Category Archives: Julia butterfly

608

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On Wednesday, May 3, my daughter and I celebrated a pretty exciting anniversary, the beginning of our butterfly gardening adventure. We purchased our first host and nectar plant in 2020 from All Native Garden Center, where I still to this day purchase a great deal of plants.

On our anniversary, my daughter asked how many butterflies we have raised since 2020. Well, today I counted and that number is 608, which includes nine different species! What better way to learn about nature than bringing them to you.

I cannot even fathom how many more butterflies have emerged from our garden, supporting the population in our area. I know we have also helped the lifecycle of the zebra longwing butterfly, cassius blue butterfly, dainty sulphur and the white checkered butterfly.

What started off with three plants has transformed our lives and continues to teach us a great deal of these extraordinary insects. I don’t think we are even close to finishing expanding our garden and inviting more species into our butterfly sanctuary, if you will.

426 monarch butterflies raised and released.

77 gulf fritillaries raised and released.

56 great southern white butterflies raised and released.

25 Julia butterflies raised and released.

3 giant swallowtail butterflies raised and released.

14 polydamas swallowtail butterflies raised and released.

4 sulphur butterflies raised and released.

2 eastern black swallowtail butterflies raised and released.

1 queen butterfly raised and released.

No. 17

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Another Julia emerged in our butterfly house yesterday, late, after the sun went down and the chilly Florida temperatures presented themselves. This beauty marks No. 17 that we raised from egg, which we “adopted,” if you will, from The Butterfly Estates. This beauty made its chrysalis way before Christmas. It sure took its time to make its grand entrance. It was not eager to fly away either this afternoon when the temperatures became warm, so I put it on one of our “Hurricane Ian self planted sunflowers,” where it remained for a while.

374 butterflies

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When we first began our butterfly house, I decided to keep count of how many we raised and released, as well as the species. I am so glad I did. Last year, 2022, was an incredible year in our butterfly house with seven species raised, totaling 374 butterflies.

Unfortunately since Hurricane Ian swept through our area in late September, I have not seen all of these species return. Their host plants have remained and are thriving, so hopefully as the seasons change, they will return and allow us to watch their process from egg to butterfly happen once again.

With that said, we also have frequent visitors from other species that I have not raised within the butterfly house, which include the zebra longwing butterfly and the white peacock butterfly. There is also a host of skippers that frequent the gardens for its nectar, but I have never found any eggs, or caterpillars.

I hope our garden, and butterfly house, thrives in 2023 as well.

I have listed the butterflies, as well as the number that we have released, with their photos below. To say I have compiled quite a library of butterfly photos is an understatement.

Julia butterflies (8);

eastern black swallowtail (2);

giant swallowtail (2);

cloudless sulphur (3);

polydamas swallowtail (14);

gulf fritillary (71)

and monarch butterflies (274).

More Julia butterflies

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Today my last Julia caterpillar finally created its chrysalis and four more Julia butterflies emerged. We have now released 13 Julia butterflies. As I have said in previous posts, we have had a Julia butterfly return to our garden every day since I released our first ones. So, today, I released all four in our front garden, as there is more corkystem passionvine growing in that garden. The hope is I will now get visitors to that garden as well.

Score, a return visitor

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I am beyond thrilled to share that one of the Julia Heliconian (Dryas iulia) butterflies I released into my garden returned today! There is nothing more satisfying than that, in my opinion, as I have introduced a new species to my butterfly oasis. I have read that the Julia travels the same path every day looking for nectar, which might be why it is reappearing in the garden.

As with other “longwing” butterflies, such as the zebra longwing, its proboscis enables this butterfly to also drink pollen, which has amino acids that are not present in nectar. With the ability to drink pollen, the Julia butterfly lives a longer life.

Now time to get some more corkystem passionvine for the back garden, so they can start leaving behind more eggs!

Today we had our fourth Julia butterfly emerge, which joined the other that fluttered into the garden.

A female Julia Heliconian.