Tag Archives: red penta

Graceful

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Graceful comes to mind when I see the giant swallowtail glide through the garden. This butterfly grabbed my attention immediately and held it as it fluttered throughout the garden, landing on my wild lime to deposit eggs, as well as nectar from my red penta flower.

The giant swallowtail’s forewing spans 11.7 to 17.5 cm for males and a span of 13.5 to 18.8 cm for females. The demand your attention when they flutter in the garden, just for the pure size of them.

The females tend to lay single eggs, cream to brown, on the upper surface of leaves – citrus plants – that are 1 to 1.5 mm in size. The larval, caterpillars, will go through five instars (stages) and they mainly eat at night.

The final one

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Our last white peacock butterfly emerged a few days ago, taking our final count to six that we were able to raise from caterpillars we brought home from Butterfly Estates. I now have four plants for them to lay eggs on in the garden, so hopefully they will return and keep their population going. It’s been a few days since I have seen them return.

The white peacock butterfly is on a white lantana, firebush, blue porterweed bush, red penta, pink zinnia, cone flower and scorpion tail. These are all amazing nectar plants to have in the garden.

The penta

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The gulf fritillary is such an amazing butterfly to watch in action, especially as they do not scare easily when you get close. The best part is if you stay still they flutter right past you, almost touching you, as they gracefully land on the nectar of choice.

The caterpillars are of abundance on the ever growing maypop passionvine. The butterflies are busy laying eggs on the vine, and for some reason on the wire that the maypop vine threw, as well as a trellis.

Today they went from the red pentas, which are among the top two nectar plants this butterfly visits in my garden, to laying eggs.

The gulf fritillary’s life span is anywhere from 14 to 27 days.

Now a regular

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The great southern white caterpillars are slowly growing and multiplying in our butterfly house. They sure do blend with the leaf coloring of the perpperweed, making it rather difficult to get an exact count of how many caterpillars are taking up residence. They lay about 20 eggs in a cluster and there were quite a few clusters.

I have read that the caterpillar will eat for two to four weeks, so they have a ways to go. The chrysalis stage is anywhere from eight to 14 days.

The great part is its host plant grows freely in our yard, and my neighbors yard. There is an abundance everywhere. So I have been experimenting with the peppergrass. I have dug some up and put it in a vase full of water to let it root some more before planting it in the garden.

The butterfly has become a daily visitor of the garden, with its favorite nectar plants being the red penta and an occasional zinnia.

White

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I know I have said this before, but one of the best decisions I made was to plant a butterfly garden straight out my front window. Today, something white captured my attention, taking my focus away from my writing. This of course turned into me rushing towards the camera and flying out the door.

The great southern white was visiting the red penta, taking tons of sips from different flowers. Whenever I see them at Butterfly Estates they are incredibly hard to photograph. Today this beauty was not bothered by me, as it was content on sipping away, briefly turning its head to watch me.

One of the greatest joys for me is to attract a variety of species to the gardens. The last time I saw this one in the garden was May 2022. It was definitely just passing through grabbing something to eat before it was on its way again, as I do not have any of its host plant in the garden.