A trip to Butterfly Estates, in downtown Fort Myers, on July 28, 2023, provided us with a great opportunity to finish raising white peacock butterflies, as they were closing their doors. I am happy to say we had our first peacock butterfly emerge today. The coloration of this butterfly is absolutely stunning! After I released it, it stuck around the garden for a while giving me ample opportunities to take photographs.
The white peacock is part of the Nymphalidae family, the brush-foot butterflies. Their wingspans can range from 3.5 to 6 cm. I read that male and female peacock butterflies do not differ in appearance. It’s also interesting that their coloring becomes paler during the winter months and are smaller and darker in the wet summer months.
According to the Florida Wildflower Foundation, males will pick out about 50 square feet full of host plants to defend it against other male butterflies in a hopes to find a female.
This species enjoys the warm weather, which might be why we see such an abundance in Southwest Florida. The temperatures are quite extreme right now.
I have one white peacock caterpillar left that appears to have just molted. The white peacock is 1.4″ in length and can be found in peninsular Florida, as well as southern Texas. The butterfly will lay green eggs, which are laid singularly. The caterpillars oftentimes hide near the ground during the daytime.
The caterpillars eat frogfruit, and the volunteers at the Butterfly Estates said wild petunia, which is what they have been munching on inside the butterfly house. So, I have yet another plant to put in the garden for the white peacocks, as I already have two fogfruits established already.
The other five that we brought home from Butterfly Estates on July 28 have already created their chrysalis. They are tiny in size, and green.
A gem of a place closed its doors Friday, July 28 with a great deal of sadness. Butterfly Estates, located in Downtown Fort Myers, became a destination for my daughter and I, as well as our good friend, and my mom. The first time I visited this butterfly conservatory, which is full of Florida native butterfly species, was in 2015 while I was pregnant with my daughter. The story fell into my lap for the publication I still write for today. I went and took photographs, and well, was in awe of the beauty fluttering about.
Before our daughter was born, her momma was already hooked on butterflies. Before my daughter was born the significance of the butterfly was born, the wonderful meaning they represent was given to us. Unfortunately that meaning drove home a little more after my grandfather, the man who constantly reminded all of us of the importance of family, passed away.
“Butterflies appear when angels are near.” I believe in this with all of my heart.
The beautiful journey since then was creating a butterfly garden with my daughter that continues to grow in size and species we attract. My favorite part is knowing I am giving my daughter an education about nature, which she truly enjoys.
After I read “It is with great sadness that we close our doors tomorrow 7/28/23 at 2pm. We want to thank our customers for their support over the years. Butterflies & Staff will miss you.” I knew my daughter and I had to make one last final trip to the Butterfly Estates and witness the last release, walk the conservatory one last time. It was an emotional journey through the conservatory. Not only did I capture many moments with my camera, I also held many in my heart as we took one last stroll around the grounds.
The Butterfly Estates volunteers always taught us a great deal of information when we went for a visit. We took home many eggs that we raised in our garden, as well as new plants that attracted new species to the garden.
Every time we visit it seems a new butterfly captures our attention. This time it was the white peacock. It was everywhere. The best part is we took home five caterpillars and a chrysalis, as they have to rehome all the caterpillars and butterflies inside the magnificent enclosure. So a piece of Butterfly Estates is now in our butterfly house waiting to go through its lifecycle.
“Today our regular butterfly release takes place at 10:30 am. Once we close the butterflies inside will be caught and re-homed. This will take awhile. The outpouring from the community has been overwhelming. THANK YOU,” another post from Butterfly Estates on their Facebook page.
It was such a sight to see today. So many zebra longwing butterflies being raised and released at Rotary Park here in Cape Coral. They have yet to make it to my garden, something I truly miss since Hurricane Ian impacted our city last September.
In May and June of this year, I wrote an article for a publication I contribute articles to, North Fort Myers Living, and it was all about zebra longwing butterflies. It was so good to hear that two organizations around town are helping to repopulate this butterfly.
Here’s a blurp:
Hurricane Ian created a tale of two butterflies – the monarch butterfly thriving, while the zebra longwing butterfly, the state butterfly, disappearing.
“After the hurricane we have not seen the zebra longwing anywhere near us,” The Butterfly Estates curator Sherri Williams said. “I have lots of butterfly enthusiasts (friends) that have not seen them. A friend of mine from Miami sent a few caterpillars to get them established here.”
At the beginning of May the excitement has grown, as she said they have probably 45 zebra longwing butterflies flying inside the butterfly house.
“The females will lay like 400 eggs. I will have eggs to share, always for a donation. The donation helps us go buy plants to feed the ones we keep,” she said of the caterpillars eating corkystem passionvine. “I am really excited about the zebras. I am getting quite a few eggs now.”
Recovery efforts are also underway in Cape Coral.
“They were wiped out in the hurricane,” Tom Allen Memorial Butterfly House curator Cheryl Anderson said, adding that their host plant, the passionvine, was also wiped out. “Since Hurricane Ian, we have seen one zebra longwing at the butterfly gardens.”
“There are zebras out there, caterpillars out there. We need concentrated effort and we need the plants. The health, wealth and volume of a butterfly depends on the wealth and health of the host plant,” she said.
Today while we visited The Tom All Memorial Butterfly House at Rotary Park Cheryl told us they have released close to 50 zebra longwings. We saw them fluttering all around the garden, with many still in their butterfly house. Cheryl showed my daughter quite a few zebra longwing caterpillars that they were also raising inside.
She told us, although the hope was to repopulate areas of Cape Coral, the zebra longwings seem to be hanging around Rotary Park as there is an abundance of host plants, with one of their favorites, the firebush planted on the grounds.
The pipevine swallowtail is such an eye catching butterfly. Like many of the swallowtails you have to be extremely patient with a trigger happy finger to capture their beauty. I was fortunate enough to watch a male and female do their mating dance before eventually attaching to one another during a visit at The Butterfly Estates. The males have the irresistible blue coloring on the surface of their wings, while the female is mostly black with white along the outer edge of their wing. Their host plant is the birthwort.
