Those Birdwing butterflies are awesome! A few years ago I watched this special about the insects of Papua New Guinea and of course, the host guy was in search of the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing (the biggest butterfly on Earth). In the meantime, there were plenty of other cool insects to look at, including other butterflies. And he made it clear that if they found one, he couldn't touch it or net it or anything due to it being highly endangered. Well, wouldn't you know they finally saw one flying around. I think it was the female (the bigger of the sexes). And the camera is following it and the host is talking about how endangered it is and how he can't touch it - and the thing goes and lands on his hat! And it stayed there for like a minute! The host guy was like a little kid in a candy store; he got so excited! It was really cool to watch and I totally understand the feeling! By the way, the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing feeds on a species of Pipevine (different genus than the ones I grow, though).
But speaking of my pipevines...I got egged again! Only this time it was a Polydamas. And it stuck to the Dutchman's Pipevine and left my native Wooly Pipevine alone, thankfully. Last year, I was not so lucky. I had just planted my two Wooly Pipevines and they ate them to nothing; I can't believe they came back. Host plants learn to be resilient! Now, let me show you some pictures to explain how I can tell which butterfly I've got. On the left is the reddish-orange eggs of the Pipevine ST which I collected a few weeks ago. On the right are the more yellow-golden eggs of the Polydamas ST. That's how you can tell the difference!
I only found eight eggs which is weird because Polydamas will normally carpet-bomb your plant. Unlike a lot of butterflies, they seem to have no sense of egg to plant ratio. They just keep laying eggs until they run out of room (or eggs). Maybe I got an old one that was running low? Anyway, I brought them inside because I haven't raised Polydamas in a while. We don't even have them at the museum yet which is weird. But I'll check tomorrow while I'm there.
And speaking of eggs...my Corky-stem Passion Vine has a bit of new growth on it! So naturally, this happened.
And if you look, you can see two small caterpillars. The yellow eggs indicate a Zebra Longwing did the laying. The one caterpillar is orange and on the left side of the top leaf and the other is below him on the other leaf and is smaller and darker (he's younger, too).
Now, if you'll allow me to rant for a second - I'm friends with a bunch of Florida environmental groups on Facebook. One of them posted a link to a blog the other day that was about passion vines and sacrificing them for the sake of butterflies. So far, so good. But then it perpetuated this myth I've heard (and read) before about how Zebra Longwings prefer to lay eggs on Passion Vine planted in shade while Gulf Frits prefer those in full sun. Which is bunk! Zebra Longwings prefer native passion vines like P. lutea or my P. suberosa in the above picture. In fact, that P. suberosa is planted right on the edge of my driveway in blazing full sun! It's not a placement thing; it's a species thing. The Zebra Longwings have never laid eggs on my P. "Lavender Lady" although they will eat it if I'm hand-raising them. Not to mention the P. incarnata at the museum gets laid on by both species and it's in mostly sun. So I left my opinion in the comments and she basically said that was her experience. I looked again at the blog and I thought, "No wonder! You planted the P. suberosa in the shade and your P. "Lady Margaret" in the sun!" Duh! By the way, Gulf Frits will lay on any Passiflora; I don't think they care one way or the other. Oh, and then I noticed the blog (and the Facebook group) were run by the head of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program who I used to volunteer for until I got sick. And I just thought a scientist of that level shouldn't be perpetuating myths and should have more actual field experience before speaking on these things (or at least admit you're a newbie). She did link to the MOSI butterfly blog so that was a good thing, I guess.
I guess the moral of my story is that books are great resources and so is the internet, but trust your own observations as well. In fact, trust them more. I know the topic of "micro-climates" is big when discussing where to place plants and I think the same argument could be used for rearing butterflies. Your yard is a micro-climate of the larger climate around you. And what's true for your state or region may not be true in your yard. My Butterflies of Florida book claims the Palamedes ST is the most encountered Swallowtail in Florida. And when I read that, I was like, "Where in Florida do you live? The swamp?" Because that's where I see them - in the preserves where their host plants Red Bay and Swamp Bay grow. I've also read that Tiger Swallowtails south of Ocala (because they know where the city is, of course) will only use Sweetbay Magnolia as a host plant. But somehow that didn't keep one from laying eggs on my Black Cherry! (Granted, those eggs never hatched so I don't know if I could have raised them on it.) I'm just saying, you know what's true in your neck of the woods and while you should keep an open mind, make sure it's a skeptical mind. Science only advances when we ask questions.
Whew! Rant over; I feel better. Here's a Zebra Longwing I saw yesterday.
And here's a Gulf Frit from today. I've got a lot of these flying around.
And one of my ever-faithful Duskywings.
FYI, I saw a Barred Yellow the other day when I was leaving but didn't have my camera. Those things never want to stop, anyway. It is kind of weird that I hadn't seen one yet this year; they're really common in my yard and this was pretty late to see the first one. I used to think they were Dainty Sulphurs but I got schooled by the butterfliesandmoths.org site. My Orange-Barred Sulphur did finally make his chrysalis - I keep forgetting how much larger they are than the Cloudless Sulphurs! My Spicebush cats are doing okay. They seem to be growing rather slow but I think some of them are hiding and I didn't feel like unfurling a bunch of leaves so the bigger ones may just be in their homes. The Pipevine cats are continuing to do well. I'm keeping them at least another week. I know I told my boss at MOSI I would probably give her some because I won't have enough food but I'm hanging on to them as long as I can! I'm still worried for when I'll have to switch them from Wooly Pipevine to Trilobed Pipevine. More pictures tomorrow after I volunteer at the museum, where I will try once again not to pass out in front of the guests. I'm going to go calm down now by petting my caterpillars. It always makes me feel better (not sure how they feel about it although the stinkhorns will let me know).
