With the sun shining and temperatures warm, I decided to do some maintenance in the garden. My scorpion tail bush has grown out of control, into the sidewalk, as well as popping up in the most random places, so I decided to do a little trimming.
With my 7 year olds watchful eye, she noticed 4 monarch chrysalis attached to branches I had cut off. I always wonder where the caterpillars disappear, as their chrysalis are not always in plain sight. These four really crawled deep into the vegetation to make their chrysalis. They are now in our butterfly house, so they can emerge safely.
I was elated when I saw a gulf fritillary butterfly sipping nectar from my scorpion tail nectar plant, which is planted right outside our front window. Of course, I grabbed the camera and headed outside. I love this species because it is never bothered by you taking photographs. It kept flying from flower to flower, sometimes extremely close to where I was standing, and other times farther away.
The scorpion tail plant is definitely one that grows well here in Southwest Florida. It was a tiny plant in a one gallon pot when purchased. Now it is lush and full and growing tall and wide. The great thing about this plant is you can cut it back and it just grows thicker.
I am thrilled with the number of small butterflies visiting our garden lately. Our newest visitor, leptotes cassius theonus, or otherwise known as the cassius blue butterfly, spent a lot of time drinking nectar from our scorpion tail.
The cassius blue sitting on a leaf of the penta.
The first thing that caught my eye, which is now trained to look for erratic flying insects, was the cassius blue’s two “eyespots” on its hindwing.
plumbago
Their wingspan are small, only ranging from 1.4 to 2.5 centimeters. We do have one of its host plants in our garden, the plumbago, and tons of it.
I would imagine it would be next to impossible to spot an egg, although definitely interesting as they are bluish green in color.
The cassius blue drinking from a scorpion tail.
The male has bright blue wings, while the female has paler blue with darker borders. Although I was not able to photograph the wings open, I definitely spotted the darker blue when flying. With his erratic style of flying, as well as it flying closer to the ground, from what I have read, is another indicator of it being a male.
The cassius blue drinking from a scorpion tail.
The females slow down a little more while finding its host plant, or much higher near the tree tops.
The cassius blue drinking from a scorpion tail.The cassius blue drinking from a scorpion tail.
