Raining Swallowtails this Week!

Last week, there was an abundance of June Bugs, this week it is raining Swallowtails.  There were dozens out after a wet weekend.  Each of our butterfly plants (also coneflower flower beds) had several butterflies on them.  Many swallowtails, skippers and red admirals.  They were particularly drawn to our white butterfly plants (Buddleia davidii).

Also, Rachel sent me a link to a great video from NPR on butterfly life cycle and butterfly farming.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/07/20/203615890/getting-cozy-with-baby-butterflies-so-cozy-they-whisper-a-wriggly-secret

Below, pictures from yesterday while I was in a garden nearby planting butterfly weed, bee balm and coneflowers.

Black Swallowtail (female).  Queen Anne's Lace is one of the food sources for larva. They are smaller than the other swallowtails.

 Zebra Swallowtail.  I saw a few of these yesterday and they were very active and hard to get a good picture.  This one was resting in the grass.  I had never noticed their pale lime green strips which are often more white later in the summer (of course I am colorblind).  The ones I saw yesterday were smaller that those later seen in the summer.  The local pawpaw trees is a food source for their larva.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (male).  The larva of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails use tulip poplar and wild cherry trees for their food source.  We have many of both.

 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (female)

Spicebush Swallowtail (female) ... we also have the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail black mimic.  We have a lot of Spicebush Swallowtail because the abundance of sassafras trees and spicebush (an understory bush).

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail taking in nectar from a butterfly plant.

There were as many as twenty swallowtails on this butterfly plant at times.  The Tiger male below is showing some wear.

There were only plenty of skippers out yesterday.  A Silver Spot Skipper below ...  it was a great day to be outside!