A new butterfly

Posted on August 16, 2022 by SweetButterfly Bliss

A new visitor has made its way to our butterfly garden, a white peacock butterfly. The wingspan is 2 to 2 3/4 inches.

The life cycle ranges anywhere from six to 20 days.

This butterfly’s host plant is water hyssop and frogfruit. The eggs can take up to 14 days to hatch and are a pale yellow in color.

This beauty enjoys basking in the sun with its wings wide open, which is exactly what this one was doing on a variety of plants in the garden.

This butterfly gets its name from the large “eye spots” on the wings that resemble peacock feathers.

Once it was soaking up the sun it was not bothered by me inching a little closer to capture its beauty. I sure hope it becomes a regular.

Successful August

Posted on August 15, 2022 by SweetButterfly Bliss

Another three monarch butterflies hatched in our butterfly house today bringing our grand total to 185 successful caterpillars to butterflies. We have released 18 monarch butterflies so far this month.

The last monarch released was a male, due to the two black dots on the lower wing.

The spots are scent glands, which help the males attract the female butterflies.

At the tip of the abdomen are short hair pencils on the male monarch butterfly, which helps in spreading pheromones during courtship through the wing glands. When the female lays its eggs they have already been fertilized with sperm, which have been stored in her body.

The orange beauty

Posted on August 13, 2022 by SweetButterfly Bliss

The gulf fritillary, the orange beauty, has been one of abundance lately. It was seen visiting both the red penta and dune sunflower.

The Gulf Fritillary, argaulis vanilae, can be found in all 67 counties of Florida. The females tend to be larger than males. The female coloring is darker orange with more extensive markings, while the male is lighter orange with less prominent markings.

The gulf fritillary’s life span is anywhere from 14 to 27 days.

zinnia

Posted on August 13, 2022 by SweetButterfly Bliss

The zinnia is an annual that creates a great burst of color to the garden. This one is considered the single-flowered zinnia, as it has a single row of petals and a beautiful center, which I have read produces great nectar for butterflies. These flowers are happiest when they have full sun, and do best in well draining soil.

Although these plants are great to grow from seeds, we purchased some starters from the master gardeners at the latest native plant sale. It was a great surprise to see a what color the flower had bloomed and is standing tall in the garden.