Brand new

A zebra longwing, the Florida state butterfly, hatched this morning. It was hidden within the maypop passion vine.

The males will mate with a female before it emerges from its chrysalis, which resembles a dead leaf. Once the male determines it is a female, it will perch on the chrysalis and fend off other males by opening its wings. The mating can go on for several hours, with the female emerging and expanding her wings. I am assuming this butterfly is a male, as there were no other zebra longwings nearby today, or the last few days.

More photographs of this can be found at https://bit.ly/3dWN7q7.

The zebra

The zebra longwing, the Florida state butterfly, depositing an egg on a corky stem passion vine. They lay yellow eggs, which I mostly find singular, rather than clusters on the leaves.

They are considered a medium sized butterfly.

Their flight is slow and fun to watch, especially since they do not scare easily.

Florida beauty

The zebra longwing, the Florida state butterfly, has been spending more time in our garden lately, all throughout the day, instead of just the morning hours. This butterfly, at least in my experience, does not scare very easily. They fly very near to get to their destination.

Zebra longwing sipping nectar from a red penta.

I find it interesting that butterflies are insects that like to be clean. If not kept clean, their antennae’s do not function correctly. Although it may differ slightly to the species, butterflies will use their forelegs to groom their antennae by lower it and then crossing their legs over it, while rubbing them down the shaft to the club.

Zebra longwing sipping nectar from a red penta.
Zebra longwing sipping nectar from a red penta.

The black and white caterpillar

The zebra longwing butterfly is finally laying eggs in the garden. I spotted the first caterpillar that we have had in a really long time.

The zebra longwing caterpillar is on one of its host plants, the maypop passionvine.

It’s interesting that the zebra longwing female butterfly likes to find shady spots to lay her eggs. This plant is not in a shady area and has at least three more eggs that you can see in the photo.

More photos and the interesting facts about Florida’s state butterfly can be found https://bit.ly/3Nvr3Py.