Although I am not having much luck with caterpillars surviving in my yard (thanks to the numerous lizards), I do have one that made it. A new Black Swallowtail butterfly has survived to fly away! And he was sneaky about it.
My yard is not a friendly place for caterpillars, but it is for butterflies. All my Zinnias are much loved by lots of flying critters.
The Monarch butterfly is still flying around, and I’ve seen many Monarch caterpillars, but no new butterflies. Also, the Gulf Fritillary has put caterpillars onto my Passionflower vine.
Occasionally I would see the Black Swallowtail butterfly in the yard, but I have nothing growing for it, or so I thought.
Did you know? Celery is a host plant for Black Swallowtails.
The Black Swallowtail’s Favorite Plants
I know the Black Swallowtail will lay eggs on parsley, dill and fennel. Apparently also carrot and Queen Anne’s Lace (not in Florida). It’s not the season for carrots here. Only fennel will grow for me during summer. I have a few fennel plants in the front garden, but lizards eat every caterpillar that shows up. The dill has long been gone, and parsley is impossible to grow, even in winter. (For a list of host plants in Florida, see this page at askIFAS)
But I do have a big celery plant in one of my grow boxes. I started it from a store bought bunch of celery. This is where I found the Black Swallowtail caterpillar. What a surprise! He was already pretty big when I first saw him.
On July 21st I first saw the caterpillar. He was happily munching away down in the center of this bunch of celery.
On the 23rd, I saw him curling up and attaching to one of the stalks. The next day, his chrysalis was made. Ten days later, he emerged into the world!
Numbering the Days to Emergence
Back when I watched the chrysalis of the Monarch, it took many days before the butterfly emerged. I figured this one would take a while too, and it took 10 days before I saw the butterfly. On day nine, the chrysalis had darkened noticeably. I knew he / she was about to come into the world!
If the weather had been nice, I would have pulled up a chair and drank my coffee next to the celery plant that morning. But it’s way too hot for that. So, I did some inside stuff, and kept checking on it. Around 9:30am I went out and there he was! Sitting on a celery stalk in all his glory! Such a beauty.
I’m not sure if it is a male or female, maybe someone reading this will know. The colors were absolutely stunning!
I thought he might hang around for a while after coming out. The Monarch butterfly had taken hours to fly away. But, I went on the porch to check on some plants and was only away for about 2 minutes. When I went back outside he was completely gone! I missed it!
I walked around the yard to see if he had landed someplace close by, but I never saw him anywhere.
A Black Swallowtail From the Top
Only the closed wings were available for me to view. I believe from the top this one would have looked something like the photo below, which is not my photo.
Find more good info about the Swallowtails at the University of Wisconsin site
Before this butterfly “hatched”, I had a black swallowtail laying eggs on the celery and a nearby carrot type plant. Those eggs seem to have disappeared. Or, maybe they are tiny caterpillars hiding down in the celery. I will continue to check.
The fact that my cat Skittle mostly hangs around this area might be why the lizards let this guy get to this stage. Whatever the reason, it made me happy!
Are you following caterpillars and butterflies in your summer yard? I’d love to hear about it.
More garden happenings
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Hydrangeas Blue 