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.