Hi, everyone, there is a new member who posted on the Welcome Mat thread (not a subscriber) who is asking where they can purchase Gulf Fritillary caterpillars. If anyone can help him, please post a reply here:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1365321/
Gulf Fritillary caterpillars
If he plants a passiflora vine common to his area, he can have all the GF pillars he wants for free. A lot depends on where he lives.
He said he has passiflora, but hasn't seen the caterpillars this year.
So he lives somewhere GFs are common, but is not seeing them this year. I have seen very few, and none within the last couple of months. I can speculate that it may be because the rainy season in tropical Mexico last year bombarded us with more rain than any time in the meterological history of the country. We had two hurricanes (one from the Pacific and one from the Atlantic) hit on the same day. The rainy season that normally ends mid-October, lasted all through November and part of December. I cannot help but think this took a toll on any number of butterfly populations.
Thank you for that information, vitrsna. Yes, that does make sense. I'm sorry you had to endure such extreme weather!
The butterflies we are missing will rebuild their numbers but we may need a little patience. Already in my garden the Giant Swallowtails and the Queen Monarchs and Opsiphanes have started rebuilding and i am getting good results. My passiflora is pruned down, but there are plenty of wild passiflora here to feed the GFs and other Heliconia.
I'm glad they're making a comeback!
Mt. Magazine Butterfly Festival is this weekend. Last Friday I delivered my entries for the photography contest and on the way I noticed a male Diana fritillary nectaring a butterfly weed. Oh joy!!! Didn't wreck but I sure scared the water out of my passenger. Got lots of nice pictures.
Yesterday I visited the MG'ers Learning Fields wildflower area which is about 2 miles away. Second surprise. two lady Dianas were busy nectaring bee balm. Lucky me to see both male and female Diana fritillaries. Such lovely butterflies. Just plant violets on my final real estate.
OOPs, wrong thread.
That's okay, your photos are wonderful!
KY, when I first planted my vine it grew like wildfire but didn't have any cats. A person several miles out of town was saying how many cats were on their vines an eating them down. I asked about getting some from her and she said she was coming to FW in a few days. She came and brought me about 20 cats on a bouquet of vines. Since we introduced those, they come every year!
Put a request out on Craig's List for them, you may get more than you want!
I'll tell them, thanks!