I planted many plants in my backyard that I read wouldbe enticing to butterflies. I have had lots of Monarchs and lots of
little white ones (don't know what they're called), but was tickled
pink...or blue to have this visitor yesterday afternoon.
He flitted from flower to flower for a very long time. Could someone identify him for me?
Also, what do you serve YOUR butterflies? Have a wonderful week!
19 comments:
Your photos are most beautiful! Thanks for sharing and happy GTS...
I don't know what it is, except lovely! I don't get many butterflies at all. Usually only seen a few monarchs and one little yellow one. I need more enticing flowers!
Very pretty! I am such a nerd I decided to see if I could find it. I found a black swallowtail butterfly that looks very close to yours. They all seemed to ahve more color though. I hope someone is able to tell you what species it is.
That's what I thought when I looked it up, Dawn. It doesn't have as much color as the ones I researched, I agree.
The butterfly photos are absolutely beautiful! I'm not up on butterflies.
Beautiful pictures. I'm not a butterfly expert but this looks like a black swallowtail to me. Maybe the color fades some as they age.
Lovely shot. To be exact, she is an eastern tiger swallowtail (female dark form). It is believed that this dark form has developed in order to mimic a similar looking and very poisonous butterfly, the pipevine swallowtail. The female eastern black swallowtail, which resembles this butterfly considerably, has a bit more yellow in her wings (I raise eastern black swallowtails, so I've seen them up close).
Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much for the ID! If you come back to this blog, please let me know what you plant to keep these beauties happy. She's been spending lots of time on the lantana and purple coneflower.
I'm sooooo jealous. I haven't had a chance to photograph one yet. I guess I don't have enough blooming yet that would keep them still long enough to photograph.
The adult eastern tiger swallowtails feed on a variety of flowering plants, including lilac and wild cherry. If she's hanging around the lantana and coneflower, then she must like them as well.
The caterpillars of the eastern tiger swallowtail eat the leaves of the following trees: wild cherry, basswood, ash, mountain ash, birch, cottonwood, willow, and others. Plant one of these if you want to witness their entire life cycle (which is what happened to me when I planted fennel--favourite food of the eastern black swallowtail).
How exciting to see the butterflies return to the garden. These are so lovely! I always plant zinnias for them and this year I've added a butterfly bush that my aunt gave me.
I'm glad everyone likes my photos of this wonderful creature. She comes to visit quite often, these days. And Tina, thanks for coming back and educating me more. I am going to try planting some host plants. I would love for her to have her babies in my humble backyard! :)
Chris~Great photo! I just *love* butterflies, too! :) My first visitor to my new butterfly garden, (while I was planting it!!) was one of the little white ones you spoke of. It just gently went from plant to plant inspecting! I was pretty excited to see it!! There were a couple of others to follow that day, but that first little white one just made my heart soar! Your gardens are looking great, nice work!! :)
No problem, Chris. Glad I could help. I'll keep reading your blog for future instalments of the continuing butterfly story.
What a wonderful butterfly. There is a berak here with butterflies flying around, we will see more in July, August again.
Beautul photos of the butterflies - I have three buddleiah bushes which will attract them later in the summer when the blooms open.
Wonderful butterfly, wish we had those here too! ;-)
Beautiful pictures! We have seen the non-dark version of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail in our garden many times but not the dark form. It is as beautiful as the "tiger" looking form but in a different way. The Tiger Swallowtails we have seen have always been in flight so I don't know what plants I have that they like best. The one and only time I have seen one on a plant was on a wild plum tree in bloom.
Very nice photo. That is a Black Swallowtail butterfly. I had a lot of fun raising them. You can see pictures of the Black Swallowtail caterpillars I raised at http://elizabethssecretgarden.blogspot.com/2009/06/black-swallowtail-egg-has-hatched.html
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