# Antelope Horns and Monarchs



## DuaeGuttae (Apr 29, 2018)

Our family moved last September to a home in Texas Hill Country.  It's been an adventure in many ways, not least of which has been learning new flora and fauna.

The property we have was overgrazed to the point that neighbors referred to it as "the moonscape" at the time we bought it.  We've been working on just figuring out what plants are on the property and taking action from there.  We've been clearing out exotic invasives and in doing so a few weeks back I discovered a plant I hadn't noticed on the property before.

It turned out to be a native Texas variety of Milkweed commonly referred to as Antelope Horns.  I went out to photograph it one night and noticed a caterpillar on the ground underneath it.  It was located near a fire ant nest, and it took only a few moments for me to realize that this was a Monarch caterpillar who wasn't going to make it back to his plant.  I brought it and a second that I found inside on a stalk of milkweed and quickly sterilized the aquarium (that had just finished with the Leopard frog tadpoles we had rescued from a pool in September) and got them set up.

I thought it would be fun to post a few pictures of the progress.  Enjoy.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 29, 2018)

Here's a photo of part of "the moonscape" from the time that we moved in that shows the lack of vegetation other than Ashe Juniper and Horehound.  We've been pulling the latter out by the roots in an effort to keep more seeds from spreading, and it was in doing that that we found several Milkweed plants.  They are thriving now.






Here is the milkweed photo that caused me to notice the caterpillar on the ground.



View attachment 226223
View attachment 226223


The last photo is one of the healthy milkweed plants that we liberated from a huge patch of horehound a few weeks back.  The blue flowers are a different plant.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 29, 2018)

Here are photos of "Zippy" and "Skippy," the first two caterpillars that I brought in.  They were already pretty big at that time.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 29, 2018)

My young children named them, by the way.  Zippy was a pretty fast crawler when she decided to explore the new environment.




The woody stem and the little leaves in the background are not milkweed.  Caterpillars sometimes like to leave milkweed to pupate elsewhere so we were supplying some variety in their environment.  They used it like a jungle gym.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 29, 2018)

As Skippy and Zippy grew, so did their appetites.  They could demolish a milkweed stalk in one night, and then they started eating during the day, too, which we hadn't seen before.  In gathering food, I found a tiny egg which we brought in on its leaf and housed separately, and my five year old found "Marie" who moved in with Zippy and Skippy.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 29, 2018)

It was an exciting day when my children awoke to find Zippy and Skippy both in a "J" shape, getting ready to pupate.  Then that same morning the egg started showing a little dark spot, the tiny caterpillar's head getting ready to emerge.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 29, 2018)

When the caterpillar is about to pupate, it withdraws its body from its extremities.  The filaments start to look pretty limp and twisted.  It took about an hour for anything to happen, but then it was all over in a matter of minutes.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 29, 2018)

It was a good thing that we watched Zippy so closely and saw that molt because Skippy wasn't far behind, but it happened so fast that we missed it while we were eating dinner just a few feet away.




Neither one chose to use the plant I had supplied as cover for pupating.  They really liked the screen.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 29, 2018)

Marie formed a J the next day, but she didn't survive to make that molt.  She had evidently been parasitized by the tachnid fly while she was still living outside because she shrank instead of growing and was being eaten from the inside out by larva.  Her body was removed.

The new hatchling (Vic--either Victor or Victoria as we hope to find out in time) was eating and excreting frass.  He showed us evidence of health but stayed under his leaf.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 29, 2018)

In changing out Vic's drying leaf for a fresh one from my milkweed supply, lo and behold I met Pierre.  (No, I have no idea why that particular child chose that name.)


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 29, 2018)

Like typical younger siblings, Vic and Pierre have to use hand-me-down salad containers because the older ones got the aquarium first.  There aren't very many photos of the younger ones either.




They're resilient, though, and they have the older ones from whom they can watch and learn.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 30, 2018)

Last Wednesday (ten days after the final molt), Zippy and Skippy started showing some little signs of darkening.  Thursday morning we knew something was going to happen soon.



We had an appointment that morning, and we knew it was close when we had to leave. The chrysalis was turning transparent, and those orange wings were showing through (and were really hard to photograph).


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 30, 2018)

When we got home, this is what we found.




She was pretty new, so we waited until we saw that she flapped her wings a bit (and confirmed that she really was a female as the children had predicted from the chrysalis), and we took her outside.  She crawled on the children's hands before they put her in the pomegranate tree where she stayed for about 90 more minutes before flying away.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 30, 2018)

The next day we got to watch it happen again.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 30, 2018)

Skippy (a male as my children had predicted from the chrysalis, though I had thought them wrong when he first eclosed because the spots don't show up from the underside) was released just before lunch.  My children got to have a picnic lunch to watch him in the pomegranate tree before he flew.


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## DuaeGuttae (Apr 30, 2018)

Vic and Pierre, meanwhile, keep eating and growing as good teenagers do, and they finally got to move into the big room when the older siblings moved out (and it had been sterilized).



To be continued ...


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## JimBear (Apr 30, 2018)

Thanks for sharing those photos & the story.


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## begreen (Apr 30, 2018)

Great rescue and science lessons for the kids.


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## fbelec (May 1, 2018)

thanks totally enjoyed watching. kids in school would not have got a better presentation.


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## Highbeam (May 5, 2018)

begreen said:


> Great rescue and science lessons for the kids.



For us “adults” too!


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## Soundchasm (May 5, 2018)

Seriously, the detail is fantastic!  I'd be exhausted after such an effort.  I did check into my memory of one migration requiring FOUR generations.  It's true.  I even read a statement that the Monarch's find the SAME TREE their great-grandfather/grandmother left from!!

Out of all the amazing things on this planet, to my limited knowledge, this seems unique.


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## begreen (May 5, 2018)

The diversity and intelligence of the natural world is amazing.


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## DuaeGuttae (May 24, 2018)

Thank you for the kind words and the interest.  It truly has been an exciting project for the family.  I have been particularly impressed by some of the records my children have kept.  My kindergartener mostly insists on writing her work herself, and she does it beautifully.  My other children amaze me with some of their illustrations.

Vic and Pierre (Victor and Pierra after the sexes were revealed) eclosed the same morning a couple of weeks ago now.  I just haven't taken the time to get the photos up, but I thought some of you who had looked at the thread would enjoy the update.

Vic pupated one day before Pierre.


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## DuaeGuttae (May 24, 2018)

There are some pretty exciting changes that let us know when to watch more closely.


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## DuaeGuttae (May 25, 2018)

My eight year old son was allowed to be the press photographer for this eclosure.  Here are some of his better shots of Victor after he had dried and Pierra as she was in the process.


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## DuaeGuttae (May 25, 2018)

My ten-year-old daughter got to be in charge of  the release shots.  She was having a lot of fun with close ups and angles.


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## DuaeGuttae (Sep 30, 2018)

Today I walked to the “way, way back” of our property to check on things and was astounded by what I saw.  It had only been a couple of weeks since I’d gone down there, but it was a wonderland of blooms.  The area where we cleared so much horehound this spring and discovered the milkweed was ablaze with what I believe is showy nerveray, a plant endemic to Texas.  [Edited to add: I don't think showy nerveray was the proper identification.  I've now decided that it's Cowpen Daisy, also called Golden Crownbeard.  It's still native, but not endemic, to Texas and a welcome replacement for Horehound.] It was so gratifying to see a native thriving and abuzz with all sorts of bees and butterflies.  Monarchs have been passing through, but the past couple of days have brought us hundreds and hundreds of migrating American snout butterflies. 

We’ve had a very dry year, even for Texas, until this month when we’ve received over 21 inches of rain.  I’ve been taking advantage of the softer ground to pull more invaders, but I’ve also been enjoying the many other plants that are starting to thrive on our former “moonscape.”  The first photo is the same land as the first picture in post 2.


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## Soundchasm (Oct 1, 2018)

What a wonderful transformation!  That's kind of a theme here on this thread.  ;-)

I told my wife about this thread, and she came home with black swallowtail caterpillars from the plant nursery where she works in the summer.  Had a great success rate.  Got the accoutrement in place, and then she discovered Monarch caterpillars on our milkweed.  So in they come.

It blew my mind that the cats are so dang tiny and become orders of magnitude larger.  She kept finding more and bringing more in.  I told her she needed to stop because every time I went past the milkweed plants my phone went off with another Amber Alert.

I think our success rate was 4/5, roughly.  Not every chrysalis was viable.  One of the Monarchs seemed to have a deformity, but it finally straightened out and left.  Another seemed slightly daft in the head and stayed for several days before it left.

Hard to believe how small they are and how big they get.  Also, how much they eat and how much they poop.

We started to run low on Milkweed.  I pictured my wife making nervous calls in a hushed voice trying to score some primo Milkweed...  But we made it.

Hey, I looked into your handle and was wonderfully amused.  I think I get it.  OK, now a few pics.


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## DuaeGuttae (Oct 3, 2018)

Kudos to you and your wife!  It’s a great project but requires some willingness to learn how to do it right, and I can only imagine how much milkweed you must have needed.  We didn’t have too many plants on our property, and they were pretty much denuded by our population.   I was excited when the seed pods matured and broke loose.  I see the antelope horns in fields and ditches as I drive, but I’d be glad to have more right here.

We raised swallowtails in Virginia, and we see them flying all over here (tiger, spice bush, and a couple others that are new to me).  I planted dill and parsley to encourage them, but my herbs would sprout and disappear.  I have one parsley plant near my back door, and that’s it.  (Actually, I have a basil crop that is thriving, and there are baby basil plants coming up in neighboring pots, but that’s not swallowtail food).

Your research into my handle may have led you to something amusing, and I appreciate your complimenting me by thinking I might be clever or something, but I’ll share the real story.  The phrase means “two drops” in Latin (I taught that subject for many years).  When my first child was a baby, I made a little song for her.

Sparkle, sparkle, little eyes.
How I wonder what you spy.
Up above a quite cute nose
Like two dewdrops on a rose,
Sparkle, sparkle, little eyes,
How I wonder what you spy.

I sang it to all four of mine when they were little (the youngest is still in diapers and learning to talk, but he’s getting so good at it that I know what he spies now.  “Mommy, I see a truck.  Mommy, I see a deer.”). At some point in those years it was an easy screenname for me to remember.

Do you have any photos of your mature butterflies?  I’d love to show them to my kids if you do.


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## Soundchasm (Oct 4, 2018)

I'm sure my wife has pics on her machines.  I'll get her to send me some.

Your handle story is better than my initial presumption.  Since you had mentioned your five and ten year old, I assumed each was a "drop", and they were like two drops of water.  Still a cool handle.

My handle relates to that terrifying space between silence and the first note of a musical project.  Like Wile E. Coyote, I haven't the faintest notion when I'm going to look down, see nothing but air, and hold up a sign that says "Help!".


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## DuaeGuttae (Oct 14, 2018)

I thought I'd add some photos I've taken this month as the wildflowers continue to thrive, and the butterflies fly.  No antelope horns or Monarchs but the same genre.

I'm still learning the flora and fauna of this part of the world, and pictures help me as I research.  Sometimes I have a very hard time getting any opportunity to focus on these flitting beauties, but I thought I'd share some of the better ones even if they are a little blurry at times.

The first is a Bordered Patch Butterfly, resting on Cowpen Daisy.  I had incorrectly identified it earlier as Showy Nerveray, but the pictures weren't quite matching as I looked more closely.  When I saw Cowpen Daisy photos, they seemed a more sure match, and the description of where it grows (disturbed or overgrazed soils, often limestone) and its deer resistance made a solid case.  This little butterfly (and others like it) helped confirm that identification, though, as Cowpen Daisy is a host plant for the larva of the Bordered Patch Butterfly.  We did see some caterpillars the other day.

The next two are a swallowtail, perhaps Pipevine.  (I had been calling it a Spicebush to my children, but I think I was wrong about that, too.)  We've been seeing these frequently on the Lantana and Prairie Verbena.

The orange butterfly is a Gulf Fritillary.  These, too, have been common visitors to our flowers in recent weeks.

The last two shots were very hard to come by.  I've been seeing Giant Swallowtails through the windows or when I'm outside without the camera, and my few attempts to grab the camera and get to them have failed.  Today I took my toddler outside for some playtime, took the camera with me, and watched while he played.  This Giant Swallowtail never stopped moving, and I had a hard time getting any shots at all, but he was a beauty.  I've seen them a few times scouting out the citrus trees, so I'll be looking for caterpillars there, too.

Tonight the cold(ish) weather comes in along with more rain.  I wonder if the butterflies could tell it was coming and were getting extra nectar today.


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## DuaeGuttae (May 7, 2019)

2019 Update

My kids and I did a little milkweed exploration on Friday in an area of land I needed to mow on Saturday, and we found three caterpillars. (I did my best to avoid all milkweed and other natives during the mowing, but we did bring the caterpillars inside first.) The Monarchs have been flying since March, and we’ve seen some holes in leaves or missing leaves, but this was our first spotting of live caterpillars.

The largest one my kids had some difficulty naming.  It was at first Osiris, then Anubis, then I think it got changed back to Osiris as he died, having been parasitized while outside by a Tachinid fly.  It was sad to see him try to form his J and not succeed.  When he began to shrink, we knew he was being eaten and removed him from the cage.



This next little guy was less than an inch long on Friday.  The kids named him Ammit the Devourer because they knew he would eat.  They were right.  I think Ammit was solely responsible for eating all the flowers and leaves on one stalk of milkweed today.




Poochiekins was in between Osiris and Ammit in size when he came in.  He’s now larger than Osiris ever got, so we hope that means he has escaped being parasitized.  Time will tell, and I don’t think it will be long before he’s ready to pupate.




I’ll post more pictures as I can.

(Names chosen by a six and nine year old who’ve been recently reading Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles, just in case anyone is wondering.)


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## Soundchasm (May 9, 2019)

How very cool.  I thought I saw a monarch the other day, but in hindsight, I think it was a moth.

Thanks for the reminder.  I've set my radar to the appropriate bandwidth.


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## DuaeGuttae (May 19, 2019)

Soundchasm said:


> How very cool.  I thought I saw a monarch the other day, but in hindsight, I think it was a moth.
> 
> Thanks for the reminder.  I've set my radar to the appropriate bandwidth.



I’ll be interested to hear if you raise more this summer.  We haven’t seen any more since my last report, but I have a few updates.

Ammit the Devourer sadly had been parasitized outside as well.  I was suprised and nervous when she started making a J early, and at first she seemed to succeed.  However, when the straightening wasn’t followed by pupating in short order, we knew it was best to remove her as well.

Poochiekins was healthy, however, and pupated 10 days ago.  I don’t have a lot of photos because we were trying to catch the experience on time-lapse video.  My nine-year-old son showed me how to do it, and we practiced one day with some neat videos of the caterpillars eating.  I did catch the pupation but only just in time, so it’s not a great video (moving the camera, my messy kitchen too visible).  I was ready for this morning, though.

The kids had noticed yesterday that Poochiekins’ wings were starting to show inside the chrysalis.  Sure enough this morning, it was transparent.  We needed to leave for church, but I was sure the enclosure was imminent.  I spent some time with trivets and bookends trying to set the camera for the best shot.  Sure enough, when we got home Poochiekins was resting at the top of the enclosure, almost ready to go.  She was willing to sit on my hand in the house, but when we got near the open back door, she flew out on her own and went to bask in a live oak tree that overhangs our deck.  The last photo my six year old took of her enjoying the sunshine there.


I recorded about four hours of video, which is condensed to about thirty seconds.  It’s too large to post here, I’m afraid, but it was fun to have the kids be able to help me set it up and successfully record the enclosure to view when we got home.


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## begreen (May 19, 2019)

Such a cool family project and a good learning experience! Swallowtails showed up here last week. We're happy to have them back.


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## SpaceBus (May 20, 2019)

This looks like a great spring project. I'll have to keep an eye out for caterpillars. So far spring is my least favorite season here in Maine. Raising butterflies might go a long ways in making it a little less drab.


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## Soundchasm (May 21, 2019)

Not to derail or steal a thread, but we realized we had a hummingbird nest in a small, decorative birdhouse in the front yard.  Well, blow me down!  Got plenty of hummingbirds, but never have seen a nest.  Will keep an eye on it and start a new thread when necessary.

What I have recently learned is that hummingbirds, like the Monarch, can return to the same tree, and even re-use the same nest.  And that is after an epic migration to Mexico and back.

I can't even find my way to an in-law's house after six months...


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## DuaeGuttae (Jun 4, 2019)

begreen said:


> Such a cool family project and a good learning experience! Swallowtails showed up here last week. We're happy to have them back.




We love swallowtails, and all sorts fly here for a great deal of the year.

A gardening neighbor who knows I make my own pickles gave us some dill last week.  I’ve been keeping it as a bouquet on the table until the next round of cucumbers comes in.  As I was looking at it Sunday, I realized that the black spots I was seeing were first instar black swallowtail caterpillars that must have come in as eggs.  We sterilized the aquarium, got some fresh dill cuttings, and established them in their new home.  A few days later they’ve grown to second and third instar but are still less than an inch.

One thing that is particularly fun about these guys is that each instar changes not just its size but its appearance.  The little orange protrusion in the third photo is the osmeterium, a defense mechanism.  I must have been a threatening shadow when I snapped the photo.  I’m sorry they’re not such great quality.  These guys are so small that I had to zoom in a lot.


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## DuaeGuttae (Jun 5, 2019)

Yesterday evening.                                      About 24 hours later but the same caterpillar.





It was fun to see my nine-year-old son look into the aquarium and say “Wow!”  when he saw this one.

The other three are hard for us to tell apart and pretty mobile in their dill forest.  I think the children have decided to wait on naming this crew.


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## DuaeGuttae (Jun 7, 2019)

They’re getting noticeably bigger by the day.  They got all fresh food and cleaned quarters today.


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## DuaeGuttae (Jun 10, 2019)

At the top and bottom of the first photo are the “middle” two caterpillars.  The second picture has the smallest/youngest and the biggest/oldest. The transformations even before the big metamorphosis are pretty impressive.  I’ve taken to calling the largest caterpillar “Bubba,” but my children object strenuously.  I think he’s getting himself settled in to pupate very soon.  He was quite restless tonight, exploring the sticks I put in this morning and ignoring the dill.


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## Soundchasm (Jun 10, 2019)

My wife has found some cats and has the system in place.  Will try to take some shots and post.


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## DuaeGuttae (Aug 19, 2019)

It’s been a while since I posted on this thread, mostly because I haven’t downloaded my better butterfly photos off of my camera.  I thought it was time for an update anyway.

The round of swallowtails described above eclosed in late June.  We then raised two more that we found on our dill when we were harvesting it for pickles.  Dill does not fare well in Texas summers, so when it died back, we started having to check our parsley very carefully.  The last swallowtail we raised narrowly avoided being put in a crock pot of beef stew, but thankfully I saw him at the last minute.  He just eclosed on Saturday. 

Here’s a shot of one of the black swallowtails drying his wings on a crape myrtle.




I thought we were done raising butterflies for the season, but now I’m not so sure.  My husband and I wanted to screen and shade some outdoor equipment, and so we built a big arched trellis and planted a variety of passion flowers on either side.  (This is the ornamental Lady Margaret.)  These are very attractive to Gulf Fritillaries, and we are enjoying watching the vivid orange butterflies.  Just looking out the window with my toddler, I counted at least five caterpillars on one plant this morning, and my seven year old told me that she thought it was time to bring one in.  We’ll see.


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## begreen (Aug 19, 2019)

That is a beauty. Have you thought about starting a milkweed patch and raising some monarchs?


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## DuaeGuttae (Aug 19, 2019)

begreen said:


> That is a beauty. Have you thought about starting a milkweed patch and raising some monarchs?



Yes!  I planted I think eight or nine different Asclepias tuberosa in beds around my house last year.  Unfortunately even with my diligent watering they succumbed to drought and some got eaten off.  We do have voracious deer, but I didn’t think they’d eat milkweed.  Possibly an armadillo dug some up.  (Watering attracts the soil critters that the armadillos like to eat, so it can be a challenge to get small plants established.). Anyway, I haven’t tried again yet because of many other projects.

Thankfully we do have several patches of the native asclepias asperula (the antelope horns of the title and early posts) that we are protecting.  We’ve continued the battle against exotic invasives and have seen more native wildflowers move in as a result.  It’s been encouraging, though there’s still a lot of work to be done in helping such overgrazed land recover.  We definitely want to use our few acres to allow native plants and wildlife to thrive.  (Well, I’m not actively encouraging coral snakes or rattlers around the house, and the children are strictly instructed not to play in the rock pit at the back of the property.)


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## SpaceBus (Aug 20, 2019)

I found a small caterpillar on my arm the other day so I put it with some vegetation in a Mason jar with some holes in the lid. The little caterpillar is so small I couldn't identify him and now I can't find it in the jar anymore


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## Soundchasm (Aug 20, 2019)

We've done one round of swallowtails, and the wife has just begun to discover some monarchs, and the system has been set up.
I'll try to get a count and see what the inventory is.


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## DuaeGuttae (Aug 20, 2019)

SpaceBus said:


> I found a small caterpillar on my arm the other day so I put it with some vegetation in a Mason jar with some holes in the lid. The little caterpillar is so small I couldn't identify him and now I can't find it in the jar anymore



If he is still in the jar, you should see frass (droppings) on the bottom.  If not, he may have escaped.  They can be really hard to see when they’re small and under leaves, so checking for frass is the best bet.

Another thing to be careful about is to make sure that any caterpillars you have can’t fall into whatever it is that provides water to your plant.  I use a small container with a plastic lid.  I cut slits in the lid and slide the plant stems in there.  

It can be tricky to raise a caterpillar that is away from its host plant.  You said it was on your arm.  Do you know what plants it was feeding on?  If you chose some leaves that weren’t actually its host plant, it may have tried hard to escape to get back to its preferred diet.  Or it may be loving what you gave it and munching away in seclusion.  Just check for those droppings.


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## DuaeGuttae (Aug 20, 2019)

Soundchasm said:


> We've done one round of swallowtails, and the wife has just begun to discover some monarchs, and the system has been set up.
> I'll try to get a count and see what the inventory is.



I was just looking at your photos from last year.  If this year is anything like it, I hope you have a huge milkweed patch.  It can get a little nerve wracking when they become ravenous teenagers, and you wonder if the new stalks you give them at bedtime will even last through morning.


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## DuaeGuttae (Nov 1, 2020)

We didn't raise any Monarchs this spring.  We had some swallowtail caterpillars that I was letting eat my dill in the garden in the spring, but I think birds may have gotten them before they could mature.  I didn't think we'd raise any butterflies at all this year, but a couple of weeks ago I discovered one munching on a Satsuma that we had planted in the ground this spring.  Giant Swallowtails fly in this area and use citrus trees as host plants, and their caterpillars look like bird poop, according to the experts, so I figured that's what I had found.  That particular Satsuma had suffered a couple of croppings from some aggressive deer, and so I didn't really want it to be the host, so I brought four caterpillars inside on their leaves.  Three of them seemed dehydrated, and I wasn't sure they were even alive.  The two smallest didn't make it, but the original that I had noticed and another middle-sized one have been growing.



  Just a few weeks ago (before I found the caterpillars) I had identified a few mystery plants growing in my back yard as suckers from trifoliate orange rootstock (probably from grafted plants that the previous owners had planted but that had died before we moved in).  Thankfully I hadn't cut them yet, and the caterpillars eat it readily.   Even with only two, they can strip a whole (small) branch in a day. As of last night, the two successful caterpillars have "J'd," and so I have hope for chrysalides soon.  I don't know if they will overwinter based on the season of the year, or if they'll eclose in weeks because of more constant temperatures in my house .  (We had a brief cold snap here last week, so their being inside meant that it was in the 60's and 70's instead of the 30's for them one day. It's back up to the 70's and sunny during the days now.)





I'm very much looking forward to seeing what happens.

These two are named Zinga and Zestus, by the way.


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## DuaeGuttae (Oct 30, 2021)

I looked at this thread the other week and realized that I had kind of left it hanging.  Zinga and Zestus ended up overwintering in their chrysalides, I believe, and I moved their aquarium to the top of a bookshelf in our family room.  One day in the spring I was giving my daughter and spelling test, and she said, “I keep hearing something.  It’s almost like fluttering.”  I looked up, and there were butterflies in the aquarium.  We didn’t take time to take pictures; we just got them outside and let them fly.

This fall we have been raising a bunch more Giant Swallowtails.  They were eating on our lemon and satsuma trees, and those trees had such setbacks during our hard freeze this February that I didn’t want them to suffer more defoliation.  I brought the caterpillars inside and have been feeding them from trifoliate orange rootstock that I allow to grow for that purpose.

Here are some photos of the most recent one to eclose.  I’m always amazed how this type of butterfly looks so different on the bottom and the top.


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