Where are my butterflies?

It has been such a cool rainy summer that I have only seen a couple of battered Tiger Swallowtails and two monarchs (one female) in the last month or so. Our county sprayed for mosquitos last year and I am wondering if this has anything to do with the poor showing of butterflies. My neighbor has 10 or 20 butterfly bushes and barely a butterfly comes by. Of course we have lots of cabbage white butterflies and they have been eating my kale. Yesterday I saw a bright yellow butterfly but it flew quickly out of sight. I think it was a Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae), likes parks, wood edges, any open disturbed area. No surprise that it's hostplant includes senna that well know herbal laxative, my conjecture is that this probably gives predatory birds some problem.

Send me some butterflies please...

Female Black Swallowtail at Siddha!

I started going to the Syddha Yoga Center in Manayunk where they have a lovely parking lot. I was interested in making a garden there. Mercedes showed me the solitary daisy plant that someone had planted on a part of the lot that you can see from the kitchen window. It has bloomed for a few years in the sand, rocks and brick chunks, with a bit of accumulated dirt. while I was out watering the planters I thought I saw a hummingbird but it was actually a black butterfly. No camera in tow, of course. The problem with identifying a butterfly with upper dorsal black wings and lower dorsal "blue" patches in the tail area is that there are several butterflies that choose this color configuration because it mimics the toxic pipevine swallowtail. So it is a survivalist coloring.

I am naming her Kama Sutra. She may be a female Black Swallowtail with a 3.2 inch wingspan whose caterpillars eat carrot, parsley, Queen Anne's Lace, celery, dill, etc. and like fields, roadsides and suburbs. Other mimics of the toxic Pipevine Swallowtail include the female Canadian Tiger Swallowtail; this butterfly has a 3 inch wingspan and generally does not get this far south in SE PA.

It is less likely that Kama Sutra might be a Spicebush Swallowtail which has a large 4 inch wingspan. Since I spotted her without my glasses I am thinking she may be this big. Spicebush Swallowtails like the woodland edges and roadsides and hostplants include spicebush, mature larvae have "snake head" eyespots.

Either way, what a beautiful creature to have visiting us!

Black Swallowtail Chase

This one Black Swallowtail was zooming around the front of my house yesterday. Boy do they get zippy in August. Touching on so many plants that I would swear it was a female trying to trick a predator into looking at plants away from the eggs. Anyway, it might have been a male chasing a female since I saw two black blurs come around the corner and disappear. I don't think I've ever seen so much patrolling for mates. It's probably because I let the yard go to weeds and now they love it.

Monarch Nectaring

The two or three monarchs that have taken over my front yard are interested in a variety of plants. They nectar persistently on Liatris ligulistylus out front and also on a Spicebush (lindera benzoin) which is not blooming so I guess it exudes a sap that they like. Out back they are going back to the grapevines of my neighbor De, The vines are heavy with big grapes and the monarchs seem to sit on the uppermost leaves and sip on whatever liquid the leaves give off. I am pretty sure I saw a monarch on my veronicastrum which is reflowering since I cut it back. Usually only the earlier butterflies go for it, like painted ladies and red admirals. I had a hummingbird on some sedum that I potted up in the back yard. Tons of hummingbird activity this year. And they all like the butterfly bushes, especially the Tiger Swallowtails.

Monarch versus goldfinches

Geoff told me that his monarchs in Houston chase the birds and I just saw that behaviour in my front yard yesterday. My sunflowers attract a lot of goldfinches and I worry that they will try to get at the monarchs who nectar on liatris ligulistylus nearby (their absolute favorite nectar plant!). No worries. I saw one feisty monarch (probably the female) chase off two fat goldfinches who may have gotten too close to her nectar source, her eggs, or her.

Monarchs often have a lilting flight pattern, they can soar slowly and gently. But when laying eggs females flit and hover, and dart rapidly which draws the hunter's eye away from where they have just laid their eggs. Thus the eggs are protected. It is very difficult to get a photo of her laying her eggs because she is very suspicious of every move the camera makes. I did get some OK shots of the egg laying. They tuck the tip of their tail under the bottom of a milkweed leaf and deposit the egg where it will be least visible.

Silver Spotted Skipper and friends

I was on the back porch yesterday and say an attractive fellow near a pinkish butterfly bush. Looks like a brilliant silver spotted skipper, but he also had a yellow band. He is so much more attractive than the pictures you see on the internet.

Since I let my garden get "natural" i.e., I didn't weed everyday, there is much more activity from the butterflies. They seem more comfortable. I had one tiger Swallowtail who nectared about 20 minutes on a 6' tall, self-seeded tiny flowered sunflower. I watched him all through lunch and had time to get a few shots of him before he flew away.

Ladybugs!

I am finding more ladybugs than I ever have. They are usually nestled near the top of my pink milkweed (asclepias incarnata). I am trying to photograph them but I think I need a better lens for tiny things.

Also, the dogwood ABC gave me is doing OK. But I put it in the sunnier spot and now it is sunburned. I need to repot it. I like the idea of having a dogwood tree growing in a pot. (Cornus Florida, white)