Pipevine Life Cycle

I have told you before about the beautiful Pipevine swallowtail butterfly (see Butterfly Sex Notes) that lays its eggs on leaves of the pipevine.

Soon the eggs hatch into a beautiful, though toxic caterpillar (it picks up toxins from the pipevine leaves).

Eventually, the caterpillar matures and creates a chrysalis in which to pupate. This is so cool! First, it places some silk on the twig (or in this case wall) as a base, then it spins the chrysalis, attaching the top part to the wall with a noose made out of silk!

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EWWWW! or OOOOH?

This morning I noticed that something had been chewing on the leaves of my grapefruit tree, and that there were fresh bird droppings all over it.

Then… the bird poop moved. It raised its head. As I drew closer, it stuck its tongue out at me!

This was something I had read about but never seen: the caterpillar of the Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes), the largest butterfly in the United States. Called “orange dogs” because of their larval habit of feeding on citrus leaves, these beautiful butterflies are found throughout the US and Canada, and as far south as Central America.

                        

The larva, as you can see if you look closely, has eyes on either side of its head and eye spots on its “forehead.” When alarmed, they evert their osmetereum, a specialized reddish organ that emits a foul odor (though I smelled nothing). It has been speculated that the forked nature of the osmetereum might resemble the tongue of a snake, adding another layer of cryptic protection.

A couple of years ago I saved the life of a newly-pupated Giant Swallowtail. You can read about it here.

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50 Shades of Green

The belated monsoonal rains at the beginning of the month led to some of these sights at Tohono Chul Park during this last week of September.

Nobody I spoke to could identify these strange mushrooms growing in one of the wildflower beds. To me, they look like melted fried eggs.

Night-blooming cereus fruit are evident on all the desert trails.

BButterflies are everywhere—these Queens are enjoying a sip of milkweed nectar.

…and the well-hydrated desert has turned 50 Shades of Green.

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Butterfly Sex Notes

Birds do it, bees do it, and butterflies do too. Early fall is butterfly heaven in Tucson, and Tohono Chul Park is jam-packed with many beautiful species of butterflies. 

Here are some beautiful queen butterflies, sampling the delights of ageratum:

            

The butterflies are males (as evidenced by the black-enclosed white dot on their hindwings), and they are imbibing an alkaloid that will help them produce a pheromone that some references say “aids in mating.” My butterfly app says that the pheromone enables them to “subdue the female,” so you might think of it as a butterfly date drug.

These pipevine swallowtails were caught mating in the top of a palo verde tree:

Two days ago, while on a bird walk, my buddy Sue and I saw a young butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. In this brief video you can see the flashes of color appear:

It was a beautiful Gulf Fritillary,

but we had to move on before it had dried out and pumped up its wings.

The very early life of a butterfly is fraught with peril. See how I rescued one in my earlier post on Butterfly First Aid.

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Butterfly first aid

This gorgeous butterfly is a giant swallowtail, also known as an “orange dog” for laying its eggs on citrus leaves. When I was out watering yesterday I saw this insect crawling on the ground. Clearly it would not survive out on the ground like that, so I picked it up and put it on my fatsia plant, in the shade and relative safety of the porch. It crawled onto a leaf and hung there as you see it.
I believe it had just hatched and hadn’t had time to strengthen itself for its launch into the world. I may have knocked it down while watering. I went back a few times and it hadn’t moved, so I thought it might have died.
Then, I went out later, and saw that its wings were open. I went for my camera, but it fluttered to the end of the porch:

Then it flew into the garden, landed briefly on the pomegranate tree, and fluttered off into the breeze and its destiny.