fine by just being in the block with the cotton ball "doors" closed. Sandy, Some would call it stricken, some obsessed and some certifiable. I even had some Polynesians call me hehena. LOL Me, I called it being a dedicated lepidopterist. Larry

Sorry you're not getting any gulf frits, Laura! That's too bad if the zebra range is shrinking, Mary. I got one visit years ago, haven't seen a single one since. If they're retreating, I'll probably never see one here again. I just released the gulf frit - she's a female. The sun came out, the temps went up to 90 degrees, and she was flying all around the cage wanting out, but now I'm hearing thunder out there. I sure hope she'll be alright! There is a pair of gulf frits that have been nectaring in my garden, a male and a female, but the female hasn't laid me any eggs, at least I haven't seen her do so. So I'm wondering if they haven't mated, maybe don't like each other, strange as that sounds? Maybe he'll like the female just released, and I'll get some eggs/cats! :) Sherry

You are probably right that the russelia might appreciate more sun than your coastal conditions provide. A shame; I love that they are always in bloom for me. I have a 14" Lochroma 'Royal Queen' planted for them to taste eventually, but the darned thing is growing at such a snail's pace I partnered a Callistemon rigidus with it. The winner of the most vigorous shrub award wins the garden spot. Hamelia--A nemesis plant. Whenever I go to look for it at the nursery, they aren't being offered. Then I plant something else in the spot, and there they are for sale again. They usually are available during the summer, when they would quickly become sun-crisps if I were to plant them then. Maybe a brief holdover period in a pot would allow for planting in cooler weather. I just have to remember to do that. So many plant options, too little garden space. :)