The orange barred sulphur butterflies have been super busy in the garden the last few days. This one continuously stopped and deposited eggs on my bahama cassia tree, which will soon be crawling with caterpillars.
Busy beauty
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Tag Archives: orange barred sulphur butterfly
Sunshine
We recently had six orange barred sulphurs emerge in our butterfly house.
These butterflies are such a ray of sunshine, always drawing your eyes out the window when fluttering about.
Incredible strength
Have you ever witnessed an orange barred sulphur create its chrysalis?
I am happy to say I finally was able to witness the transformation, not once, but twice on the same day. I always take one last peek into the butterfly house after I walk my dog the final time at night. Well, it completely paid off this time! I always wondered when the magic happened as the last peek at night the caterpillars were still hanging by their silk girdle, and the morning the gorgeous green, sometimes pinkish, chrysalis would be complete.
I have to say the silk girdle is no joke. It has incredible strength as the caterpillar moved in all directions possible as the chrysalis slowly spread the length of the caterpillar’s body. The first chrysalis I recorded, and the second one I captured through photographs. In a matter of minutes the chrysalis was complete. I of course stopped taking pictures as the wiggling slowed, so in this series I do not have a photograph of what the final chrysalis looks like.
It just goes to show what you can witness when you slow down enough . . . nature is incredible.
Eight!
Yesterday was a pretty spectacular day for the orange barred sulphur butterflies. We had eight emerge in our butterfly house. These butterflies have such a magnificent hue and are truly rays of sunshine as they flutter about the garden.
This butterfly, I have read is the largest southeastern sulphur with a wingspan from 2 3/4 to 3 1/2 inches.
Like many other species, the females are larger than the male butterflies. The males are bright yellow and the females hue changes with the season. They have a narrow dark border and are creamy white in the summer and yellow in the winter.
When they have their wings closed, the male has small dark spots on its bright yellow wings, while the female is orange yellow with dark molting during the summer, and more heavily marked during the winter months.
Orange barred sulphur
My ray of sunshine is a constant visitor of our garden lately. She has been busy laying tons of eggs on my Bahama cassia tree, which is already covered in caterpillars of every instar. We recently brought in seven caterpillars that were on their final instar into our butterfly house. Today all of them have created their amazing chrysalis.
Earlier this week we had an orange barred sulphur emerge in our butterfly house, which was eager to fly free.. Their beauty is striking, especially when the sun hits them just right.
