Tag Archives: caterpillar

Wide range of colors

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Did you know that butterflies can perceive the widest range of colors within the animal kingdom? These remarkable insects can spot ultraviolet to the red end of the color spectrum. According to the book “Florida’s Fabulous Butterflies” by Thomas C. Emmel, the butterflies eyes are comprised of individual facets, allowing them to see objects as a mosaic with each facet seeing a portion of the total picture. The author said this is comparable to pixels making up a photo on the computer or television screen. Some species can see up to 17,000 facets, enabling them to see finer details. In addition, some butterflies also have 360-degree vision and are great at viewing moving images, which helps when in flight.

The ultraviolet light is pronounced during the daylight hours. According to Emmel, some broad petal flowers have spots on its rim that appear bright to the butterfly in this light, as they reflect UV light. The center part of the flower absorb the UV light casting a darker, or even black color to the butterfly’s eye. The dark helps the butterfly land in the right spot quickly to drink its nectar. This is a great ability for the butterfly as it becomes more vulnerable when drinking, than flying.

The caterpillar eyes (Gulf fritillary photo shown above) on the other hand, have two sets of six simple eyes. The oval-shaped clusters are located on each side of its head. Caterpillars can only see light and dark, and a few inches away.

The links below will direct you to my monarch and gulf fritillary pages for more information and photographs.

Monarch Butterfly
Gulf Fritillary

Deep in the leaves

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There were lots of half eaten Dutchman pipe leaves scattered along the pathway of my garden yesterday, which only meant one thing. I had some big polydamas caterpillars up above. Looking up I spotted seven polydamas swallowtail caterpillars hidden deep within the Dutchman pipe vines. I found the babies a few weeks ago and then they vanished. I was so happy to see that they are still there, much bigger. They look to be either in their last instar or very close. So, to enjoy the final stages, I cut some of the vine and put it in the butterfly house along with a handfull of the caterpillars.

This morning there were three of them clinging onto the same vine, while the other two found some big green leaves to munch. The caterpillar can grow up to 2.1″ in length before creating their girdle.

The link below will direct you to my page about the polydamas swallowtail butterfly for more information and photographs.

https://sweetbutterflybliss.com/polydamas-swallowtail-butterfly/?frame-nonce=21a5d73d0b

Activity all around

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Monarch caterpillars and butterflies, oh my.

Although we have butterflies year round in Southwest Florida, the abundance of caterpillars in our garden is truly incredible over the last month. Due to this, our butterfly house is very active with new butterflies emerging and caterpillars of various sizes.

For more information, photos, about monarch butterflies: visit my page: https://sweetbutterflybliss.com/monarch-butterfly/?frame-nonce=337ab32fc1

Stroll along the boardwalk

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After a good rain last night, I took a stroll along our boardwalk to see what kind of life was happening in our garden this morning. There’s something about rain that brings the garden to life in a way that watering with a hose never does.

The monarch caterpillars were plentiful, with many milkweeds chewed down to the stem.

The square garden bed close to a bench my husband made grabbed my attention, calling my name to sit down and watch probably 20 gulf fritillary caterpillars continue to devour our maypop passionvine. They are all various sizes, with many in their molting stages.

According to “Florida’s Fabulous Butterflies” the gulf fritillary is named after the orange-red fritillary flower. Gulf is in its name due to its common occurrence around the Gulf of Mexico. There is always an abundance of this beautiful orange butterfly in our gardens. One of my favorite characteristics are the silver spots, created when “light is refracted through prisms in the wing scales,” which are located across both wings on its underside.

Check out my Gulf Fritillary page for more information and photos from our garden: https://sweetbutterflybliss.com/gulf-fritillary/?frame-nonce=c33150980c