Category Archives: polydamas caterpillar

Seven more beauties

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Today our butterfly house came alive with seven more polydamas swallowtails emerging from their chrysalis. I have yet to see one crawl out! One day I will be in the perfect place at the right time.

We have had 23 emerge in our butterfly house since Thursday, July 6! To say the polydamas swallowtails are having an excellent summer so far is an understatement. We have three more chrysalis in our butterfly house and TONS of caterpillars still in our garden.

Today my daughter and her friend saw one polydamas caterpillar, which was in its last instar, walking down our driveway, which is not too safe, if I say so myself. So that one, and another walking around a giant milkweed leaf away from its host plant, are now residents in our butterfly house. The last check they had found their resting place ready to make its chrysalis.

Here is an assortment of photos from those that were released. They are gorgeous, the tailless butterfly. They always make me smile when I see them flying about the garden, which is now many every day. The best part is they are hanging out in my front garden, rather than the one in the backyard, the first time since I started the gardens almost three years ago at this house!

As always, check out here for more information: https://sweetbutterflybliss.com/polydamas-swallowtail-butterfly-2

Still beautiful

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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.

For more information, visit https://sweetbutterflybliss.com/polydamas-swallowtail-butterfly

The gorgeous polydamas swallowtail

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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.

Polydamas Swallowtail

The girdle

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The polydamas swallowtail caterpillars are so neat to watch. First they attach a silk pad with its terminal prolegs, so it can hang from its silk girdle before they finish their chrysalis. Depending on where they create their chrysalis it can be either green, or brown. The ones on the Dutchman pipe are green, while the others on the enclosure are brown to match the wood.

Fascinating caterpillar

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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.