This butterfly sure had an appetite and was quite acrobatic as it sipped nectar from the garden yesterday. Research revealed that it is of the hairstreak species, mallow scrub hairstreak.
This is the first time I have seen it visit our garden. It loved the nectar from the porterweed flower the most.
Peaceful… Peaceful to watch nature.
I do not think I could have chosen a better location if I tried. Our butterfly garden in our front yard constantly brings happiness when I peek out the window watching a variety of butterflies stop in for a visit. I love watching our regulars, the monarch and gulf fritillary, but when we get a nonregular, the giddiness bubbles over.
Today the cloudless sulphur returned to lay more eggs on our cassia tree. I sat, watched, and of course took tons of photographs as she both glided and fluttered her wings near and on the tree. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at what I captured.
The cassia tree, it’s host plant, is still young, and has a lot of growing to do. I love frequenting the native garden sale at a park nearby, as it includes a great assortment of young plants that the master gardeners grow and sell for incredible prices. I could not pass up the tree this past time and hope next month they will have more, as I may need more caterpillar food if she continues to frequent my garden.
The eggs she laid are a cream color at first before turning orange. When the caterpillar first emerges they are incredibly small and all yellow. As they grow they turn green with yellow lateral lines and blue patches.
The courtship of the cloudless sulphur is one of a dance. According to the Florida Wildflower Foundation the male will scope out a female around nectar plants during the day. The male will touch the female’s wings, and if the female is okay with his courtship, she will flick her wings and close them. If the female does not want to mate, she will raise her abdomen and open her wings telling him she’s not interested.
The cloudless sulphur takes a lengthy journey during its migration with some migrating as far as 100 miles north of Gainesville, Florida. This butterfly does not cope well with temperatures below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. According to the Florida Wildflower Foundation, they fly within three meters of the ground and if they run into an obstacle they fly higher instead of around, so they do not alter the direction they are headed.
The wingspan of the cloudless sulphur ranges from two to three inches. The males are mostly all yellow, while the females have dark spots along the border of its wings, as well as the center of its forewing. This butterfly’s favorite nectar plant are those of red coloring. They have very long tongues enabling them to reach far down into flowers.
The gulf fritillary loves visiting our garden during the morning hours. This morning I watched a female drink from five nectar plants, all different varieties, before laying eggs on two different host plants. The female has a larger wingspan of a male and is somewhat darker with more extensive markings.
An interesting fact, the gulf fritillary is part of the “brush-footed” butterfly family. A family that has short hairs on the front of its legs.
According to the Florida Wildflower Foundation the gulf fritillary will release chemicals of “an unpleasant odor” from its abdominal glands when it is disturbed. This helps in protecting itself from becoming a snack to birds and other predators. The host plant of the gulf fritillary contains toxins, which stays in the body through the butterfly stage and can become “lethal” to predators that do not have the same immunities.
As always here’s a link to my page on the gulf fritillary life cycle, complete with photos from our garden https://sweetbutterflybliss.com/gulf-fritillary/?frame-nonce=055550061c
A female monarch butterfly paid a visit to our front butterfly garden again this morning busy laying more eggs on almost every milkweed we have. By the end of the week we should have tons of baby caterpillars munching away.
Have you ever wondered how many eggs a female monarch butterfly can lay? As I was sitting in the garden watching the monarch find all the milkweed, I became very curious. According to the U.S. Forest Service, the monarch butterfly can lay between 100 to 300 eggs in her lifetime, which is amazing to me. When the eggs first hatch, the caterpillar is only one centimeter before reaching the final length of five centimeters, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
We had another monarch hatch this morning in our butterfly house. It sat on our hand all the way up the boardwalk to our beautiful penta, where it remained when we walked away.