Category Archives: polydamus butterfly

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

Right place, right time

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While I was walking from the living room to the kitchen, I glanced out the back window and spotted a polydamas, gold rim, swallowtail butterfly circling the Dutchman Pipe. I quickly grabbed my camera and headed to the garden. I watched, took photos and filmed this female lay at least a dozen eggs.

She was so focused on her task at hand that she did not mind me taking more than a 100 photos.

The eggs she laid are approximately 1 mm in diameter and are partially covered by a nutritious secretion hard shell, which have vertical bands with large droplets. This secretion is produced by a gland that is above the female’s ovipository duct.

As the eggs mature and the larvae develop, they will turn a slight greenish color, approximately four to six days later.

When the caterpillars hatch, their first meal will be consuming the residual embryonic yolk, as well as the secretion on the outside of the egg.

The caterpillars will eat for about 19 to 24 days, with early instars molting, shedding old skin, about every four days.

Finishing up

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My beautiful, lush Dutchman pipe has been chewed down to almost nothing as the polydamus swallowtail caterpillars continue to go through all their instars. There were quite a few that were brought into our butterfly house, with many finally finishing up its caterpillar stage, getting rid of the last of its waste, creating its silken girdle and creating its either green, or brown chrysalis.

The caterpillar getting rid of the remains it does not need for its next stage, the chrysalis.

We have six that have made its silken girdle, getting ready to finish off its chrysalis. There are two very close to each other with a monarch caterpillar hiding in the below photo. We had quite a few caterpillars decide to make its chrysalis on a milkweed. I guess the plant will be staying in the butterfly house for a good two weeks.

So far we have three chrysalis as of this morning from this batch of caterpillars. There are eight caterpillars still either eating or finding their destination to start their chrysalis. The polydamas are certainly taking over our butterfly house right now.

As always, click on the link for more information and photos of the polydamas swallowtail: https://sweetbutterflybliss.com/polydamas-swallowtail-butterfly/?frame-nonce=f0243aad30