Flower Hill Farm BUTTERFLIES OF 2011 ~ Favorite Eastern Black Swallowtail

Eyeing female depositing an egg on hidden Wild Carrot

A lucky sighting! A female  Black Swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes (Fabricius), 1775 deposits an egg. 

1st and 2nd Instar

3rd Instar

4th Instar

5th Instar

Spinning thread and Letting Go!

Talk about a weight loss that many would envy . . . the Black Swallowtail evacuates its entire digestive system before becoming a chrysalis. Note how much smaller it is in the shots above . . . when comparing to the photographs of the caterpillar eating above it. 

Black Swallowtail Chrysalis cozy within a Monarch Community

SURPRISE! I thought this little creature would over-winter. 

                                                                                

What a joy it was to raise my very first  Black Swallowtail.

An added Joy to share it with you all again in a different way. 

This is a series of looking back over my favorite butterfly photographs of 2011. 

If you grow or live near any plants in the carrot family (Umbelliferae) you may find the eggs or caterpillars of the Black Swallowtail and learn more about these creatures by raising them yourselves. Of course, it is always better to observe them in their natural habitat. I confess I do feel guilty taking them from the fields or gardens but try to recreate their environment as close as possible.

Something Wild for Gail over at Clay and Limestone  . . . be sure to visit her gardens and see other wildflowers from around the country.

Metamorphosis is the perfect word for me this week Katarina! Skip over to Sweden for Blooming Friday. 

Last of the Autumn Foliage Found in the Garden

Blooming Friday Bouquet Shadow Play

It's Blooming Friday hosted by lovely Katarina at Roses and Stuff ... be sure to visit her site to see other garden blooms from around the world. I am offering a Flower Hill garden bouquet this breezy fall day. There are not many flower varieties available just now but I do so love a more poetic bouquet. I had a little fun with shadows that fell on a canvas... that was reflecting light to one side of the flower arrangement. Odd that I do not enjoy picking flowers from my gardens, as I am a flower arranger now for over 25 years... you can see some of the work I have done over the years here. I see all the butterflies and bees feeding on the nectar of my garden blooms and just hate to take them from that environment. My farm/gardens do help support Flower Hill Farm however, so pick I must for the B&B and special events I am hired to arrange flowers for. Thank goodness there are also lots of other local growers nearby. Have a great weekend.

Blooming Friday Monarchs, Mimicry, Lacy Queens and Hydrangeas

Flower Hill is nearly deflowered this blooming friday... unless you look to the wild and in my studio, where I am putting together wedding flowers for this weekend. Joe Pye weed, a cluster of lilies, a few rose blooms, Hostas and Sedums just beginning and Hydrangeas still lacy... along with Queen Anne's Lace... all attracting bees and butterflies are blooming and bearing the hazy heat. The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are still darting about in the Himalayan Balsam and inquisitive as ever. There are several last blooms of Buddleia enticing and feeding butterflies and here you see the Monarch of butterflies... there is no other flutterby that moves and navigates as this King and Queen of the air waves. It has been a dismal year here for the Monarchs, mostly I believe due to the rainy wet spring and early summer... I have eyed the lovely mimic Viceroy a few times and then again yesterday, when I also saw my second Monarch butterfly of the summer. The tear to the Viceroy's fabric of wing reveals that mimicry is not always safe... and I have seen many a Monarch with torn wings as well. Birds have learned to eat only certain parts of the abdomen, and to spit out the part that holds the toxic chemical ingested by the caterpillars from their host plant milkweed. It is easy to see the differences in these two butterflies. I have inserted a photo, of a male (the tiny sacs on both wings indicates the sex) Monarch with wings fully open, from last year to help illustrate this point. Along the open wings of the Viceroy, it is as if a thick black spun thread is woven through the mosaic pattern, whereas there is no such thread going through the Monarchs wings. There are many other variations including; the head, thorax and abdomen, the large black brush strokes along the base of the upper wings, the shape of the wings, the milky white spotting and wing coloration when folded... truly they are totally different creatures with similar markings and colors. Though the Viceroy is but a imitation of the Monarch for supposed protection, both butterflies are equally vulnerable, bold and radiant when lit by the sun, in their stained glass orange luminous gowns. The photo from last year shows a fresh Monarch bathed in full sun on ageratum... not quite fair to the Viceroy shown more in shade. To paint both would surely show you all the minute details unique to each. My photos from yesterday show a Monarch feasting on Buddleia, while the Viceroy is sipping Queen Anne's Lace. I am featuring Hydrangeas this Blooming Friday... to see more blooms from around the world go to Katarina's Roses and Stuff.