Honestly, what’s better than taking a stroll through the garden and seeing the lifecycle of a butterfly unfold right before your eyes?
There was a monarch butterfly stopping on the giant milkweed, and then scattered throughout were caterpillars having a feast on the leaves.
My giant milkweed has exploded with monarch caterpillars again. They look to be close to their final instar, if not the final instar. Their gorgeous green chrysalsis will be appearing soon.
Today my daughter and I began our first butterfly garden many years ago not knowing what kind of passion it would evolve into over the years.
Here is one of our favorites, a gulf fritillary, one of the first to visit our first garden, and since has been a constant visitor. It is always one of the first to flutter into the garden every morning to find its breakfast.
Today it’s preference was the variety of pentas that I have in the garden.
The polydamas swallowtail has been a regular visitor these past few weeks. They are swift flyers, making them hard to capture in photographs while flying. Well, today, out of 143 photographs, I was able to pick out quite a few that made me smile.
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.
The polydamas lays yellow to orange eggs in clusters of 10 to 14, which can typically be spotted on newly developed stems, or growing tips, of the Dutchman pipe. The butterfly tends to lay its eggs on the Dutchman pipe that are in sunny areas, although the caterpillars have a higher survival rate in the shade.
The polydamas swallowtail in the photographs below is laying eggs on one of the two birthwort plants in the garden. Right now this plant is thick with lots of growth, while my three Dutchman pipe are needing time to grow back from the last set of caterpillars.
My garden has become my favorite place to be again with all of the work that has been done and still underway.
With the lack of rain, and the extreme dry conditions, I have taken to watering the garden almost nightly as I replanted a good amount of plants. The great part is all the repoted/moved plants are thriving.
While watering I spotted a few chunky pokydamas swallowtail caterpillars either resting, or munching away. They are definitely getting closer to the final instar where they will stop eating and make their chrysalis.
I always heard the saying, “plant them and they will come.” Gardening, well butterfly gardening, is truly rewarding and thrilling, as you can invite all kinds of species into your garden and watch their lifecycle unfold before your eyes.
