MissSherry, that's a beauty. Male or female?

Have you ever noticed that newly eclosed swallowtails squirt liquid? It's kind of gross but also fascinating. It seems like they must purge themselves of extra liquid store in the pupal stage.

Yes, they all have that stuff, sort of gross, huh?
I don't know what sex it was, Mary Ann, because I didn't want to disturb it to make it open its wings where I could see if it had prominent white dots or not. I didn't even get too close to it - this picture was made at a pretty good distance, with the "zoom" on my camera. I've read that they need to be left undisturbed when they first emerge so that the stuff, whatever it is, that's in their abdomen can move into their wings and harden them off for flight. I didn't know how long this one had been hanging, and I didn't want to take any chances.
Also, when you've got as many of both sexes as I've got, it really doesn't matter any more! :) Boy have I got the PVSs in big numbers already this year!
MissSherry

hi miss sherry do you grow all your butterflies and plants inside a greenhouse or outside?
I live in z9b in central Italy do you think I may overwinter here zebralongwings and gurlf fritillaries?
This pipevine swallowtail is a wonderful one!!!!
Which is his scientific name?
CHeers
Marco

I raise all my butterflies outside on my front porch, Marco, but there are huge numbers of cats on my pipevines outside, raising themselves. I found a pipevine swallowtail hanging on the inside of a rocker on a rocking chair on the porch the other day - its chrysalid was on the back of the chair! This one crawled as a caterpillar from the vines in my garden to pupate. Pipevine swallowtails eat aristolochia, which apparently makes them as distasteful to predators as the books say, because they're one caterpillar that never gets touched! Pipevine swallowtails are battus philenor - I LOVE them!
I don't know the answer about zebra longwings and gulf fritillaries overwintering. Don't you live in an apartment? Three GF caterpillars overwintered here for the first time this year, but it was because they were on p. caerulea, which is real cold hardy, and it kept leaves all winter. They apparently hid in the leaves, because I didn't see them until it was almost spring, and they must have either gone into some sort of suspended state on the vines or eaten just little bits at the time over the winter. We had a mild winter, but we did have a few light freezes, no colder than 30 degrees, as I recall. I had been wanting to overwinter a GF as a chrysalid, thinking that was the way to go, but the chrysalids always turned black and died. I never dreamed they'd overwinter as cats!
I've never raised any zebra longwings, but I'm guessing the situation is the same, except that zebras are probably more cold sensitive than GFs. I wish I could raise some!
MissSherry

Dear sherry I only thought pupae may be able to over winter !!!
Lol there is a lot to learn since you say also catts are able to overwinter, have I understood well?
Wich kind of aristolochia is the one that battuss philenor catts feed on?
I have planted an aristolochia elegans that grows outside yearround loose the lives in winters and come back in spring.
30 f is the same temps we get here during coldest periouds but leaving me in a flat on the 7th floor temps don't reach freezing like at soil level.
May you be able to send me seeds of your aristolochia?
I hope it can thrive here too.
If you have other host plants or nectar plants can I ask you some seeds?
I really weould love to start butterfly breeding :)
Thank you so much
Marco

Yes, Marco, you got it right, my gulf fritillary cats overwintered - I was as surprised as you are!
Battus philenor/pipevine swallowtails feed on any and all of the North American aristolochias - a. tomentosa, a. durior/macrophylla, a. californica, a. serpentaria, and a. erecta. They also thrive on a. clematitis, whose origins are obscure, but it's thought that it originated somewhere in the Mediterranean region. It looks and grows a lot like our native a. serpentaria, except it's bigger and resprouts better after it's cut or the cats chew it down. The South American aristolochias are toxic to our pipevine swallowtails/battus philenor. I believe a. elegans is a South American type that females usually won't lay eggs on, and if they do, the cats die - it isn't one you should use. I'd recommend you use a. clematitis if you can find it - it's wonderful, and it's suitable for just about any type of aristolochia eating caterpillar.
I never get any seeds on my pipevines! :( My a. tomentosas flower profusely each spring, but the flowers never make a seed pod - I don't know what the reason is!
MissSherry

how many things to learn!
I hope your aristolochias will never die otherwise without flowers you will have not seeds and your butterflies will not be able to survive.
IF clematitis comes from the mediterranean region and the butterflies can live on them may this means that the ancestor of PVS lived here too before the continents slpitted?
this is intruiguing!!!!
:°)
May be possible that the aristolochias you have carries only male or femal flowers?
Have you ever tryed to see how the flower is and to try to pollinate it?
lol I am so curious about evrything!!!!
And you are always so kind in your replies love you!!!!