Seasons Around The World Gizmo Answers Rar
Fanny Lococo
Monarch butterflies get all the press, but the Eastern or Black Swallowtail, Papillio polyxenes, a large blue, black and gold and cream-specked beauty, flies in our neck of the world from April through November. The Texas native provides lots of action in the garden when Monarchs are elsewhere.
Up until this point, I may have had the Swallowtails in a jar or container with a loose lid or netting. But now it starts to get interesting and I like to watch them eat and grow, although it can make a small mess.
Usually I gather fresh host plant and put it in a vase with newspaper underneath so I can observe the caterpillars literally grow before my eyes. The newspaper catches the frass, or caterpillar poop, that the caterpillars produce in volume.
As they move through their instars, they completely transform, going from the unremarkable black cat with a white band to a prickly orange, white and black form, then to a black, green, yellow and white-striped creature often confused with Monarch caterpillars.
The caterpillars will continue to eat, shed their skins and morph to the next stage over about 10 days until they get to the fifth instar at which time they will cease eating and seek a quiet place to form their chrysalis. Swallowtails are famous for wandering far from the host plant and taking their time to emerge from the chrysalis at unpredictable times. Monarch caterpillars are generally reliable in taking 10-14 days to eclose, or make the transition from chrysalis to butterfly.
Swallowtails, in contrast, can take a few weeks to many months to emerge. Their unpredictability is also manifested in the varied color of the chrysalis that results from the final morphing. Sometimes brown, sometimes green, you just never know what color a Swallowtail chrysalis will be.
Good information, Monica. I use perennial fennel for my black swallowtails because it grows very big and feeds a large number of caterpillars. I used to tell my students that in the early stages, they were like Oreo cookies. They could remember that when identifying swallowtails.
Yes, Ann, fennel just seems the best all-around host plant for Swallowtails, plus you can harvest the leaves and bulbs to eat. The flowers also give off a yummy pollen that fancy chefs are now using as an ingredient atop pasta and other delicacies. Thanks for writing.
are there any Monarch butterfly organizations in the Berkeley area of California, that tag butterflies and report on their comings and going in the bay area?
If I order stickers from you will they reflect my location here in California? with my zip code or some kind of i.d. where they came from?
This is my first time fostering Swallowtails (I have experience w/ Monarchs and Gulf Fritillaries).
I keep the cats in one of those huge collapsible hampers and most head for the top of the hamper and hang down, head nearest the top of the hamper, when they go into chrysalis
However, thus far, all of the Swallowtails have positioned themselves sideways along the top edge. Is that typical? Are they going to be able to emerge correctly?
This summer one Swallowtail chrysalis fell of a stick I had put in the dill plant for the caterpillar to attach itself too. I used dental floss, wrapped a single loop around the chrysalis and then attached it to the stick it fell off of. After about a week or a little more it hatched and was a very beautiful black swallowtail butterfly. I got the dental floss idea from an other site where this same discussion was occurring and it worked. The butterfly had perfectly formed wings. Hope this helps someone.
Using dental floss to attach chrysalises to a sturdy twig is directed to help Melanie Chesser. I made a loop and it looked just like the silk they make to attach themselves to something sturdy..it worked.
Thank you for the insight. This is our first year raising swallowtails. Found the caterpillars while weeding my dill. We have successfully raised seven to the chrysalis stage and now are waiting for the butterflies. Hopefully they will be gone in time for our monarchs to use the habitat. You were right about wandering. Loved watching every stage but had a few moments where we had to play Indiana Jones and find the missing friends as they explored the porch.
I had one like that too, he died in assume during the initial transformation process. It was sad to see but I have 9 others that made it to chrysalis and one now went dark and is now turning clear. Very excited to see the butterfly!
What I do to vastly extend milkweed may be applicable, at least to some extent, to other plants. I remove from plants only small amounts to sustain caterpillars for a short time, repeating several times throughout the day. Green seed pods, flower stems, green parts of yellowing leaves, portions of leafless stalks. I keep caterpillars separately by size, and feed them accordingly, so that big caterpillars do not eat the little leaves that little caterpillars must have.
Likewise, tips of big leaves to littles, coarser remainders to bigs.
I raise caterpillars in captivity both because predation is rampant (chrysales likewise are targets), and to manage their eating when supply is of concern.
You can collect eggs by removing them from plants. Or by taking them on bits of plant material on which they rest.
Fine mesh can reduce exposure to predators that do not find or make a way inside. For caterpillars, mesh should be supported by a framework that maintains as much gap as possible, which reduces overall amount of caterpillar time on the mesh where predators do sting and bite them from the outside.
We are used to swallowtail catapillars on our parsley. Six cats on one plant this Summer. After the parsley was stripped of leaves we put a bunch of store bought parsley in a vase. Cats did not seem hungary and by the next morning they all looked half dead. I moved the cats to our last garden parsley plant and all but one recovered. My guess is that the store bought parsley had been sprayed with dypel or something similar.
I just found my 1st 3 swallowtail caterpillars today. They are either 4 or 5th instar. I brought them inside and put them in a container with sticks & food. Is there anything else I need to do? I have a butterfly garden and have had lots of monarchs, so I was pleasantly surprised to see them.
Hi I live in Ontario and am raising what butterflies I find. Including both black and giant swallowtails. I also raised and released 25 painted ladies they are the easiest to raise. right now I have 5 black swallowtails in the crystalis stage. One fell off the zipper portion of the butterfly cage and is laying on the paper towel at the bottom. it had not yet hardened when it fell. I will try to attach it to a stick. The giant swallowtails are very interesting they really do look like bird poop when they are in the catipllar stage. I raised 2 successfully in my cage and left three others on the hop tree and observed them everyday. they were almost in their last istar when they disappeared. I am not sure if they were eaten or they crawled to a less exposed place. It is sad I have seen no monarchs this year in my butterfly garden. I used to raise them when I found them as eggs. I wonder if the eastern migration of monarchs into Canada is in a steep decline as the number of monarchs has decreased every year for the last 4 years.
It never is necessary to re-attach chrysales.
They can be lain on anything soft,
nearly touching a tilted stick or
a hanging strip of cloth.
Emerged butterflies immediately climb when they are not already hanging.
I had one I kept laying on a piece of paper towel in an aquarium for the whole winter. From Oct-April. To be honest I was not expecting much. But I thought I would give it a try. Sure enough I came home from work one April day and there he was , a black swallowtail had emerged. Took him to our local park and away he went, no worse for wear.
Be careful of the screen size too fine and you will block the sun and your herbs will not grow. Too large and small birds and rodents can get in. I use a 1/4 plastic mesh that I wrap around some stakes and close at the top, I also place extra wooden stakes for the chrysalis. When I see caterpillars then open the topwhen a butterfly emerges.
I purchased some un-stratified milkweed seeds and I would like to know if there is a way to speed them up so I can plant them this spring. Otherwise should I just go ahead and reorder stratified seeds? Would the freezer help?
Thanks.
I really need some advice and help with this. This year I cannot raise swallowtails on my screened porch so I bought one of those hamper/butterfly habitats instead. I had 2 nice big caterpillars in it and just about 24 hours after they went into chrysalis they turned dark and died. Is it possible that there is a chemical in the mesh of the habitat that is causing this? I am going to wash it good and try again. Do you wash your hampers when they are new before using them? Please help.
Very nice and helpful article. I enjoyed it very much.
Today I found dozen of caterpillars in my garden on dill and fennel plants. I assume they are Canadian Tiger Swallowtail. Will watch them every day.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
What spices do you like to use with the butterflies when they are finished? You mentioned dill and parsley, as options. And what way do you like to prepare them? Thanks, I enjoyed the informative website.
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