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Fri, Jun 2, 06 at 14:58
| I've been raising a good many palamedes swallowtail cats this year, and I've released several already this spring. They always flap their wings wildly, and flop around on the bottom of the cage, sometimes turning upside down, like they're just DYING to get out! When I go ahead and release them for fear that they'll injure their wings, they can just barely fly, and fly over to a nearby tree or bush to hang upside down for a while before they fly off for good. They can't seem to wait until they're fully ready to leave before they insist on leaving!
I released a gorgeous male spicebush swallowtail today, but he flew out of the cage before I could get his picture - he had a big green area on his hindwings that was just the same shade of mint green as his lunules. Another GF emerged, and I released him, too, a gorgeous, dark orange male. The palamedes was a female - she had a little bit of blue on the topside of her hindwings, unlike the males, who have no blue. Here's a picture I took of her on the little evergreen blueberry bush she flew to - 
MissSherry |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| That's a real beauty. We don't get them up here in ct. What plant do you find the eggs/cats on? |
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- Posted by misssherry Z9aMS (My Page) on Sat, Jun 3, 06 at 10:45
| I find them on either red bay/persea borbonia or swamp bay/persea palustris, Mary Ann. Persea is closely related to sassafras and spicebush, host plants for spicebush swallowtails, and the cats look almost exactly the same as spicebush cats. MissSherry |
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