A monarch caterpillar molting its old skin on a milkweed stem. This happens, so it can enter into the next instar. This process occurs four times before reaching its desired length of 2″.
A new look
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Monthly Archives: November 2022
A new addition
This past weekend I attended an awesome plant sale at the Edison and Ford Winer Estates that had everything you could think of, including an abundance of butterfly plants.
I love when you buy a plant and take home a bonus caterpillar. Well that is exactly what happened this weekend. The caterpillar is now a guest in our butterfly house.
Meet our new addition, the white peacock butterfly caterpillar. I bought its host plant, frogfruit for a great price.
It is a low growing groundcover and has white and purple flowers. I have a feeling it is going to quickly take over and fill in the space of the garden, with the hope it will attract many white peacock butterflies.
Once the caterpillar is mature it will have small white spots, I have read. It will be fun to watch it grow and create its chrysalis.
The highlight again
Last time we visited The Butterfly Estates, a 3,600 square foot glass conservatory in Downtown Fort Myers, the malachite butterfly left us in awe. Yesterday when my daughter and I visited, this beauty tugged at our heart strings again. I was taking a photograph of a malachite butterfly when my daughter began saying “look mom.” A malachite butterfly landed on her hand. The pure joy that spread across her face was priceless.
I know I have said this before, but there is something truly special about this lighter than a feather insect resting on your hand. They were resting everywhere yesterday at the conservatory, making it quite easy to capture their beauty with my camera.
It’s the dark brown and green splashes of color that truly make this a stunning butterfly and their wingspan that can range from 7.1 to 8.4 cm.
As I wrote before, the Malachite, Siproea stelenes, is named after the semi-precious green gemstone.
Graceful
The graceful giant swallowtail. Yesterday, The Butterfly Estates, a 3,600 square foot glass butterfly conservatory in Downtown Fort Myers, had so many flying around. This sanctuary has become a favorite place for my daughter and I.
The giant swallowtail has been a frequent visitor of our garden, leaving behind eggs during her visits. Unfortunately since Hurricane Ian hit our area at the end of September, I have not seen their return yet.
Its wingspan leaves me in awe, as it is more than four and half inches, sometimes up to seven.
The atala
The atala butterfly can be found naturally in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties in Florida. There are groups in Lee County, Southwest Florida, that are putting their best foot forward in reviving this species in our area. One of those groups, The Florida Native Butterfly Society. They are raising them from caterpillar and releasing them around their Downtown Fort Myers property.
The atala’s host plant is the coontie.
I was excited to spot this one outside the Butterfly Estates sipping on some nectar.
