I love, love, love my nightly stroll through the garden. One, because the scorching, awful heat isn’t as bad around the 7’oclock hour, and two, I love spotting the acticity taking place in the garden.
With the almost daily rain, everything is lush and growing really well. I have finally decided to tackle my back butterfly garden again, which is where I found the treasures today. I have my husband on board to help build some trellises for both the Dutchman pipe and the maypop passionvine. My garden will look amazing when those projects become complete.
My Dutchman pipe is crawling with polydamas caterpillars once again on all three plants. How many can you could? I see six all sharing the same part of the vine.
A polydamas swallowtail butterfly found refuge in the garden this morning. I found it on the ground, battered wings expanded, so I let it crawl on my finger and brought it to a nectar plant, the red penta. As soon as it crawled on my finger its proboscis was extended waiting to get to that sweet goodness. Before all of its feet were on the penta it was already sipping away with its wings flapping extremely fast.
This morning we had three very eager polydamas swallowtail butterflies emerge in our butterfly house. They were not interested in any photographs, but boy were they beautiful.
There will soon be many more polydamas swallowtails in the garden, as more caterpillars are growing and getting closer to their ideal length. These caterpillars are chomping away on the Aristolochia trilobata in the front garden. The first time I have had caterpillars on this plant since I planted it more than two years ago. The Dutchman’s pipe in the back garden is constantly crawling with polydamas caterpillars.
The swallowtail butterflies are absolutely stunning. It’s always fascinating for me to see the transformation from a caterpillar to a chrysalis to a butterfly.
The polydamas swallowtail caterpillars are viscous eaters who take a long time to reach their desired size. I always know when I have caterpillars chowing down on the Dutchman pipe because more than half of the leaves fall to the ground as they find the perfect spot to eat.
This morning the first of more than 20 emerged in our butterfly house. This beauty stuck with me for a while before it crawled on the porterweed to hang out a little longer.
This marks 26 that we have successfully raised and released.
The polydamas, also known as the gold rim swallowtail, tailless swallowtail and scientific name Battus polydamas lucayus, lays its eggs on the Dutchman pipe. This is the only swallowtail that lacks the tails at the base of the secondary wings, according to the University of Florida.
This species can be found throughout peninsular Florida, as well as in the Florida Keys. There are some that wander as far north as Missouri and Kentucky.
For more information, check out the link below, which includes quite a few photographs.
The polydamas, also known as the gold rim swallowtail, tailless swallowtail and scientific name Battus polydamas lucayus, lays its eggs on the Dutchman pipe. This is the only swallowtail that lacks the tails at the base of the secondary wings, according to the University of Florida.
This species can be found throughout peninsular Florida, as well as in the Florida Keys. There are some that wander as far north as Missouri and Kentucky.
The polydamas lays yellow to orange eggs in clusters of 10 to 14, which can typically be spotted on newly developed stems, or growing tips, of the Dutchman pipe.
The butterfly tends to lay its eggs on the Dutchman pipe that are in sunny areas, although the caterpillars have a higher survival rate in the shade. The eggs can be yellow to orange in color and 1 mm in diameter. As they mature the eggs will turn a greenish color as the larvae develop.
The polydamas swallowtail caterpillars feed in groups when they are small, devouring the youngest leaves, as well as flowers before moving onto the older portions of the Dutchman pipe.
The caterpillar will go through four instars, 19 to 24 days, before it’s ready to form its chrysalis. The colors of the caterpillars are a bit different during the first instar, with tan and small tubercles. Once the caterpillar molts into the second instar, they become dark brown with larger tubercles.
There are quite a few polydamas caterpillars of every instar in the garden, with a few of the larger ones brought into the butterfly house.
I spotted at least a dozen of the polydamas swallowtail caterpillars on my Dutchman pipe this morning.
These are among my favorites as they eat in clusters when they are younger, only devouring the youngest leaves. Often times when you walk in the garden you see leaves falling, as they chomp away on certain parts, letting the rest fall to the ground.
The female butterfly will lay anywhere between 10 to 14 yellow, to orange eggs in clusters, typically on newly developed stems, or growing tips of its host plant. The caterpillars go through four instars, anywhere from 19 to 24 days, before they are ready to form its chrysalis. The colors of the caterpillars are a bit different during the first instar, with tan and small tubercles. Once the caterpillar molts into the second instar, they become dark brown with larger tubercles.
