Tag Archives: Polydamas butterfly

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.

Worth the wait

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It’s truly amazing how long butterflies can stay in their chrysalis before emerging. It’s usually a few weeks at best that I have experienced with the butterflies that visit our garden.

Our winter had some cold days this year, which prolonged the process for the polydamas swallowtail.

This beauty created its chrysalis late last year in our butterfly house, and finally emerged now that our Southwest Florida temperatures are hitting the warmth they do desire. There are two remaining that I am patiently waiting for their arrival.

The polydamas swallowtail is once again becoming a daily visitor to the garden, and leaving behind lots of eggs.

“Special”

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Butterflies and my daughter have been connected since before she was born. It never fails on the important days something memorable always seems to happen. Yesterday, my daughter turned 8 years old and had the opportunity to release, not one, but three polydamas swallowtail butterflies into the garden.

We, always think, butterflies appear when angels are near. Sure enough, my sweet girl said one of the butterflies was someone we recently lost, an amazing woman who was incredibly important to us. It made that moment that much sweeter.

The polydamas swallowtails are having an incredible year in the garden. We have raised and released 135 so far. 

And the cycle continues.

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I have never seen so many polydamas swallowtails in my garden at once until yesterday. There were five fluttering about, one of which was leaving behind a ton of eggs, continuing the amazing cycle of the butterfly.

The polydamas lays yellow to orange eggs in clusters of 10 to 14, which can typically be spotted on newly developed stems, or growing tips, of the Dutchman pipe. The butterfly tends to lay its eggs on the Dutchman pipe that are in sunny areas, although the caterpillars have a higher survival rate in the shade.

The eggs can be yellow to orange in color and 1 mm in diameter. As they mature the eggs will turn a greenish color as the larvae develop.

. . . And No. 50 fly’s free

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Another polydamas swallowtail butterfly emerged in our butterfly house today. This one is No. 50. Another amazing release. This one stayed with me for quite some time before it flew away into the trees.

This butterfly can be found throughout peninsular Florida and southern Texas. I have read that the caterpillar season is throughout the year in Florida. I don’t know if the season changed with Hurricane Ian devastating the area last September, but we did not start seeing them in our garden until late May, early June. They have had an incredible year so far since then, with more eggs laid.