Hello everyone,
The first of my 5 Giant Swallowtails emerged from its chrysalis morning!!!
Here's a pic of it resting just above the empty chrysalis.
Look who emerged this morning!
Beautiful! My only host plant, the Rue, died. It always does. I think that I might finally know where to plant it now and water it less. I'll try again because I've seen a GST a couple of times lately. I want babies too!
Here's a pic after it had rested for a couple of hours. It started fluttering around the cage a bit, with frequent rests inbetween the short flights. The background was a bit distracting, so I held a piece of white paper outside the cage while I snapped the pic.
Mark
Here's a pic of the underside taken from outside the cage.
Mark
After I took several pics from the inside of the cage (with the door open), it fluttered up and out of the cage. Then it went around to the front yard, and landed on a crepe myrtle. It stayed there for a few minutes (without getting any nectar), and then fluttered off across the street and behind my neighbor's house.
Hopefully it will return so I can get some more pics like this!
Mark
Outstanding! Absolutely gorgeous....
Hi Konkrete,
Sorry to hear about your rue :-( I would think you ought to be able to grow citrus of some sort too. If the Texas heat is too much, maybe some shade screen might do the trick. These cats are easy to grow as long as you have a big enough host plant! The whole process is fascinating!!! My cats were taken off of a lemon tree that the mother swallowtail visited daily for about a week. She must have laid about 20 to 25 eggs on that little tree. I transferred 7 of the little cats to my orange tree, and 5 of those made it to the chrysalis stage. I watched my lemon tree carefully, and not a single one of the cats on that tree made it. They were undoubtedly carried off by one of the many varieties of wasps that we have in the area. Only one cat on the lemon tree made it the 4th instar, and then something got that one too.
I'll post pics of the others when they emerge. I also have 2 black swallowtails that will emerge in about a week.
I'm tryng to grow some host plants for tiger swallowtails (tulip poplar, cottonwood) from the seeds, but not having much luck so far. I saw a few tigers last year and they are my favorite. Here's a pic of one feeding on a lantana.
Mark
Cottonwoods!? Didn't know that. Heck, I have two om my property.
The second of my 4 Giant Swallowtails emerged this morning, less than 12 hours after Tropical Storm Cindy blew through (the eye passed about 50 miles east of us). I got home from work last night just after midnight, and found that my cage had been blown over on its side (we had some 40 mph gusts). I thought it would be protected enough on the back patio right up against the house, but I was wrong. The orange tree inside the cage was on its side, with some of the soil knocked out. All but 1 of the chrysalises were OK (one was smushed). I moved the cage in the garage for the rest of the night, and the butterfly emerged about an hour after I took the cage back out this morning.
I got a good pic with the wings closed, but as soon as it opened its wings, it started fluttering, and when I opened the cage door, it bolted out. We had pretty good weather today, so I think it was probably OK.
Here's one of the pics I got.
Mark
Here's number 3. Just emerged this morning, and landed on a 4 o'clock right after it flew out of the cage. Hopefully it will find a safe spot to ride out the winds from Hurricane Dennis. Even though we are 200 miles from the expected landfall, we are expecting 40 to 50 mph gusts.
Mark
Absolutely beautiful.....
oops, lost this thread! They are beautiful! I say every year that I want to get a citrus tree, and always forget until I start seeing the GST's. I went to a nursery the other day and got me 3 small Rue's. I think I'll try planting them in various locations and see which one does best. I have raised the GST's inside on Rue before. They can eat! Citrus leaves would be so much better.
I love the Tiger ST's too. I have only seen them in my yard twice, once last Spring and once this Spring. I guess it is just passing thru. It makes my day when I do see it tho!
I was so excited to see an early Monarch recently. It was a male tho. :( I need to find my pictures to post.
Are there hardy citrus species for North Texas?
Beautiful pictures. Got to ask, what kind of cage did you have them in??? I have a small plastic box with vented lid that I got from petsmart. would like to have something bigger. One more question---what is RUE??? I am willing to plant whatever will attract the swallowtails.
Rue is an herb that the GST's use as a host plant. I can grow it for a while, but not long. I haven't figured out the secret to it yet. I think I am going to keep 2 of my 3 in pots this time so I can move them around and bring them inside if I get eggs.
Sorry for being away for long. I work in a hospital, and we have preparing for a major inspection by a national accrediting group. So I've really been putting in some hours, making sure all my staff is ready. I built my cage from 2 by 4s and insect netting. I made it about 3 feet wide, 5 feet high, and 1.5 feet deep. My small orange tree (which is in a pot) can easily fit inside, along with other plants as well. The cage is to protect the cats; I release the butterflies a couple of hours after they emerge. When they start fluttering they are ready to go.
I have been seeing a female giant swallowtail in my backyard for about a week (not sure if its one I raised), and have some new baby cats on my lemon tree. But the lemon tree is producing this year, so this time around the cats will have to fend for themselves. The orange tree that I used as the host plant is pretty well decimated, and can't be used again until probably late summer or next year. I counted 10 little cats yesterday, so I think there is a good chance 1 or 2 will escape the wasps. If they all lived, they would be able to do some serious damage to the lemon tree. The wasps are already on my passion flower vine. I don't know if they are waiting for the Gulf Frit cats, or if they are eating something else on the vine. I should be to raise some Gulf Frits on cuttings placed in my cage, but it will probably be another few weeks before they arrive. And I still have not seen any Tigers or Monarchs. I think it may take 2 or 3 years to establish a good location population once you have planted the host plants for their cats.
Mark
Are you able to grow citrus outside, Mark?
John
Hi John,
Yes, citrus grows quite well outside in my area (I am about 30 miles west of New Orleans). But about once every 5 years (on average), we do get a hard freeze that can kill even well established citrus trees. So if you plant in containers you can protect your trees when the temps get really low. There are some citrus orchards in Louisiana, but they are near the coast where freezes are pretty rare.
I got a pic of my egg laying giant swallowtail this morning. They don't stay in one place very long, so I only got a couple of good pics.
Mark
I'm really excited here the last few days as FINALLY the Swallowtails have found my garden. I've seen at least one in the garden every day for the past week - all in flight though, so no pics yet. I sure hope they decide to lay some eggs and stay around a while :-)
-Julie
Great shot!
About the only way I can have a citrus would be to grow one as a bonsai or very small dwarf. Did some googling and that might be feasible for me.
Julie, do you have host plants for them?
I have a passion vine with lots of cats on it. The frit's are always there laying eggs. I have never seen a chrysalis, don't know where they go. I have also seen the wasps recently. I am going to try to find some citrus plants, will put them in big pots so I can bring them in for the winter. Would love to see S.T.
Tell me about how to root the passion vine. I have not tried rooting anything.
Thanks
Chris
I had one today and was able to capture a lot of different shots.
Here is one that shows what great colors they have.
Very nice shot, Sandy!
That's a Tiger ST SandyD, and a beautiful one at that!