At Home on Hill Haven

Butterfly Addendum

I just looked up a few more butterfly details (to confirm that yes, we do have a monarch sipping from our zinnias today!) and found that the gender of the black swallowtail can be determined by observing the coloring. Turns out the females have a broader band of blue, with the red dots minimized, while in males the blue is diminished and the red dots are larger. So, looking back at my photos, I shoud have said "she" rather than "he," and I'm pretty sure the second was female as well. Go girls!

We also have a large number of tiger swallowtails and painted ladies now, as well as another orange type I haven't identified yet. Such a beautiful season :)

Labels: black swallowtail, butterfly gender

And Another!

I knew we had an escapee from the butterfly cage, but had assumed it had died somewhere in the playroom, since I didn't find it on any of the plants. Not so! It made its cocoon in a very safe place, turns out-- on the back of an upright board that luckily didn't get disturbed for the duration of its metamorphosis. I found this one, even earlier post-hatch than the first, on the next day after the first one hatched:

I released this one outside just like the other. It amazes me how trusting they both were when neither could yet fly, climbing right onto my finger with no hesitation. I could be intending to eat it! Perhaps it knows somehow that I won't?

I also learned, after this one, that a precise amount of time after hatching and before taking first flight, butterflies must always pee. And these, at least, have white pee, which they spray in an arc with quite a bit of force for such a wee thing. Now I may add to my abundant list of experiences that I have been urinated upon by a butterfly, twice. Hm, should I add this to my resume?

Labels: black swallowtail, metamorphosis

Emergence!

If you ever desire the experience of observing caterpillar metamorphosis, I highly recommend planting carrots. Turns out the black swallowtail butterfly lays its eggs exclusively on members of the carrot family (Queen Anne's Lace works as well), so if you've got a stand of carrots, as we do, you're quite likely to find these beautiful caterpillars fattening themselves on them. I read that these are easy to raise, and it proved true. We picked some carrot greens and put one of the little fellas in our butterfly "cage" and within a couple of days he had formed his chrysalis. I taped the carrot stem to the inside of the top of our cage. Yesterday I noticed that the black of his new wings and body was visible through the chrysalis, which had looked solid green until that point. He emerged not too long before we got up this morning. I found him with still-wilty wings, pumping them slowly. We took the cage outside. Opening the top, I offered my finger for him to climb onto and brought him out of the cage. After a few more pumps and some minutes in the warmth of the sun, he was ready to go, alighting on zinnias and rudbeckia on his way.

The newly-formed chrysalis. Too bad the viewing screen is kaput on the camera, I would have tried to get a better shot of it.