For the first time this year, I saw an Eastern Black Swallowtail and she was laying eggs on the Fennel.  We never cook with Fennel, we just let it grow however it wants in our garden.  The result is that we have 2 huge stalks (is that the correct word?) of Fennel, which I guess if you are an Eastern Black Swallowtail, looks like a perfect place to lay a few hundred eggs.

First Eastern Black Swallowtail Of 2012 Laying Eggs

Today there was a large male Eastern Black Swallowtail that just couldn’t get away from this plant.  In this particular photo the male is on one of the pink colored flowers, but this plant we have has a mixture of colors including pink, white, and purple.

Male Eastern Black Swallowtail On Pink Butterfly Bush

Before I get to that, I wanted to share some information and see if others might have noticed the same thing.

We’ve had quite a few eggs and Caterpillars from the Eastern Black Swallowtail, but just as the Caterpillars get to be a decent size, they disappear.  I now have a theory.  I think the Green Anoles have been eating them.  I offer that theory for a couple of reasons.  One, those Anoles have been really stalking our outdoor Butterfly Enclosure that contain the Monarch Butterfly Caterpillars and Chrysalises.  I’ve pretty much “Lizard-Proofed” the enclosure, but they haven’t stopped trying to find a way in.  My second reason for this theory, is that the Green Anoles were hanging around the Fennel and Dill where the eggs and Caterpillars were feeding until I took them inside to raise them.

So what do you think?  Have you ever observed Green Anoles feeding on Butterfly Caterpillars?

Now for the pictures.

This first picture contains two Eastern Black Swallowtail Caterpillars.  You can see the one on the left is absolutely huge!  I thought for sure it would begin forming a Chrysalis yesterday, but it continues to feed.  It almost looks like it’s about to burst.

Two Eastern Black Swallowtail Caterpillars Feeding On Fennel

In comparison to Monarch Caterpillars, the Eastern Black Swallowtail tends to prefer structures where it can attach itself to a structure and hang.  This wire structure that the Caterpillar and Chrysalis are attached to is at the bottom of our indoor Butterfly Enclosure.  They didn’t attach themselves to the top of the enclosure like a Monarch would typically do.  It doesn’t seem to be as concerned about protecting itself from the elements like a Monarch Caterpillar.  The only problem with these Eastern Black Swallowtails attaching themselves to this location is there is no way they could exit the Chrysalis and dry their wings without us moving the structure as it’s barely an inch off of the ground.

If you’ve ever wondered what an Eastern Black Swallowtail Chrysalis and Caterpillar look like side by side, well here’s a picture.  It’s pretty obvious how difficult it would be to find the Chrysalis in the outdoors.  It would likely attach itself to the stem of a plant that matched the color and texture of the Chrysalis and unless you have “eagle eyes” it would be difficult to find.

Eastern Black Swallowtail Caterpillar And Chrysalis Comparison

First are the Eastern Black Swallowtail Caterpillars.  We have quite a few of these now, we’ve counted around 20, but our Fennel is so thick, I’m sure there are some we are missing.

In this picture, you can see 3 of them.  They are all around the same size.

Three Eastern Black Swallowtail Caterpillars On Fennel

This picture below is of a different Fennel plant.  In this picture you can only see two.  I’ll get my macro lens out soon and take some close up shots, as they way these Caterpillars look now is nothing how they look once they get a bit bigger.

Two Eastern Black Swallowtail Caterpillars On Fennel

Our Monarch Caterpillars are a bit tricky to get pictures of right now.  All of our Milkweed is quite small, as are the Caterpillars.  To the best of my knowledge, these Caterpillars are all from the same female Monarch that we saw a couple of weeks ago.  We haven’t seen one Monarch since then (which is rather strange actually).

Are other people seeing Monarchs right now in the Houston area?  I would have thought we would have seen several by now, but either they are visiting during the afternoon when we aren’t here, or they just haven’t been around.  I’m going to assume the latter, as we haven’t seen any new eggs on the Milkweed.

Young Monarch Caterpillars On New Milkweed

In other news, I have seen 3 Garter snakes this weekend.  One was about a foot long, and bit my hand the whole time I held it, another was about 2 feet long, and the third was again about 1 foot long.  I didn’t get pictures of those either, but I will, just wait!  I need Leecy’s help for that as I can’t photograph and hold a snake at the same time.

Lots of mating behaviors are starting to occur with the birds.  Males are competing with one another, and females are being chased all over the place.  There are about 10 Purple Martins in our Martin house, and about 20 overall.  The other 10 seem to hang around the house that’s a few doors down from mine where they have 4 Purple Martin houses (I’m jealous!).  I need to do a nest check in that Martin house, but they normally spend a few weeks getting to know one other before building their nest (at least from what I’ve observed in the past).

On a side note, especially for those that are new to Butterfly Gardening.  I’m noticing a lot of those red Paper Wasps.  They are notorious Caterpillar killers.  I’m contemplating covering the Caterpillars I can find to make sure they don’t get eaten.

Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly Laying Eggs In Mass Of Fennel

After she laid quite a few eggs on the Fennel and Dill, she flew to the Coral Honeysuckle to stretch her wings and rest (or perhaps warm up).

Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly Resting On Coral Honeysuckle

I got a few pictures, but I missed several and several others weren’t that good as I got over-excited.

The plants that seemed to be attracting the most Butterflies were the Lantana and Butterfly Bush.

The most prevalent Butterfly I saw today was the Eastern Black Swallowtail.  Interestingly, none of them were laying any eggs, they were just going after the nectar and chasing each other.

Eastern Black Swallowtail On Butterfly Bush

On top of all that, we’re having a crisis.  We are running out of Dutchman’s Pipevine (Aristolochia Fimbriata) and neither Joshua’s Native Plants nor Buchanan’s Native Plants has any in stock.  We have at least 15 huge Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillars and although I’ve been thinking they will soon stop eating and form Chrysalises, I’m apparently mistaken.  I could have sworn they were going to stop eating yesterday, and yet today there they were, still munching away.  They were even eating the Dutchman’s Pipevine stems since there were so few leaves.

I’m going to start calling first thing in the morning and see if any other nurseries have this plant in stock.  For those of you in the Houston area reading this, if you know of a source, please share!

Eastern Black Swallowtail Hatching After Almost 7 Months

We took the Butterfly outside to warm up in the sun, but the sun never appeared.  Once it became clear it was going to rain, we brought the Butterfly back inside and plan on releasing it tomorrow.

We haven’t seen any Monarch Butterflies, but we do have 9 Caterpillars from the one Monarch from Mexico.  To give the Caterpillars the best chance of success, I have quarantined them in our Butterfly Enclosure.  I did this to protect the Caterpillars from predatory wasps and flies.  So far, all of the Monarch Caterpillars appear to be doing great.

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding On Milkweed Blooms

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding On Milkweed Flower

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding

Another Butterfly that has been making daily visits is a Giant Swallowtail.  From what I can tell, she really likes laying eggs on our Moro Blood Orange Tree.  On that tree alone I’ve counted over 9 different eggs, and I’m sure there’s some I haven’t seen.

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly Egg

I was fortunate enough to also catch a glimpse of 2 Giant Swallowtail Caterpillars. The Caterpillar in the picture below is about two days old.  You can even see the egg casing (white) in the background.

Two Day Old Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar

We’ve also seen the Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly.  I’ve been able to find 1 Caterpillar so far.  I’ll post some pictures of that later.