Tag Archives: Dutchman pipevine

The little things

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Thank goodness for good friends and their abundance of Dutchman Pipe . . . my explosion of  polydamas swallowtail caterpillars have more food!

It’s the little things that make me smile, such as going to my friends house to cut some of her Dutchman pipe to feed my caterpillars and finding some on hers as well. Another perk of butterfly gardening, sharing – both plant cuttings and caterpillars – so more can enjoy watching the lifecycle.

Best part, my little buddy, who was super excited to find a polydamas swallowtail walking down my sidewalk while he was over, is raising a couple dozen for me, so they continue to have plenty of food.

Never in all the years I have had a butterfly garden has the polydamas swallowtail population exploded to this amount. There’s probably close to 100 caterpillars!

These butterflies are having a record year, and now it’s host plant needs new growth, so they lifecycle can start all over again.

Fast flyer

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The polydamas swallowtail, otherwise known as the gold rim swallowtail, is an incredibly fast flyer. The wings are constantly going. This swallowtail continued to fly in and get a quick snack from the Panama rose before taking off again.

The Dutchman pipe, its host plant, was incredibly impressive at the Cape Coral-Lee County Public Library butterfly garden. There were tons of flowers and it expanded a good portion of the fence. The polydamas never let mine grow enough before it’s egg bombed and chewed all the way down again. If you looked hard enough, there were tons of caterpillars in the plant.

Quickly multiplying

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The warmer temperatures in Southwest Florida are becoming more consistent –  bringing back many species of butterflies to the garden.

The polydamas swallowtail’s are among them. There are quite a few baby caterpillars crawling on my Dutchman pipevine, and multiple eggs still waiting to hatch!