A Striking Pollinator

Here’s another beauty I captured in the below photos yesterday on my walk, a female Black Swallowtail butterfly.

There were many busily fluttering about but only this little lady was feeling photogenic, the others, not so much -

She was dining on the nectar of a red clover flower -

Believe it or not, according to the Google machine, the Black Swallowtail is one of the most common and familiar butterflies in eastern and central North America.

I would have guessed it to be the Monarch butterfly. I stand corrected ☺️ 

A Black & Yellow Kaleidoscope

Here’s a group (kaleidoscope) of male Eastern Yellow Swallowtail butterflies puddling along the Nolichucky drinking water and healthy minerals they so need.

Although, a bit hard to make out, there are five in the picture below -

They were busy doing their thing and were not bothered by my presence. There we oodles along the banks of the river, many in groups like these.

It’s been so darn hot and humid, who can blame them.

The Eyespots Though

Whatcha look’n at bub?!

This male Hackberry Emperor Butterfly thought I wouldn’t notice him perched on the back porch light fixture -

The row of white spots near the tips of its forewing is the tell that this is in fact a Hackberry Emperor butterfly and not its closely related Tawney Emperor butterfly. 

Learn something new every day 💡!

Another Roadway Save

I saved this male Tiger Swallowtail butterfly the other afternoon on my walk.  He was lying in the road and would have surely been squashed.  Perhaps, he was hit by a passing car and a tad out of it but I was able to pick him up and move him away from the street.

Hoping he recovered.

Soaring

Here's an awesome picture that Emilie took today of a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly hovering over a butterfuly bush flower.

If You Build (Plant) It, They Will Come

I planted parsley along side the carrots this season and both did very well.  Outside of the obvious, the hope was to also attract the Black Swallowtail butterfly and as you can see below it was a smashing success!

They were partial to the parsley and devoured it.  We had about 6 to 8 and boy did they grow fast.  Seemed like they doubled in size every day.

Not sure where they crawled off to but hoping they chose a good, safe and protected space to build their chrysalis. 

The Insect Magnet -Butterfly Bush

It's that time of the year and the butterfly bushes are in full bloom!

They're loaded with all sorts of insect from crawling to flying and from ants to bees and butterflies.

Here is a very small sampling -

Female Monarch butterfly -

Female Black Swallowtail butterfly -

Bumble bee -

Honey bee -

This has been a very good year for visiting butterflies. Oodles and oodles of Black Swallowtails, Yellow Swallowtails and happily Monarchs!!

New Full Sun Perennials!

Stopped in at Medway Gardens the other day and picked up several new full sun perennials with a gift card I had received for my birthday back in May.  It was burning a hole in my wallet.

The bees love this plant.  The flowers were covered with all kinds shortly after bring home and still the same today.

The original home owners had a Liatra planted by the pool.  It did well for a couple years then died off.  We're tried once or twice to replant but haven't had much luck.  One more try, this time in a different location.

We've never had this plant in our yard.  However, we have several Butterfly Bushes around the yard and boy-o-boy do they attract all kinds of insects.  Thought this would be another good plant to offer up for they're enjoyment.  Really would love this plant to bring in and attract Monarch butterflies and their caterpillars.  If I'm mistaken my brother in Miami had one of these plants and it was covered with Monarch caterpillars - hoping for the same.

Now just need to determine locations for each...

Red Admiral Visitor

This Red Admiral butterfly is looking a bit ragged for sure.  However, this male still had plenty of spunk and just wouldn't sit still.  He made me work for this picture but it was worth the effort, as you can see.  Insects just love them some purple coneflower!!

They're BIG fans of nettles, of which I am NOT.  We have quite a bit of stinging nettles and I stay clear of it, for very good reason!

Visiting Monarch

Very pleased to have a Monarch butterfly visiting our flower gardens this past weekend!  A very healthy looking female who was not camera shy at all!

Sadly, I don't see too many of these beauties now a days.

Hoping to see more of her and many more...

The Sphingidae Family Perhaps?

I came across this very interesting looking caterpillar last weekend residing on our Grapevines.

It's not very long, about 3/4".  Yellowish brown in color with a horn on it rear-end and what looks like an over sized (foreskin type) collar, which allowed it to retract it's head into.

It has since gone into it's chrysalis stage, so we'll see what type of butterfly emerges.

I'm guessing it's one of the following: Darapsa Myron, Achemon Sphinx or Pandorus Sphinx.  Hard to tell as there too many to choose from, yet I wasn't able to locate an exact match on the Google machine.

Interesting non-the-less!

Butterfly and Echinacia

This stunning Black Swallowtail butterfly was around all weekend long.  Keeping me company as I worked in the yard.  Fluttering from one flower to another and one plant to another.  Hoping to attract more and see other kinds too, as we have plenty of flowers to dine on.

Well It's About Time!

All I can say is finally!

Took till September 21 before I saw the first Monarch Butterfly visiting the ole homestead. Seemed to be enjoying this lavender Butterfly Bush, one of many that we have throughout our yard.

Not sure what the hold up is but this dude best be moving along if Mexico's in the plan.

Missing Butterflies...

 

Our flowers, both annuals and perennials, did very well this summer with beautiful flowers and colors.  There have been oodles of bees, Praying Mantis' and other insects around.  Sadly, however, there have been very few butterflies.  I've not seen a single Monarch this summer, here in our yard or elsewhere.  Even our walks through Milkweed patches have turned up not a single Monarch caterpillar, alas.

There have been a handful of Yellow Tiger Swallowtails who've visited, pictured above, but that's about it.

Perhaps, the long cold Winter or crazy Spring weather we had contributed.  Just hope it's an anomaly and doesn't continue in the coming years.

The Chrysalises Are Hatching!

The Black Swallowtail chrysalises are beginning to hatch into absolutely beautiful butterflies!

The first two hatched a couple weeks ago.  Last week four more hatched out.  

Oddly, all six appear to have been females.  Wonder why - diet? temperature? or the fact that they were caged and kept in the garage all winter?  Interesting...

There are several more chrysalises. I suspect they'll also be hatching soon.  Hopefully they'll stick around our yard this summer.

Black Swallowtail Instar - Hatch!

 

In a previous posting of mine titled, "Black Swallowtail Instars" from Wednesday, October 31, 2012, I talked about the Black Swallowtail caterpillars that we attracted to our parsley.

 

Anyway, I dug out a parsley plant in the fall before the frost killed it, potted it up and placed inside a 20-gallon fish tank.  I then pulled all the instars I could find and placed them on the parsley plants in the tank.  Added some branches for them to build there chrysalises on and store in the garage for the long cold winter.

 

Well, the dude pictured above was the first of the instar to hatch!  As you can see the parsley plant is long since dead but the chrysalises are still there.  A couple more to hatch then I can reclaim and clean my tank.

 

We let this dude go, who proceeded to fly off as though it's been flying for years.  Just hope he chooses to stick around and enjoy the flowers we have available now and the many, many to come.

Celastrina Ladon, Maybe?? Can't Be Sure.

 

I believe this is some type of Azure butterfly; perhaps the Summer Azure, but I can't be certain. 

 

As you can see, this picture was taken back in August, when the flowers were still in bloom and the butterflies and insects were busy-as-a-bee.

 

This Azure was bee-bopping from flower to flower to flower on this Joe-Pye Weed and was difficult to get a picture of.  This is the best I could do, so it'll have to do, until I can try to do it again, phew.

Froggie Went A Courtin

Shh, notice how still the frog is so not to frighten the Fritillary Butterfly that's resting at his feet, statuesque!

We had oodles and oodles of these Fritillary Butterflies this past summer!  The simply LOVED our Butterfly bushes.  Hopefully, they'll return next year too.

Black Swallowtail Instars

Can you find the critters in the below photos?

We planted (4) Italian Parsley plants this past Spring and they did fantastic.  As a matter of fact, with the mild weather we've been having the plants are still doing fine.  Since we have more than we'll ever use I've begun feeding it to our rabbits, who seem to enjoy it too.

Yesterday afternoon I went to do just that, pick some parsley for the bun-buns, and was pleasantly surprised to find (5) Black Swallowtail caterpillars in their various stages (instar) of growth/development.

Needless to say the rabbits didn't get to dine on parsley.

From what I can tell, keeping in mind that I'm no expert, the top and the bottom pictures show caterpillars that are in their Third Instar Stage.  The two pics in the middle show them in their Second Instar Stage.

Honestly, I think these dudes are a little behind in their development.  However, soon they will spin their chrysalis and remain in that state throughout the long, cold winter for ~8 to 9 months until they emerge as beautiful Black Swallowtail butterflies!

Truth be told, we plant the Parsley and sometimes Fennel and Dill, for one main reason - in the hopes of attracting these caterpillars, honest!  We do not use these herbs to cook with at all.

So, what I plan on doing next planting season it to plant more parsley and to spread their locations out throughout the yard.  These four are all planted side by side.  However, it worked just the same!

A Few Nectar-Feeding Insects

Although, we've not see too many Monarch butterflies this summer, some did eventually arrive for a visit and something to nibble on. We did have many other butterflies and moths visiting all summer long and still do today. Here are just a few:

Here is a picture of a Yellow Sulfur perched atop a Joe-Pye weed flower -


Here is a beautiful Great Spangled Fritilary butterfly atop a butterfly bush flower -


Here is another stunning beauty, a female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail atop our Harlequin Glory Bower bush -