Yes! Zebra longwings are my favorite butterflies.

I need to encourage more in my yard - it seems to have died out...

Hey, Irma!

I could never find Corkystem at the nurseries so my husband got some seeds online for me. Now I have them popping up in my crepes and my brugs, but that's completely OK with me! I go out and take pictures of the Zebras' caterpillars as they grow - just like they were my own babies!

Sometimes whole batches of new hatchlings seem to disappear.....does anyone know if there's predators that I need to protect them from? Also, the Gulf Fritts cats are gone, too.....could it be the lizards eating them?

Thanks,

Susie

PS I still have your cosmos reseeding every year! The whole neighborhood loves them!

Corkystem from seeds? Your thumb is soooo green, SusieQ!

Four, that's interesting. I wonder why for all the monarch laying I see, I don't see the little white dots the next day. Ants and those others, I guess.

Here's a question: do butterflies return to their place of origin? If so, same regardless of which sex they are? Today about 5:30pm, 8 or 10 zebra longwings were swarming the bushes with the vine, right outside my window. One (thirsty male?) was by the firebush in the distance. I have yet this week to see a zebra land to lay eggs. (One cat was there... hope the crepe myrtle resident lizard leaves him alone.) Maybe all this swarming business is by females scouting but not ready to lay eggs? Or, do the males come cuz that's where the females are going to be?

Hey Four

How ya been?

Thanks for the info, I must say I agree about the lizards. So there’s nothing I can do about that. I might do the paper bag trick and see if it reduces the wasp population.

I hope the Purple Firespike has been bringing in the hummers for you. Mine have just stopped putting out blooms and the red ones will bloom soon. Looking forward to Swallowtails!

Susie

I had a big wasp and hornet problem until I put out the 'paper bag thing' and it kept all the stinging pests away. No more messy sprays. Now I can garden to my hearts content knowing I won't get stung.

Wasps love caterpillars! I've watched them hunting for them around plants, Then, when they find one they grab it and chew it up into a pulp to feed their larvae.

I don't mind at all when it's a pest caterpillar, unfortunately the wasps do not discriminate.

So what is this 'paper bag thing'?

Susie, I been well. Thank you again for it. I went from it to a miniforest of them (I seriously propagated). And yes, hummers do go in there.

Returning to passionvine topic, and including the protection discussion :

Sometimes I pass a caterpillar-bearing vine through this sheath. The mesh should be semi-rigid; and MUST be of relatively fine gauge, otherwise hornet head fits through.

Is the mesh application what was meant by "the paper bag thing"?

In the azalea bush, there is hanging what looks like a brown chrysalis. I watched as a zebra flew in and seemingly attached itself to it. Explains why yesterday saw a zebra hanging there all day. But why?

Elsewhere on the bush, a pair is mating.

We all are waiting for Susie to explain the paper bag.

> pair is mating You probably mean outside the chrysalis? Less usual. The usual is as follows : > zebra hanging there.... why? Up to three can hang there, after the first then the second stop fending off the second then the third. Usually it /they wait for an opening; sometimes it/they make(s) opening(s) :

Looks that chrysalis might be empty...?

And wasps will also attack a chrysalis. Pupating and metamorphosing are extra vulnerable times.

That’s an amazing nature photo! Perhaps one of the butterflies there just eclosed? I sometimes see male monarchs waiting for me to release newly eclosed monarchs from my cage, I guess they need to hook up really quickly since they have such short lifespans.

Here’s what I know about hanging a paper bag to fool the wasps......my friend wads up newspaper and puts it in the bag to puff it up and form it to look like a wasp nest. Her bag wasn’t huge like a grocery bag, more like a takeout brown paper bag. It was tied closed with a string at the top and hung under the eaves just like a real nest. She swears she has no more wasps.

Linda Leaf! I think I remember meeting you at a Gardenweb plant swap party in Ft Myers like 15 years ago.....if that was you, I think you gave me some cannas and gingers and stuff like that. Please tell us how you made your paper bag thing and how you keep it dry. Thanks!

As "empty" as this one,

which is to say not empty.

> short lifespans ZLW has long lifespan.

Back to the hanging zebras... Is the first hanger female or male? The same one has been hanging all day with 2 joining on. When I disturbed them, the first stayed, 2 left, 2 joined the swarming, ended with a pile of 3 again. I had thought butterflies mated mid-flight. Does it vary by type?

> Is the first hanger female or male?
In all relevant cases the only female is inside chrysalis.

> I had thought butterflies mated mid-flight.
Joined flight is male transporting female to another spot. (I do not know whether it also serves an organic function.)
It is not a ZLW behavior.

The Secret Love Life of the Zebra Longwing Butterfly

Now I understand!

Your will find this interesting : Many times I have seen males return to places from which I had removed chrysales before any landings started. They search for a missing chrysalis in a roughly 20 cubic foot space. A few days ago the behavior was much more striking, in that one repeatedly searched EXACTLY where the chrysalis had been an hour earlier. I noticed it happening still at three hours since removal. I had removed the entire maple leaf to which the chrysalis was attached.
To me, chyrsalis absence and leaf absence would disqualify pheromones as a plausible explanation of such geolocation capability, unless caterpillars deposit a scent on other things in the vicinity of pupation.

This was yesterday. Today, only the odd zlw flying around, none in the bushes. See no eggs. Weather the same today as yesterday. Wonder where they went and why.

SusieQsie_Fla I remember you also. I learned so much about gardening in Florida from the old Garden Web forum. The idea about keeping wasps away is simple to do. According to what I have read, wasps and hornets will stay away if there is another big wasp/hornet nest nearby. I didn't have a paper bag but I did have some light brown paper. I scrunched up a plastic walmart bag and encased it with the square of paper and tied a string around the top to hold it together. It isn't too big, maybe the size of my fist. I made some marks ( rough circles) to resemble a wasp/hornet nest, crunched it up a bit, and tied my creation to a small tree. I have not seen a single wasp in over a month now. --Linda Leaf