Has anyone else noticed that the butterflies are coming in/hatching early this year? I have seen so many varieties already. I even had two very large swallowtails being very "friendly" in my garden yesterday. I am concerned that I will not have enough food for the cats. I still have several clumps of bronze and green fennel as well as parsley but not much else that is large enough to feed very many. Guess I need to go to the nursery and get some more plants.
Patsy
Early butterflies
Monarchs are all I've seen so far--but they've been real frequent in the last 3 weeks. The redbud blooms are history here now, but caught this guy a couple of weeks ago.
They seem pretty desperate in their search for plants here too....hope they can hang on a couple of weeks. My russelia is the only "steady" bloomer I have right now.
This message was edited Mar 17, 2006 6:35 AM
The Gulf Frittilaries never stopped here, all winter long. They even toughed it out through the freezes! When they got finished devouring every leaf on the passion vines, they started working on the stems. I saw one coming out of the chrysalis Sunday, and yesterday I saw a cat starting to form a chrysalis.
The passion vines are now coming back, it will be interesting to see if they can grow sufficiently before being devoured.
Maggie--anyone have a lot of cannas near you? They really like those too!
Debbie
When I visited a natural area park recently, I watched a Pipevine Swallowtail that seemed to be looking for something along the side of the road. I believe it was looking for a native pipevine host plant (known to grow in that area), but I wondered if maybe they're all dormant because of the drought...I certainly didn't see any where the butterfly was looking. I've ordered some native pipevines from a native nursery that sells them, but they said the plants won't be ready until late April. I'm told the tropical pipevines sold at nurseries in the city are toxic to those kind of caterpillars. My Passiflora caerulea vine made it through the winter with some foliage and P. foetida and P. incarnata are growing good now. I saw a 5th instar Gulf Fritillary cat on a vine last month. I've got plenty of parsley and fennel, but no cats yet that I've noticed. I've been seeing a Giant Swallowtail lately. The Hop Trees (host plants) are just beginning to leaf out now.
They are muching away on my parsley--but not the fennel yet. I grow it just for them.
Linda, they can eat these tropical Aristolochias without harm:
A. trilobata/macroura
A. leuconeura
A. fimbriata
A. gigantea
These native Aristolochias
A. durior/macrophylla
A. californica
A. tomentosa(native to TX)
A. serpentaria
I have Aristolochia ELEGANS in the garden too. They will only eat it if there are no others available and the cats don't seem to "thrive" on it and don't seem to grow to full size. It is the one reported to be poisonous to them.
They absolutely loved A. gigantea, the cats thrived, grew to good size, morphed into butterflies and came back and laid more eggs(hundreds of cats, not just a few). They ate A. leuconeura down to the stems and ate A. trilobata till there was barely anything left. The cats got very fat on those two plants and I had to move some to gigantea after all the leaves were gone.
I also have A. clematitis, A. ringens, A. grandiflora, A. grandiflora Brazilensis and one more I can't remember........the cats haven't bothered these varieties yet.
I'm too far North to see anything other than a few small Sulphurs. I have parsley and rue that made it thru "winter" and are ready. I've also got a lot of dill coming up. I've got fennel seeds ready to throw out and I will buy some soon.
My passionvine is coming up, but not where it started! I'm glad it's alive, but would appreciate if it wouldn't wander into the middle of my beds. I guess I shouldn't complain tho so I'll just try and dig them up.
I'm still hoping to get some Pipevine from Maggiemoo this year! My visitors will be so surprised if I have their host plant. I'm ready for some new cats to raise.
It's been pouring down rain here all day, so I should have lots of stuff coming up quickly.
Thanks for that info, Calalily! I didn't know all those aristolochias could be used. I think A. erecta might possibly be used also. At least, that's the species known to grow in that park.
I forgot all about that little one. Another native Aristolochia! I may have to check out the local natives place and see if he can find it for me.