lepidopthera

MILKWEED TUSSOCK MOTH CATERPILLAR ……….

These caterpillars are so pretty I call them MOP’S since they are so fluffy looking. They live in colonies on the leaves of the Milkweed plants. They are the only other moth and butterfly that eat the leaves of milkweed the other one is the Monarch butterfly. The adult moth is quite small and not… More »


BLACK SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY …….. 1ST ONE TO EMERGE ON JUNE 16TH

I just raised 27 Black Swallowtail caterpillars and the first one that emerged as the adult butterfly was a MALE. He was perfect emerging on 6/16 and let me take about 10 photos of him before flying off to find a nice single lady to mate with !!! I had a female butterfly lay 29… More »


HUNGRY CATERPILLARS :D

I had so many Black Swallowtail caterpillars on my fennel plants I had to take most of them inside to raise. I have 20 now in the house and most of them are big enough to start the next phase of their lifecycle. It’s time to Pupate which is when they form a chrysalis. That… More »



IT’S A BIRD …. IT’S A PLANE …….. NO IT’S A BUTTERFLY !!!

This is my last Black Swallowtail butterfly of the season she emerged last week. I had a male that emerged a week before her. So now I’m done raising caterpillars for the rest of the year unless I find some caterpillars on my parsley plants it’s still possible some might show up. Of course those… More »


BATTLING LOOPERS :D

So I brought in some more Black Eyed Susans and found some more Loopers or Spanworms on them. This is a very hard species to track down to find out exactly what type of moth it will become since there are thousands to look though. I actually have 3 on this flower but one was… More »


AMERICAN PAINTED LADY …………

I was outside gardening when I saw this butterfly on my Purple Cone flowers. I didn’t think I would get to post this since there were storms coming !!! But we have only had rain so far : )



TIGER SWALLOWTAIL UPSIDEDOWN ……..

It was a busy butterfly day in my yard there were many Tiger Swallowtails, Black Swallowtails and one Monarch that would not cooperate and pose for me. I’ll try and get him one of these days. This is the underside it’s not as colorful as the top of the butterfly but I thought you would… More »


GARDENING WITH TIGER SWALLOWTAILS : )

I was outside gardening and I had some butterfly friends that just ignored me and I was able to get some decent photos. I wish alll the butterflies were as cooperative with posing but sadly they have a 3 track mind EAT, MATE and FLY 😀


TIGER SWALLOWTAIL …….

I took this photo a few days ago it was the first Tiger to show up here. It was in motion the whole time and again I didn’t have my bigger camera outside to get a better shot. I had one show up today again and my first Monarch. I went inside to get my… More »



CLEARWING HUMMINGBIRD MOTH ……….

The other day I went out to take some photos of my new white Buddliea Bush or what is commonly called a Butterfly Bush. I was pleasantly surprised to see this Clearwing Hummingbird Moth having a feast on my flowers. I had my smaller camera and it’s not great with closeup shots but this was… More »


BLACK SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY………FEMALE

It’s quite hard to get photos of the swallowtail butterflies since they move quite a bit. So this photo is about an hour after she emerged from her chrysalis today. It’s takes around an hour after they first emerge to pump up their wings with blood and let them harden so they can take flight…. More »


BLACK SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY…….MY SECOND TO EMERGE : )

This male emerged today and let me take a few photos before he flew off, he’s in my butterfly emergence case that’s why you see the screen. The adult butterfly emerges from the chrysalis, some people like to think they are born but in the lifecycle of a butterfly the caterpillar would be born since… More »



BLACK SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY UPDATE………

You might remember I told you about the Black Swallowtail caterpillars being able to change their chrysalis color that most resembles where it decides to pupate [it’s resting state] before it emerges as the adult butterfly. This caterpillar decided to go onto a stick I provided for it so now it looks like part of… More »


THE FIRST CHRYSALIS OF THE SEVEN CATERPILLARS ……….

My first Black Swallowtail caterpillar is in it’s resting state [Pupa] now so now it begins it’s journy to become a beautiful Butterfly !!! Three more of the caterpillars are finished eating and now getting into thier position to pupate and will eventually look like this also. They may become green like this one or… More »


BLACK SWALLOWTAIL CATERPILLAR UPDATE……….

I was cleaning these guys out today and decided it would show you the size between the younger caterpillar and the bigger ones that are getting close to pupating. Pupating is when the caterpillar has finished eating and is now the size to go into it’s next state that will result in the adult butterfly… More »



CATERPILLAR TIME………BLACK SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY

So I found two caterpillars a week ago on my parsley and another on my dill and finally I found 2 more on my fennel. This is one that’s on my fennel. I’m so happy to be raising 5 caterpillars even if it’s a lot of work. I do have one chrysalis from last fall… More »


BLACK SWALLOWTAIL CATERPILLAR EATING……..

OKAY so this is short and probably quite boring but this is how fast they eat. In this case it’s eating parsley. There is no sound unless you hear the background sounds of my camera or fridge !!!! The caterpillar is now in it’s position to begin pupating [form it’s chrysalis] it should stay in… More »


A Quick Video of my Monarch Butterflies……

These are two males that had been out of their chrysalis for about two hours. Their wings were all dry and firm and they were ready to be released. I had to touch them to wake them up but the one on the right got out and flew to the window. The chrysalis on the… More »



Releasing the female Cecropia Moth video # 2

This is the second part of trying to get her to fly but because the weather was a bit chilly and rainy she didn’t want to fly. I finally put her in a tree branch and went to release the other female and male. When I looked back at the branch a minute later she… More »


Releasing my Cecropia Moth……

This is one of the females that I released yesterday. It was a cloudy and rainy day so she wasn’t really ready to fly. They like it a bit warmer to get the energy to fly. I was out in the field by myself so I had to hold the camera and try and get… More »


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