Grown Black Swallowtail Caterpillar eating a Parsley leaf.

Black Swallowtails......

We have so many Black Swallowtails. I counted over 130 eggs/caterpillars combined. I stopped counting because I have been too busy just trying to keep up with them, making sure they have food and shelter. Quite a few of them have gone into chrysalis. I hope to post pictures and videos of the process as soon as I have the time. I'm looking forward to release time, what fun!

Monarch

They eat like crazy and poop like crazy! The poop is called frass and you can see it all around. It is important to keep their area clean. We cleaned several times a day. We usually have them on a plant, but they ate it and these were extra leaves we got from a friend. 

This cat just molted and you can see the old skin on the right. 

The cat secures itself with its silk while it molts. You can see the silk on the glass.

The cat is eating its molted skin. There is nothing to go to waste. They also eat their egg shell first thing after they hatch. 

They secure themselves with silk and hang upside down as they prepare for chrysalis. A transformation is going on under their skin.

They literally shed their skin and expose the shell that was being formed underneath the skin. The next pictures show the shell pushing the skin up from the bottom to the top. They will then twist around to make the skin fall away from the chrysalis. 

The skin at the top must fall away, or rather be pushed as the cat goes into a twisting motion.

Twisting

Still twisting and the skin does fall away. See the new chrysalis in the back of the picture.

So beautiful, like a jewel.

Female

Male -dots on inner wings

Female - no dots

Eastern Yellow Tiger Swallowtail

The host plant we feed is the leaf of the Poplar tree, a pioneering tree in our area. 

Male

Male

Preparing to form chrysalis

More pictures to come of chrysalis and butterfly...whenever I manage to find them on my computer. ;-p

The butterflies have enjoyed my window boxes which have trailing purple Lantana, Geranium, & purple Petunia. The coconut liners dry out too fast. I will line them with plastic next year. If you would like to do this combination, look for "Blue" Geranium. It is not what I have, but it would match the Purple Lantana and Petunias very well. Live & Learn.  :)

Light Purple Petunia

Penta behind Flat Leaf Parsley

Zinnia

Zinnia

Victoria Blue -Perennial, buy as a plant, easy to grow and beautiful. 

Snapdragon, primarily a spring flower in the south. It will not do well in the humid heat of the summer. The snapdragon is a host plant from some smaller butterflies and that is why I have grown it, but it is not doing well as expected.

Lantana Bandanna, it actually changes color during the day.

Hot Pink Petunia

Purple Trailing Lantans

Homestead Verbena

Purple Homestead Verbena putting on a show

Purple Chrysanthemum 

Verbena

Penta

Window box with Lemon Drop Verbena (middle), Purple Trailing Lantana, & Hot Pink Petunia

Petunia - If you deadhead you will get a lot more flowers. You must cut the stem the flower is on or it will still set seed.

Purple Trailing Lantana

Marigold. Grown by my 11y/o daughter. She is very proud of her Marigolds. They are a great option for kids to grow from seed. They get big and are so easy to grow. The kids swell with pride.  :)