Tag Archives: polydamas caterpillar

Lucky perk

Posted on by
Reply

Who would have guessed planting an extensive butterfly garden out my front window would have so many perks? I wanted to plant the garden there, so when I sat in my living room, I could watch the butterflies flutter by the window. (Yes, I do this more than I can count.)

A perk?

Caterpillars crawling to the area around my front door to create its chrysalis. Today, the surprise was a polydamas swallowtail. It has its silk pad and girdle created. The hope is to catch it creating its chrysalis, as it is located right out our front door.

I have lost count of the number of chrysalis that have been located in this little area surrounding my door. A definite bonus of the garden!

A stroll

Posted on by
Reply

I love, love, love my nightly stroll through the garden. One, because the scorching, awful heat isn’t as bad around the 7’oclock hour, and two, I love spotting the acticity taking place in the garden.

With the almost daily rain, everything is lush and growing really well. I have finally decided to tackle my back butterfly garden again, which is where I found the treasures today. I have my husband on board to help build some trellises for both the Dutchman pipe and the maypop passionvine. My garden will look amazing when those projects become complete.

My Dutchman pipe is crawling with polydamas caterpillars once again on all three plants. How many can you could? I see six all sharing the same part of the vine.

Polydamas caterpillars.

Seven more beauties

Posted on by
Reply

Today our butterfly house came alive with seven more polydamas swallowtails emerging from their chrysalis. I have yet to see one crawl out! One day I will be in the perfect place at the right time.

We have had 23 emerge in our butterfly house since Thursday, July 6! To say the polydamas swallowtails are having an excellent summer so far is an understatement. We have three more chrysalis in our butterfly house and TONS of caterpillars still in our garden.

Today my daughter and her friend saw one polydamas caterpillar, which was in its last instar, walking down our driveway, which is not too safe, if I say so myself. So that one, and another walking around a giant milkweed leaf away from its host plant, are now residents in our butterfly house. The last check they had found their resting place ready to make its chrysalis.

Here is an assortment of photos from those that were released. They are gorgeous, the tailless butterfly. They always make me smile when I see them flying about the garden, which is now many every day. The best part is they are hanging out in my front garden, rather than the one in the backyard, the first time since I started the gardens almost three years ago at this house!

As always, check out here for more information: https://sweetbutterflybliss.com/polydamas-swallowtail-butterfly-2

Still beautiful

Posted on by
Reply

A polydamas swallowtail butterfly found refuge in the garden this morning. I found it on the ground, battered wings expanded, so I let it crawl on my finger and brought it to a nectar plant, the red penta. As soon as it crawled on my finger its proboscis was extended waiting to get to that sweet goodness. Before all of its feet were on the penta it was already sipping away with its wings flapping extremely fast.

This morning we had three very eager polydamas swallowtail butterflies emerge in our butterfly house. They were not interested in any photographs, but boy were they beautiful.

There will soon be many more polydamas swallowtails in the garden, as more caterpillars are growing and getting closer to their ideal length. These caterpillars are chomping away on the Aristolochia trilobata in the front garden. The first time I have had caterpillars on this plant since I planted it more than two years ago. The Dutchman’s pipe in the back garden is constantly crawling with polydamas caterpillars.

For more information, visit https://sweetbutterflybliss.com/polydamas-swallowtail-butterfly

The gorgeous polydamas swallowtail

Posted on by
2

The swallowtail butterflies are absolutely stunning. It’s always fascinating for me to see the transformation from a caterpillar to a chrysalis to a butterfly.

The polydamas swallowtail caterpillars are viscous eaters who take a long time to reach their desired size. I always know when I have caterpillars chowing down on the Dutchman pipe because more than half of the leaves fall to the ground as they find the perfect spot to eat.

This morning the first of more than 20 emerged in our butterfly house. This beauty stuck with me for a while before it crawled on the porterweed to hang out a little longer.

This marks 26 that we have successfully raised and released.

The polydamas, also known as the gold rim swallowtail, tailless swallowtail and scientific name Battus polydamas lucayus, lays its eggs on the Dutchman pipe. This is the only swallowtail that lacks the tails at the base of the secondary wings, according to the University of Florida.

This species can be found throughout peninsular Florida, as well as in the Florida Keys. There are some that wander as far north as Missouri and Kentucky.

For more information, check out the link below, which includes quite a few photographs.

Polydamas Swallowtail