I watch them but know almost nothing about them. Well, I have tiger swallow tails which have fun caterpillars that like Umbelliferae such as parsely, dill, and fennel. I let them eat whatever they want as long as I have some parsley for my own use. I have a black and white one with little dots of red and blue but though I have looked it up, the name hasn’t stuck. I like watching the hummingbird moths that I see on my tall phlox every August. I drown tomato hornworms in soapy water and squish cabbage caterpillars on my broccoli. I enjoy the varied moths and butterflies we see and like the food that the flowers provide. For many I am happy to tolerate their munching of foliage if they don’t destroy the plants.

You realize that by drowning the tomato hornworms you are drowning the hummingbird moth you enjoy watching, right?

Deannatoby, the only “real time” map I know of is the one for Monarchs. There are websites that show sightings of other ones, but not by day. At least as far as I know. I haven’t seen a Gulf Fritillary yet this year, so I was trying to find out where they are. I do make notes for myself each year as to when I saw the first Monarch eggs and stuff like that.

Many of us who grow tomatoes also enjoy watching hawk/hummingbird/sphinx moths. I stumbled across a way of having one's cake and eating it too by growing ornamental nightshades and other species that contain the unpalatable toxins hornworms crave. They kick off the growing season munching on native evergreen holly (I. vomitoria), move on to Virginia creeper, then to native datura and finally to exotic datura. These other nightshades are apparently more potent because hornworms ignore tomato leaves when datura is available. Disclaimer: Since I garden at the opposite end of the climate spectrum from New England, I would never claim you'd have similar results, nor am I familiar with ornamentals that grow in NE.

Thanks, Irving. Good to know some of their alternative food sources.

I have quantities of Virginia creeper and weedy nightshades, so it would appear that they have plenty available to eat. I’m actually not concerned since at least some of them are finding enough to eat without needing the tomatoes since we see a number every year. I live on an old farm, and have plenty of land that isn’t managed.

A search for butterfly+species+flight+times yields several detailed flight charts for the U.K. and Armenia (!). Digging further, I did find a link to a chart on the Massachusetts Butterfly Club webpage

http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabambc/club-publications.asp#checklist

(scroll down to the yellow guide; the flight times chart can be ordered for $1.50 and there is a sample page for free)

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"...when certain species might make their way up to New England". Monarchs of course migrate and make there way there periodically, but most other New England butterflies are simply native to the region. Certain species have infrequent population explosions and spread out from the center of these events, but the year is hard to predict.

Thanks, Logician. Great information! I need to learn more about the timing of the life cycle in my area, then. The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens has a new butterfly exhibit this year titled "The Botany of Butterflies" which emphasizes our native species. I'm going to be sure I visit.

Thanks to you all for your help! I've seen a yellow something-or-other flying around lately. I always assume every yellow butterfly is a swallowtail, but I need to beef up my ID skills!

Deanna, the only other predominantly yellow butterfly I see here is a yellow cabbage moth/sulphur which is much smaller and only a little bit of black.

Thanks, Logician, for that resource.

I was inspired to go looking for other resources specific to New England:

http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/new_england_butterflies

https://www.massaudubon.org/learn/nature-wildlife/insects-arachnids/butterflies/find-a-butterfly This one is specific to MA and involves data collected a while ago, but they do some comparison to current day. It does give flight times for MA so that would need adjusting a bit later for you I imagine.

Neither of these is comprehensive, but might help.

I also found a VERY local resource, the U of Maine extension publication on butterflies in Maine, bulletin #7151. Well! That's a help! Here's the pdf version and here's the web version.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtails overwinter as a chrysalis, which explains why they show up here so early. I'm already learning--yea! That means the swallowtails beat most of the tourists to our shores.