Awesome pix, Sherry

I had a similar experience where I had the American Lady appear immediately after planting my Antennaria/Pussytoes and Anaphalis/Everlasting. Try some Anaphalis triplinervis; the butterflies love it up here but the plants don't exactly thrive in my garden. They may fare better in a milder climate.

John

So cool! I can't wait until our weather behaves and more butterflies come. The only caterpillars that I have are viceroys and red spotted purples that I wintered over.

Congrats on the AL egg-laying, Sherry! I saw a lady butterfly on my Sweet Everlasting a couple of days ago. I didn't see the butterfly close up enough to be absolutely sure it was an AL, but I haven't seen any cats other than the AL use those plants so far. I don't have many of those species of plants this year, so I hope if eggs/cats are there I'll have enough!

John, I looked up A. triplinervis, but couldn't find a place to order it. It looked just like A. margaritacea and G. obtusifolium, though. I found a place in MN that has Antennaria plantaginifolia, but the shipping costs are outrageous - I'm not blaming them, the shippers charge a lot to deliver things way down here. I've ordered plants for years from Sunlight Gardens in TN, they're out of pussytoes, but I signed up to receive an e-mail when the plants become available. I think it'd make a good plant for the base of other, bigger plants in my garden. I have more violets than I need growing in such spots, so I think I'll put the pussytoes in the sunnier boxes, leave the violets for the shadier ones.

Runmede, it's good that you overwintered RSPs and viceroys. My viceroys emerged a while back, but I haven't gotten any eggs on my willow in a container in the garden. There's a RSP that floats around my front yard, but leaves no eggs - 'may be a male.

I got this picture of the big viceroy before she left, at least I think she's a female -

{{gwi:462738}}

Linda, if you don't have enough food for AL cats, you can usually find their host plants growing here and there roadside.

Sherry

In the summer I buy helichrysum and plant it in pots. It is an annual in my area. You can buy this at local nurseries. Many people use it in their pots as a trailing plant.

These are the host plants from the FAQ section of the forum:

American Painted Lady
- Aster family, asteraceae
1. Gnaphalium obtusifolium - cudweed, sweet everlasting
2. Gnaphalium falcatum - cudweed
3. Helichrysum petiolatum - licorice plant
4. Helichrysum thianschanicum - licorice icicles
5. Anaphalis margaritacea - pearly everlasting
6. Antennaria plantaginifolia - plantain-leaved pussy toes

During the summer, I set up a butterfly trap and use that to collect females. I will keep her a few days and then release her. That is how I get my eggs for the viceroys and RSP. I don't like keeping them captive, but I figure that I am adding to the population when I can rear and release more than would make it in the wild naturally.

Here is a link that might be useful: Female Oviposition Techniques

The egg in the above picture has apparently hatched, since there's now an AL nest there. There's also another nest on some nearby G. purpureum or G. pensylvanicum, whichever it is, so I know there are at least two more nests in my garden.

I'm only feeding one caterpillar in a cage (there are 6 or 7 chrysalides) and it's another dark one. My second AL butterfly emerged, and it had been a dark caterpillar, like none I've ever seen before. I thought there was something wrong with it, but it made a perfect butterfly, just a little darker than normal, with more black. This one is apparently going to be the same -

{{gwi:462739}}

Compare it to this regular AL cat -

{{gwi:462740}}

Black swallowtail caterpillars have a dark form, apparently American ladies do, too.

Whenever I feed any AL cats the G. obtusifolium/rabbit's tobacco, they eat it down to the nub. Since they seem to like it so well, I'm going to hunt for plants coming up on the property and transplant them to the garden. I know of one I'll transplant today, I'll leave another one for the time being to finish feeding this remaining cat, and I'll look for more to transplant. I didn't realize they liked the taste of it so much better than cudweed/G. purpureum.

Sherry

Sherry, I have been meaning to say how gorgeous your pictures are. It always astonishes me what beautiful cats and butterflies you get. Eye candy!
Liz

Maybe this is a recent evolutionary development...

Up here it's Anaphalis triplinervis they totally eat out existence
It's not the hardiest plant in the lunchbox, but the cats love it over anything else in the garden. Some hardier native plants that they'll eat are Antennaria neglecta and plantaginifolia.

John