Has this been the worst year for butterfly gardening, or what?

I've never seen anything like it. Throughout the summer heat waves would hit and wipe out completely every caterpillar on the vine. It happened to Polydamas, Gulf frits and black swallowtails. And I've seen a total of four long wing zebras all summer.

Anyone else noticing the decimation?

I have been seeing lots of butterflies for the last 2 weeks. I would adore seeing a long wing zebra. Never seen one outside a BF sanctuary. Lucky you!

but most of the larger leps have been scarce on the ground. :(

and some monarchs. I also had lots of red admirals.

Because of the crappy economy, many Missouri counties have drasticly cut back on their summer mowing programs. Also, lots of vacant lots around. This has created an abundance of Queen Anne's Lace, cone flower, sunflower, Canadian thistle and yarrow. Lots of food and habitat means lots of butterflies. Eastern Black Swallowtails, Monarchs, Giant Swallow Tails, Sulfurs, Question Marks,Purple Red-dots, Tiger Swallow Tails and more. I take bike rides out in the countryside and I have never seen anything like it. It has been one good facet of the bad economy.

Also, Mrs. Midway Rebel has become quite a caterpillar herder around here. All summer long, she has been plucking Eastern Black Swallow Tail larvae off of the potted parsley plants on the porch, which they have devoured to the nub, and transferring them to the garden where there is lots of self-seeded dill and a big Syrian Blue Rue plant that they seem to like almost as much as the departed parsley. I just asked and she claims to have transferred 19 of the green-yellow-black and white striped critters this summer and still cannot believe their mama's would be so careless as to lay their babies upon such an insignificant and insufficient twig of green herb. Chunks of the garden have been cordoned off as butterfly sanctuary. Last week, she got more potted parsley, not for us but for the damn caterpillars.

along the highways here. I don't know if this is due to pennywise lack of mowing, or if someone had an inspiration. Looks great.

We grow plenty of Parsley and Dill in our vegetable garden specifically for the Swallowtail caterpillars to feed on.

Not a single caterpillar this year.
We have seen a few Blacks, Pipevines, and Tigers on the flowering plants, but no young caterpillars in the garden. We normally have bunches.

We have had plenty of moths as evidenced by a horde of Tomato Hornworms, Grape Moth larvae, and Cabbage Worms.

In the Spring, we were visited by THIS beautiful and as yet unidentified moth:

Anyone have an ID on this critter?

One of the giant silkworms, related to Cecropia, Polyphemus, and Luna moths, but not too closely.

The larvae lives on hickory and other nut and shade trees and is called a Hickory Horned Devil.

I'm jealous, I've always wanted to find one of those. I saw one once in my life, perched above a doorway at the visitors entrance to the Kennedy Space Center Museum/Visitors Center at Cape Canaveral. I've never seen one here in SE Michigan, although in theory they do live in the southern half of lower Michigan.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Regal+Moth&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=2kCWTKO3D8H7lwef7-ioCg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQsAQwAA&biw=1338&bih=547

I had never seen one before.
It was magnificent.

We are surrounded by Hardwood Forest, primarily Hickory and Oak, so the connection to the Hickory Horned Devil makes sense. (Isn't THAT a great name!)

We see the occasional Luna, also breathtaking when they appear.

This is an infant we found drying its wings on the floor of our shop.
We carefully put him/her in a box, and released it at dusk.
I missed the shot of this beauty flying away into the twilight.

nice job with all the butterfly "herding!" :thumbsup:

I didn't know that the larvae liked dill -will have to plant some outside, then. :D


Red Admirals here love the Dutch Elm trees (the trees eventually die, but the admirals thrive on em.)

year we had a milkweed type plant come up right beside the house along with hollyhocks. This year I want to make the whole area into a butterfly haven. Besides plants that attract them what else can be done to help them?

mine were so loaded with butterflies the branches were bending.