Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 17, 1 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
Not too much action this evening probably due to some rain, but I did see a Tropical Checkered Skipper, and the Pipevine Swallowtail was back again. Still no eggs on the pipevine so I figure it's got to be a male. I hope he can find a ladyfriend soon!

Update on the Zebra Swallowtails...I had three eggs. One hatched, but he never seemed to act quite right. He kept falling off the leaf. Two hatched today and now that I see them, I think the other one might have been deformed. The ones today are all silvery-gray with little black heads. The other one's tail end was also very dark like his head, and I thought it was normal until I saw the other two. Seeing as how he hatched a day earlier, maybe he was premature? Either way, the two today are acting very much like caterpillars. After they hatched on their (now dried up) leaves, I placed them next to my pawpaw seedling and they climbed aboard. The first one has already eaten a hole in the leaf! (See picture) The second one must have hatched within the last hour or two, but he's very active. He climbed right up on the leaf, and now he's climbed up the plant to the top leaf where the other cat is. He also seems to move pretty fast for a cat. In the few minutes since I started typing, he climbed next to his sibling. Let's all hope for the best!

By the way, the eggs when they're laid are green, then they turn a coppery color. Right before they hatched they were sort of gunmetal gray, which makes sense because that's the color the cats are.