Sulphur galore

The temperatures have been a little cooler, by that I meam a few degrees – still 90s/80s, and a nice, a bit cooler wind, so I’ve gravitated back into the garden after apparently ignoring it for way too long. All of the rain has made everything double, if not triple in size, including the weeds.

So, I’ve decided to tackle the farthest point of the garden and move backward. This area includes a section near my candlestick cassia. The tree is growing in every direction and is crawling with sulphur caterpillars, both orange barred and cloudless sulphur caterpillars.

When cutting back my scorpion tail, I found quite a few chrysalis, which have been moved to my butterfly house.

They are back

To my great surprise, I found a dozen orange barred sulphur caterpillars in the garden this morning. They are all quite big, so I have missed them for quite a while on my cassia tree. I am beyond thrilled because this is the first time the orange barred sulphur has returned to my garden since Hurricane Ian. I was shocked as I never saw the butterfly visit the garden. Cannot wait for them to make their chrysalis!

Another change

The cloudless sulphur chrysalis changed today, now resembling more of a leaf. I am so excited to watch the rest of its transformation.

Second day
Second day
First day

Cloudless sulphur caterpillar

It always amazes me how camouflaged these caterpillars become. I check my cassia plant daily and never see any caterpillars. Today I was surprised to find this rather large cloudless sulphur caterpillar. It is now the newest resident in our butterfly house.