Hi bfern....Hope all is going well...sounds like you are making strides in the planning and are ready to think about stock.
Let's see...two weeks from now puts us around October 7th. That is getting late to find much of interest flying as this season is almost over for most adult butterflies and caterpillars. You could do some chrysalid collecting and wait for these to emerge next spring. You could also order on line chrysalids from breeders. You could do both. Another option is to wait until next season and after all of your host food plants are in place and doing well, you could collect larvae or ova from the area and introduce these into the B-House. This assumes you know where to look for them and how to collect them easily and in great numbers.
There are many breeders/hobby enthusiasts that rear butterflies. I am sure several folks in this forum could help you with finding stock. Common species found in your area would be best. Ask about Heliconids....Zebra longwings, Gulf Fritillaries, Black Swallowtails, Giant Swallowtails, and others common in your part of U.S. Four or five species would be more than enough to start with for an averaged size B-house.

Good luck with your project....Sincerely, Mikem58

here is a link for you gamster28@hotmail.com

This email address is for Rita and Don Ohelke. They raise several species of butterflies for sale as Chrysalids every year. I have bought from them many times over the years both b-flys and moths.
I know they currently have Zebra, Eastern Tiger, Spicebuch, and Black Swallowtails in stock as Chrysalids.
May have others?? They will email you back with available list. Good people.

Cheers! Sincerely...Mikem58

Hi Fern, Happy Monday, I see you are on your way to have your butts. aviary, we are so lucky to be in Fl., butts. breed all year round, like Mike suggests I would start with Zebra longwings, Gulf Fritillaries then add Monarchs, Poly. sulphur, etc, all these are busy right now ovipositing, good luck and keep us informed.
Myrna

Fern,
I didn't see you mention how large an aviary you ended up building. I live in Lakeland so I get colder weather than you do but I still have lots of Polydamas Swallowtails laying eggs on my Dutchman's Pipevine. They are big eaters and lay large groups of eggs, as many as 2 dozen in a cluster isn't unusual. That means you would have to have continuous source of host plants to keep the life cycle going. I know here our nurseries don't carry them year round so you would have had to already plan ahead for getting the plants.

I also have raised quite a few Zebra Longwings this summer but they were late in coming up from South Florida and right now I have hit a lull in finding new eggs. I do have quite a few chrysalis and caterpillars in later instar. My vine is starting to yellow out so I am not sure how many eggs I will be getting once the chrysalis start opening and I release them.

I guess what I am saying is that I will be happy to send you Polydamas eggs and some Zebra Longwing eggs as long as I know you have the resources to provide them and the future generations host plants. I also have tons of Jatropha Mulitifida (Coral Tree) as nectar plants. Of course they are seedlings and aren't blooming but my main tree will bloom here until the first cold spell. It is a wonderful nectar plant for all butterflies and can be grown in a pot and will not be too tall. I also have lots of REeuilla and Buttercup volunteers that have come up. Obviously I can't mail them to you but if you have no other sources and would make a trip up you would be welcome to some. I have butterfly pea vine seeds and Cassia seed pods now too.

If you go to www.marysbutterflies.com you can see what the Jatropha tree looks like. The Tiger Swallowtail is on it.
If you are interested, you can email me through Garden Web or rfespond here and I will email you back.