Monthly Archives: August 2023

Porterweed and maypop passionvine

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The blue porterweed and maypop passionvine are a must for the gulf fritillary butterflies. At least, in my garden they are favored by this beauty.

These two plants are growing in abundance in both my front and back butterfly garden, which sees a great deal of action from the gulf fritillary butterflies as soon as the 8 o’clock hour throughout the day until around 7 p.m.

This one photographed below laid eggs on the maypop passionvine and then visited the blue porterweed directly next to it to sip some nectar before the process began all over again.

A male emerged

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We have taken a break from raising monarch caterpillars for the last few months until my husband spotted a caterpillar crawling up our lanai screen looking for a place to make its chrysalis. I put the caterpillar in our butterfly house and it instantly found a branch to make its J and create its green chrysalis. Yesterday a beautiful male monarch successfully emerged and was released in our garden.

He chose a zinnia to rest on and then a red sage before taking a longer flight out of the garden.

This beauty marks No. 429 that we have raised and released.

The monarch butterfly’s scientific name is Danaus Plexippus, which means “sleepy transformation” in Greek. The male has two black spots in the center of its lower wings and are larger in size than the female. According to the National Wildlife Federation, the spots are scent glands, which help the males attract females.

Our second

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Each butterfly is so incredibly unique and beautiful in their own way.

As with every species, I am in awe of the coloring of the white peacock butterfly. The journey that began more than three years ago has been incredibly gratifying for the simple fact that we continue to invite more and more species into our garden.

Our second white peacock butterfly emerged this morning and was released early this afternoon. It was not eager to leave my hand, so I gently moved it to a zinnia flower where it remained for a little while longer before it flew to a red penta flower not too far away.

I am excited to share while I was working in the garden last night, I spotted a white peacock butterfly in the garden. It may have been the one I released earlier in the day. It would be wonderful if these beauties hung out and began their lifecycle in the garden. We have plenty of food for the caterpillars.

Another sulphur

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A walk through the garden revealed this beauty, the orange barred sulphur caterpillar. If you look closely you can see a smaller one, all yellow, right next to it.

Mallow-scrub hairstreak

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The incredibly adorable mallow-scrub hairstreak butterfly sitting on a homegrown zinnia flower. Their wingspan is incredibly small at 7/8 to 1 1/4 inches.

I love seeing these butterflies flutter, or should I say zoom, around the garden. Usually I see this butterfly on my scorpion tail sipping the nectar.