Butterfly Gardening Blog

The good news from this year is that I saw some species I had never seen before! Although, one wasn’t actually in my garden.

That one was the Satyr:

And I had about 9 different species of caterpillars in my garden at the same time!

I had Monarchs, Giant Swallowtails, Pipevine Swallowtails, Black Swallowtails, Spicebush Swallowtails, Tiger Swallowtails, Buckeyes, Duskywings and sulfurs all at once! Ok, technically the duskywings aren’t butterflies – they are skippers.

The really big news was that I finally had a Pipevine Swallowtail lay eggs on my pipevine! I’ve had it growing in my garden for a few years, but this is the very first time I’ve ever had caterpillars! I’ve adults around quite a bit in the past though.

I also found some Buckeye caterpillars this – just the second time I’ve seen them around. I have to dig through my pictures sometime and post them.

I also saw a Zebra Swallowtail caterpillar while hiking – first time I’ve ever seen one!

And then had an adult Zebra Swallowtail hang out in my garden than I’ve ever had one hang before (which wasn’t very long!)!

Here it is on some rattlesnake master:

The not as great part of this season was that I didn’t see adults of some species that usually see. Part of that was my fault though. I don’t think I saw a single Pipevine Swallowtail or Spicebush Swallowtail adult this year. Or a Variegated Fritillary. Maybe not even a Great Spangled Fritillary, I don’t remember now. I think that was all probably due to me not being outside quite as much this year, so I probably just missed them, rather than there being fewer of them. On the other hand, it was a bit cooler this year too.

The other ones I didn’t see were definitely my fault. I hardly had any bananas or other rotting fruit out in the yard this year so I didn’t attract any Viceroys or Red-Spotted Purples.

All together I was pretty happy with how this season turned out. I wish I would have gotten myself outside more though and updated this blog more often, but that’s all my fault!

Snapdragons – Antirrhinum majus – are not native to this area but they are a host plant for the buckeye butterfly. I haven’t been able to locate a source for any host plants for this butterfly that are native. Mine have been blooming for a little while now. They start blooming pretty early in the summer and sometimes keep blooming for a long time. I started some new plants from seed this year too and I am hoping that they will bloom later this summer.

Once – I think 2 years ago I actually found a buckeye caterpillar on my plants. If there have been more I missed them. Now don’t quote me on this, I’m a bit rusty with some of my butterfly knowledge – but I believe buckeyes are partial migrators and don’t get up here for a while usually, at least not in large numbers.

My favorite snapdragon flowers are the bright, nearly solid yellow ones and the read dark red ones:

One of my scabiosas (pin cushion flowers) started blooming:

So did the snapdragons. They aren’t native – but are used by Buckeyes as a host plant. I haven’t never seen any on mine though.

Wood Betony is native and I believe is a secondary host plant for either Buckeyes or Baltimore’s: