Look at this magnificent Giant Swallowtail laying eggs on my orange jasmine (murraya paniculata.) I did not know that this particular plant was a host for these butterflies, but there are eggs all on the plant. Kudos to my daughter, Rhonda, for taking this wonderful picture to send to me offshore. Our plan to attract loads of butterflies to our yard this year has worked out perfectly. I've never seen so many butterflies in all my life. Sure makes all the work and research to attract butterflies worthwhile.
5 comments:
Yay for Rhonda! :D
Rhonda did a great job with the photo. You did a great job providing habitat.
This year was the first time I ever saw Giant Swallowtails in my garden. I'm still waiting the return of the Florida Longwings. I'm happy to have a variety of beauties, but there's always that next one hoped for.
How interesting Davy. I've been doing some research on butterflies for our parish and found out that there are only 9 documented varieties found. No wonder I've had such a hard time attracting them. Of course, butterflies don't know boundaries so I've seen a couple that weren't on the list. I think we have too many pine tree farms around here so less larval habitats. I keep trying though. Kudos to your daughter on her photo and to you on getting the right plants in place!
If you go to the web site of "Butterflies and Moths of North America," you can look at a map and it will show all the butterflies and moths of a given parish or county. There is a way to send pictures and documentation in to add new butterflies in a given parish. In the last two weeks I have personally sent documentation in for two more butterflies to add to the Avoyelles Parish list. More people should participate in this, I think.
PS - The two I sent in are not yet on the list. We have far more than just 9 varieties!
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