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misssherryg

Giant Swallowtail Eggs!

MissSherry
11 years ago

Today while I was out in the midday heat working in my garden - didn't stay too long - a giant swallowtail appeared and laid eggs on one of my hops trees! I counted 4 eggs on that one, and she continued to lay eggs on leaves on my orange tree. I wish she had used my other, bigger hops tree and/or my many rue plants, because the orange tree is the only GST host plant that's NOT had a good record in raising caterpillars to maturity. So, I plan on cutting off the leaves they're on - some are even old, thick leaves - and transferring the caterpillars to rue, which they thrive on. Unfortunately, a cardinal has made a nest in the orange tree, and her eggs have hatched - the peeps are so high pitched, they must have just hatched yesterday. I hate to get so close to the cardinal babies and scare their Mom, but I can't let these eggs go to waste, since giant swallowtails are so rare this year. Every egg counts! And there are jillions of cardinals here - babies have already been born this spring, and they're getting their adult coloring already, so they're continuing to reproduce at a high rate. Not that I think the Mom will abandon the nest - I'll stay as far away from the nest as possible.

I didn't make a picture of the giant swallowtail, because I was afraid I'd scare her off. My experience with giants has been that they lay a few eggs each day, usually about 8 - 10, in the middle of the day, regardless of the heat. They're gluttons for punishment! They usually do this for about 4-7 days in a row before they're through.

I'll soon be cleaning the big cage for them - 'don't want any wasps or stinkbugs killing the caterpillars!

Sherry

Comments (6)

  • weed30 St. Louis
    11 years ago

    Yay for you! I hope to have some Giants again this year - I have 3' tall rue plants and a new hop "tree". The quotes are because it is about 8" tall with maybe 9 leaves :)

  • christie_sw_mo
    11 years ago

    Congrats! I'm still waiting. I've been checking my rue and prickly ash almost every day, but nothing so far and I haven't had any Giant Swallowtail sightings yet. I have a few Wafer Ash trees(shrubs?) in containers that I started from seeds this spring. I've been checking those also.

    I have a few Meyer Lemons that I started from seeds also. They're three or four inches tall and in little pots outside on my patio. It wouldn't take a Giant Swallowtail cat very long to eat those. I need to watch and move the cats if they show up.

    Good luck with your babies - both the GSTs and the cardinals. The mama cardinal may fly off when you get close but I'm sure she'll be back soon. We've had a cardinal nest more than once in a Japanese Maple that's right by our front porch. Once in a nest that was in perfect sight from the window. We could see down into it from only a few feet away.

  • caterwallin
    11 years ago

    Congrats, Miss Sherry! I know that you've been waiting for the GSTs and your patience has been rewarded. They're not plentiful up here either and if I get any eggs, I'll be sure to collect them all and raise them in containers. They're not hard to raise. I haven't seen any of the butterflies yet this year but hope to in the next couple of months.

    Yesterday when I was outside gathering dill for my one BST, I saw one of those darn red and black wasps patrolling the plants, so I was especially glad that I brought in the tiny cat that I found last week. I probably should look over the rue too to see if I can find any on there. Right now they're loaded with blooms that I'll have to cut off or I'll have rue plants coming up all over the place later on. I always leave some though because that's where I seem to almost always find the GST eggs, on the seed heads.

    Best of luck with your GSTs, and I wouldn't worry about the cardinal abandoning her nest just from your being there gathering the GST eggs for awhile.

    Cathy

  • MissSherry
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks, weed30, Christie and Cathy! I went back to the garden and there were more eggs, this time on the other, bigger wafer ash/hop tree/Ptelea trifoliata, I can never figure out what to call them! :) So she came back while I cooled off in the house. I'm cleaning cages right now, because guess what?

    You know I haven't gotten any gulf frits yet? Well, I saw a female gulf frit laying an egg on one of the passionvines in my garden! I also found some hatchling gulf frit cats, so the gulf frit that I saw passing through about a week - 10 days or so ago probably left me these babies - 'may be the same butterfly. The only problem here is that the hatchlings are eating the flower buds on a passionvine that came from a seed that I planted from fruit from one of my 'Incense' passies. 'Incense' doesn't make pollen, so any seedlings that come from it have as their male parent a passionflower that makes pollen, which, in this case would be either regular P. incarnata or P. incarnata 'alba' a white form of the native maypops. These vines grow next to the 'Incense' in my front yard beds, and bees go back and forth between their flowers all the time. There's always a chance the flowers could be something different or special, probably not, but there's a chance. Oh well, it'll keep making more flowers, that's for sure, because this is one vigorous vine! I imagine the leaves must be more like P. incarnata, since the gulf frits almost never lay eggs on the 'Incense' - that's good! I've got another passionvine P. mooreana growing by 'Incense' and maypops, so I'm hoping for a hybrid from it, too.

    Anyway, Memorial Day has been a very memorable butterfly day here!

    Sherry

  • MissSherry
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I've found more eggs, I've brought them in to raise, and the first one has already hatched! It's only been four days since I saw the female laying her eggs, so this hatchling must have come from one of the eggs that I found on the underneath side of a wafer ash that I didn't see on May 28th. Either that or they're hatching quicker these days than they used to - 'used to take at least five days, sometimes a week.

    I've also continued to find more little gulf frit cats, and I'm bringing them in to raise also. These gulf frits and giant swallowtails will, hopefully, provide the foundation for a lot of adults in the garden later on, who'll mate and increase the numbers.

    Sherry

  • MissSherry
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    My first giant swallowtail caterpillar is pupating now. I got a picture of it or maybe another one of the big ones.
    Last instar GST cats alway remind me of pictures I remember seeing years ago of a monkey with what looked like a chauffeur's cap on - maybe it was an organ grinder's monkey -

    {{gwi:472602}}

    Sherry

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