Because they hatch!
Butterflies
- Thread starter wytex
- Start date
Brute
Well-known member
Saw something on the ground yesterday. At least half of them flew off before I realized what they were. The most Swallowtails I've ever seen at once.
Last edited:
Those butterflies were likely "puddling". Swallowtails do it a lot (as do many other butterflies). They are getting minerals and nutrients, so they commonly do it on carrion, feces, a place where an animal urinated, etc. Males often wrap up their sperm in big nutrient rich packages that the female can digest and use for eggs, so these may have been males getting supplies for "nuptial gifts" used in mating. This story linked below is a fascinating read...
This Common Butterfly Has an Extraordinary Sex Life
For the cabbage white, sex involves sperm packages of ungodly size, genitals that double as a souped-up stomach, and an unexpected set of chewing jaws.
Brute
Well-known member
Must be a bumper crop for Swallowtails this year.
runningmt
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2018
- Messages
- 716
R
rwc101
Guest
Salmonchaser
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2019
- Messages
- 2,433
BAKPAKR
Well-known member
My wife mentioned yesterday that she had not seen many butterflies in our garden this year. Today, she called me just after she left to get groceries and suggested I go to the garden.
When I was a kid growing up I would always go exploring in the cedar and elm woods by our house. I was full of monarchs in the mid to late summer. I mean thousands upon thousands. They were all over, now there are hardly a few there at this same time. I saw they were thinking of listing them as endangered. I don't see how they could be any less than that. On a drive a week ago from MN to NE I saw 5 alive on the drive and 4 of those didn't make it past my truck. I don't see how they may it to MX. By the way it take either 4 to 5 generations to make it to MX. The human footprint stomps their existence into the ground.
I have a lot of ground planted to pollinator mix but I fear it is for naught. Seeing a lot of swallowtails this year though.
I have a lot of ground planted to pollinator mix but I fear it is for naught. Seeing a lot of swallowtails this year though.
Jamen
Well-known member
I believe they were listed on the endangered species list just a couple weeks ago in July.
R
rwc101
Guest
Dreamhunter#1
Member
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2023
- Messages
- 38
Man I love butterfly they loved my dad ever where he went they would land on him he passed away in 2017 evertime I see one I see him
What seems to be the most common butterfly: the tiger swallowtail
The second most common in our flower garden is the: black swallowtail
And from my last trip to the Nantahala National Forest: Red spotted admiral
There used to be a ton of zebra swallowtails when I was a kid but I might see one a year now. Never really been a hotspot for monarchs but have seen a few this year which is more than average for me.
The second most common in our flower garden is the: black swallowtail
And from my last trip to the Nantahala National Forest: Red spotted admiral
There used to be a ton of zebra swallowtails when I was a kid but I might see one a year now. Never really been a hotspot for monarchs but have seen a few this year which is more than average for me.
Hunter4Life78
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2022
- Messages
- 1,154
BAKPAKR
Well-known member
I have seen two of the three in our garden and I have also seen a lot when out hiking recently.
