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: Southwest Florida gardens
Magnificently beautiful
The giant swallowtail butterfly always makes me stare in awe. The size of these magnificent butterflies is truly breathtaking. I had four butterflies emerge this week and it was so neat to release them into the garden.
The wild lime tree, one of its many host plants, is growing a ton with all of the Southwest Florida rain, providing plenty of food for the caterpillars – the hope is there will soon be more eggs.
The giant swallowtails forewing span from 11.7 to 17.5 cm for males and 13.5 to 18.8 cm for females. This butterfly can be found throughout America from New England to Florida and the Caribbean, as well as Mexico and South America.
The giant
The giant swallowtail butterfly returned to my Southwest Florida garden a few weeks ago and left behind eggs! This is the first time I have had her visit the garden since Hurricane Ian in 2022. The wild lime is doing well – I have plenty of food for the caterpillars.
I was able to find four caterpillars on the tree, which have been put into my butterfly house, so we can watch them grow.
The caterpillar resembles that of bird poop, which helps when they are smaller as they sit on the top of surfaces in plain view.
According to the University of Florida, the giant swallowtail larvae have an osmeterium, “an orange, or reddish Y-shaped eversible gland,” that is used to wipe against small predators, such as ants and spiders. When the caterpillar is in its fourth and fifth instars it contains a highly noxious, pungent mixture of chemicals, which smells like rancid butter.
Penta
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It’s not often the white penta’s have visitors, but this male monarch butterfly was going to town on sipping tons of nectar. It gathered some pollen through his travels too.
A new species!
After days of raining, the sun peaked out for a little while today and brought a new species to my garden! I love sitting on the couch in the living room when something outside catches my attention. Camera in hand I went outside to check out what species of butterfly was frequenting my blanket flowers. The American Painted Lady! Imagine my excitement as it fluttered from one flower to the next, not one bit bothered as I snapped more than 70 photos of this beauty.
The butterflies scientific name is Vanessa virginiensis. It’s also known as American lady, American painted lady, painted beauty and Hunter’s butterfly, according to the University of Florida. This butterfly has a wide distribution – southern Canada throughout the U.S. and southward to northern South America. It has also been seen in Europe, Hawaii and some of the larger Caribbean islands.
The adults wingspan range in size from 1.75 to 2.40 inches
