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I finally had a little time to look around the butterfly garden and collect some caterpillars and eggs to go in the caterpillar house.
I gathered a couple of baby monarch caterpillars and a couple of Gulf Fritillary cats. I was excited to find a couple of vines with clusters of yellow eggs, which means zebra long wing caterpillars/butterflies to come.
I have been getting about one butterfly a day for the last week or two, fritillaries and monarchs.
I have been able to raise a few sulphers and black swallowtails before, but none so far this year.
I live in Florida near Tampa Bay and the caterpillar house is a parrot cage covered with screening on my screened back porch. I can put several 1 gallon pots of milkweed in there for monarchs and some maypop (passionflower) vines for the fritillaries and zebra long wings. Putting the caterpillars in the caterpillar house gives them a better chance against wasps and lizards or other predators.
8
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So exciting, please post progress photos. ♥
CaroleKay
Level 8
May 22, 2018
1
Here are some pictures from earlier 1. two zebra long wings just emerged 2. Passion flowers & vines, host plants for ZLs and Fritillaries 3. a fritillary caterpillar 4. ZL baby caterpillars & eggs 5. a pair of fritillaries. I saw the one hovering just above the other one for several minutes. I'm guessing it's a mating dance.
