Butterflies And Wildlife » Host Plants

Big Ant Hiding In Passionvine

texdr — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:57:26 +0000

This guy looks pretty threatening to me.

Big Ant On Passionvine

It’s some type of Ant (obviously), but I’m not sure what kind. He was just sitting on one of the Passionvine stems, like waiting to ambush something that would happen to come by.

Notice the little hairs on it’s head?

Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar Feeding During The Day

texdr — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:29:27 +0000

I thought most Spicebush Caterpillars only feed in the early morning or late evening, not in the middle of the day.

For some reason, this large Spicebush Caterpillar was feeding on the Spicebush in the middle of the afternoon. It was really chewing on the leaves. Once the female Spicebush Butterfly came around, it quickly crawled back inside the protection of a leaf.

On another but similar note, I have yet to find any Spicebush Chrysalises, although we had several large Caterpillars a couple of weeks ago.

Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar Feeding

Old Female Spicebush Butterfly

texdr — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:24:50 +0000

I finally saw a mature Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly over by the Spicebush. This female was going through all the egg laying maneuvers, but when I checked under each leaf where it looked like she had laid eggs, there was nothing to be found.

When she finally quit flying around and “pretending” she was laying eggs, she stopped to rest on the Spicebush plant. It was then that I saw she was pretty old, based on how faded her wings were, and the missing parts of her wing.

Old Female Spicebush Swallowtail Resting

First Apperance of Little Sulphur Butterfly

texdr — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:15:35 +0000

I’ve never seen this Butterfly before. It was hanging on the Milkweed.

It’s called a Little Sulphur Butterfly. Cute little thing.

Little Sulphur Butterfly

Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillars Are Really Growing

texdr — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:37:52 +0000

These Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillars are really growing! It seemed like just a few days ago they were tiny little things.

These guys have not been easy for me to photograph. They tend to come out from under the Spicebush leaves during the early evening hours, and I haven’t been getting home in time for decent light.

Today was a different day. Actually Leecy called me while I was still at work and said if I can get home at a decent hour, there would be some opportunities to take pictures of the Caterpillars and how much they’ve grown.

Below is a fairly decent sized Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar extending its “Osmeterium” (those yellow horns). It apparently thought Leecy’s thumb was getting a little too close.

Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar Extending Osmeterium

Here’s another Caterpillar about the same size as the one above.

Medium Sized Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar

The next couple of pictures are some of the larger Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillars. I’m not sure these are my favorite Butterfly Caterpillars, but they certainly rank towards to the top.

Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar Growing

Another Large Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar

Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillars Eating

texdr — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 01:50:06 +0000

I don’t know where they are coming from, but I am happy to have them. I’m referring to the Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillars.

We have lots of Caterpillars feeding on both the Spicebush and Sassafras plants. I have yet to see any actual Spicebush Swallowtail Butterflies, but they’re coming from somewhere.

This is the most Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillars we’ve ever had. I’ve always wanted to see a full size Spicebush Caterpillar up close, but we’ve never had them before.

Spicebush Swallowtail Eating Spicebush

Spicebush Swallowtail Eating

In addition to the Caterpillars that are the size in the pictures, we also have several really small Spicebush. I had the wrong lens to take quality pictures of them, but I’ll try and get some later this week.

Leecy Makes Milkweed Packets

texdr — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:53:09 +0000

A couple of weeks ago Leecy decided to do a little crafting with the abundant amount of Mexican Milkweed seeds that we have collected from our plants.

She actually made the little cards and put 1/4 teaspoon of Milkweed seeds into each packet (that’s typically much more than we have received when we’ve ordered something).

I thought it was a pretty clever bit of crafting myself.

Leecy-Made Milkweed Packet

I know some of the folks that we have given the Milkweed seeds have asked how we plant them. Down here in Houston, it’s quite easy. Throw them in a pot or the ground and cover them with just a bit of soil. Seriously, that’s all we’ve ever had to do!

Variegated Fritillary Basking

texdr — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:15:17 +0000

I saw 3 of these yesterday. That’s more than I’ve ever seen in the backyard. Two of them would chase each other, while the other just laid eggs.

This might be one of the better pictures I’ve taken of a Variegated as she rested on a rock right in front of me.

Variegated Fritillary Basking On Rock

Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillars May Make It

texdr — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:12:05 +0000

It looks like the Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillars will survive and won’t run out of food. They found almost every small piece of Pipevine (Fimbriata type) and I only see one of them still eating. I found 3 of them near the roof of the house. Two of them already converted to Chrysalis, and the other should turn tomorrow.

Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillar Eating Stem

I’m going to guess I may not see too many more Pipevine Swallowtail at least for a little while since my Host sources are so low. I guess they could fly by for some of the nectar plants.

Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillar Looking Large

Butterflies Were Everywhere Today

texdr — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 04:30:57 +0000

Holy Cow! Today there were Butterflies everywhere in the backyard. We had a Monarch, Question Mark, Variegated Fritillary, Giant Swallowtail, Grey Hairstreak, Eastern Black Swallowtail, some type of Crescent Butterfly, and a Pipevine Swallowtail.

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!