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.
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.
I am beyond thrilled to begin raising the pipevine swallowtail from egg. I planted the birthwort, its host plant, in my garden almost two years ago and have never been able to attract this butterfly. It came to my attention earlier this week that the Butterfly Estates has an abundance of eggs after a conversation with the curator for an article I am writing. So, this morning, I made my way to Downtown Fort Myers. There were so many pipevine swallowtails flying around the 3,600 square foot glass butterfly conservatory. I even had the opportunity to take home the eggs that I witnessed the female pipevine swallowtail laying.
I cannot wait to learn more about this species whose wingspan range from 2 3/4 to 5 inches, as I watch them grow from egg to butterfly. I have both the male (blue hindwings) and female (black wings with spots) photographed below.
There are two Julia catepillars that left their plant to molt and enter into its next instar inside their enclosure. I am completely fascinated by the spikes first being white before changing to black. This one will probably go through two more instars before creating its chrysalis.
I am so glad I was able to “adopt” the Julia butterfly eggs from The Butterfly Estates, as this is my first time watching the life cycle of this species.
