Category Archives: Southwest Florida butterfly garden

Cassius blue

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I have started spotting the tiny cassius blue butterfly throughout the garden. It is such a fast flyer, making it hard to photograph.

In all the years I have had its host plant, plumbago, I have never spotted the caterpillars, or the chrysalis.

Its wingspan is only 15-22 mm. The egg is flattened and blue. The butterfly will lay the egg on flowers, flower buds or the developing seed pods of the plumbago.

There are two eyespots on the margin of the hind wing. The males are pale to bright blue above, while the females have a bluish-white to white above the basal area of the wing, as well as broad dark borders.

The larvae are also small, as it is approximately only .5 inches in length and are green with faint dark markings, or a patterned white faint marking.

They are back

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The warm weather and sunny skies has sure brought the butterflies back to the garden again.

Since Easter, the monarch population has grown leaps and bounds in the butterfly garden. The caterpillars are on both my balloon milkweed, and giant milkweed, in various instars.

The monarch caterpillars feed solely on milkweed leaves, which produces glycoside toxins, according to the National Wildlife Federation, which deters other animals from eating the caterpillars.

The toxins are stored making them taste bad and remains after they emerge into a butterfly, continuing to protect them.

After the butterfly lays a cream colored egg on the bottom of a milkweed leaf, it takes anywhere from three to five days to hatch. The larvae chews a small hole in the egg to wiggle free. Once it emerges it consumes the rest of the egg before moving onto the leaf.

As the yellow, black and white stripped caterpillar eats the milkweed leaf it continues to grow and molts its old skin, splitting it in half. The caterpillar often consumes the skin before continuing eating the milkweed leaf. It can grow in length to 2″.

One of my favorite parts about having a butterfly garden is finding where the caterpillars end up making their final destination. The chrysalis below was found on my watering can, a good distance, but not too far away at the same time. 

The monarch butterfly resting on red penta, a favorite nectar plant for many species of butterflies.

Back with a vengeance

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The butterflies are loving the warm Southwest Florida weather again. We had some cold spells this winter, and the daily butterfly visits came to a stop for the most part. 

I am delighted to say that the gulf fritillary butterfly has come back with a vengeance.

The caterpillar population has exploded these past few weeks. The upside to this, the maypop passionvine continues to pop up everywhere in and outside of the garden giving the caterpillars plenty to eat as they grow through their multiple instars. 

I decided to put some caterpillars in our butterfly house, a move made after cleaning up the garden and moving the plant out of harms way in the actual yard.

There are quite a few chrysalis in the butterfly house currently. 

Yesterday the first butterfly emerged.

A little breakfast

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The gulf fritillary butterfly is always one of the first visitors in the morning. Not just one, but a half a dozen at a time. This one was enjoying a fire bush.

Another was enjoying the nectar of a Mexican sunflower.

A mating pair

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This morning the butterfly garden was busy with lots of fluttering wings of many different species. There were two butterflies that caught my attention on top of a giant milkweed. Before I knew it they landed on my Bahama cassia plant located very close by.

It was absolutely fascinating to watch the mating process right in front of my eyes of two monarch butterflies.

I have read that mating monarchs can remain together for 16 hours or longer. It’s not until the very end of their attachment that the sperm is transferred to the female. The fertilization of the egg does not occur until right before the egg is laid on the host plant, milkweed.

During mating, the male will use its claspers located on the end of its abdomen, to attach to the female’s ostium bursa.

Be sure to check out the many videos I was able to capture.