It has been a long time since the Queen Butterfly has visited the garden.
This beauty also uses milkweed to lay its eggs. It moved between my milkweed and the blooms on the wild lime tree.
It is a little smaller than the monarch with a wingspan between 6.7-9.8 cm. The wings are a mahogany coloring with black borders and small white spots.
The wild lime tree, which I recently trimmed, is blooming like crazy again. The flowers are stunning and are attracting a ton of bees. Nature is fun to watch.
The giant swallowtail caterpillars have returned to my wild lime tree with three now in my butterfly house.
The caterpillar goes through five instars, with feeding typically taking place during night hours. Each instar looks different in appearance. They resemble bird droppings when younger and rest on the top of the leaves. The larger caterpillar will rest on stems or leaf petioles.
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.
I put a fresh branch of the wild lime tree in the butterfly house, which got the giant swallowtail caterpillars moving around. It’s fascinating to me to see this, as this little head pops out under what appears to be their protective armor, their bird poop appearance.
