Swallowtails Love Rue Plants

[Don in SJ]

A few years back I did a life cycle post of the Swallowtails that use the two Rue plants in my backyard as their "nursery"! Every year we get several cycles of them and usually the one that produces the most are the late summer eggs that will then hatch, eat, grow, pupae, and emerge as butterflies in the Spring.

Well this summer we noticed none until the beginning of August when we noticed tiny little black dots on the Rue plants and watched daily noticing their rapid growth.

Just this week, they evidently have reached the stage of time to transform and now they are starting to leave the Rue plant in search of a site to pupae for the winter and emerge next Spring as Black Swallowtail Butterflies. Over the years the Black has been the most common but we did have the beautiful Giant Swallowtail lay eggs on the Rue plants as well in the past.

I cut some dead Rue branches off the other plant and stuck them into the trim of my siding and that seems to be giving them a place to attach themselves to transform, once they all are done with the Rue plant I will take those cut branches and place them in a better environment, free of spiders and hopefully they will emerge as Butterflies next Spring.

A fully grown one, ready to leave the plant

A photo showing the Rue plant with several of them visible

Another one on the Rue, approx. 2 inches in length

One that is done eating and now crawling up my vinyl siding looking for a place to attach to

Two of them that did decide to attach to the Rue branch that I stuck in my siding trim, one is a day ahead of the other in starting to turn into a pupae.

So, if you would like to possibly enjoy having this in your yard, I suggest buying a couple Rue Plants, mine are used as end border plants in my backyard, against the house, orientation is partial sun, full sun for a few hours during early mid day to early afternoon, this seems to be to their liking.

Don

 

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[Tuberale]

Great photos, and wish I could grow those here. Rue will grow, but those swallowtails not found here.

Did raise Monarchs one year in grade school: almost never see them anymore. State's concerted attack against Milkweed as a noxious weed was apparently mostly successful. Without host, no Monarchs.

 

[fossis]

Nice pic's of some beautiful creatures.

Fossis.............

 

[Ray S S]

They are pretty colorful and such nice clear shots. Very interesting. I've never seen any like that around here.

Thanks or sharing something a little different.

Ray

 

[Don in SJ]

Since all but 3 have now left the original Rue Plant, we made up a Terrarium like we did a few years back and now have about 8 of them in it and some already are morphing and I am sure the rest will in the next day or two. They should be fine in the Terrarium over the winter and hopefully emerge on a warm Spring day as brand new Black Swallowtails.

Oh, while I was making cuttings to put in the terrarium, the wife noticed a couple more newly hatched from the eggs, so here is a photo of what they look like when about 2mm long, they do change in appearance as they grow.

One of my buddies wanted to know what the heck I was doing outside!


Here is the link to the post I made in 2007 thru early 2008 on the sequence of events, plus it was two different types of Swallowtails that year, Black Swallowtail which is common here in New Jersey and what I consider a rare butterfly for this area, the Giant Swallowtail, a beautiful one that further down in the post you will see as it emerges and becomes a thing of beauty!
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,111383.0.html
Don

 

[Tuberale]

Thanks for the link, Don! Beautiful!

Have you joined the Xerces Society yet? Butterflies seem to be disappearing way too fast. (Monsanto, are you listening?)

About 3 years ago, in April, I believe, saw a truly amazing migration of Painted Lady butterflies flying south to north. Had quite a few flowers in bloom, including Yarrow, Wallflower, and other fairly early bloomers. Had literally hundreds of visitors every hour driven north by a steady 20-25mph wind. Lots stopped by for an invigorating sip before continuing on. We have lots of Tiger swallowtails during the warmer summer months, and the lillies, poppies, and honeysuckle have lots of competition from my Anna's hummingbirds and too rare fly-bys of swallowtails. Once even saw a Luna moth in the evening: how it ever got this far north is beyond my knowledge. But also had a pure black hummingbird feeding at my front window feeder in February after a good storm: later found out it was native to Costa Rica. Hope it made it home.