Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, instead of continuing on that long thread below, I thought id start a new one.
Ive captured a female Buckeye butterfly, and my goal is to get her to lay eggs, which I hope to successfully raise up into adult butterflies. Everything seems to be going well right now. I think she is laying eggs on the snapdragon I put in for her, because she keeps wandering around on it, and stopping at the leaves here and there. Im going to go out tomorrow and try to find a male for her, to make sure that the eggs are fertile. Ill keep you all updated on how it goes.

-Andrew

Andrew

new thread is a good idea! One thing to keep in mind is that I doubt she will pair if she has already begun laying - I know this is true in moths with very few exceptions. But in your warm climate it is more than likely she has mated.

lele

Awesome, good to hear. When its nice and warm outside(today was pretty cool), there are a lot of butterflies, and a lot of different kinds, fluttering around drinking nectar from the weeds. I think that a lot of the weeds may be milkweed too, which I didnt know before, because I found 2 empty monarch chrysalis shells on some of the taller weeds.
Ill keep you updated

-Andrew

Sorry I haven't given an update, but the project was a failure. The female I had unexpectedly died, and she never laid any eggs. I think the reason for this is that there were already caterpillars on the host plant I put in for her. I never saw these caterpillars until the night before she died.

In the spring im going to plant a bunch of parsely and dill in hopes to get some swallotail larvae.

-Andrew

Hi Andrew - sorry to hear it didn't work out, but I am sure you will have other opportunity. Plant parsley and the swallowtails will come!

lele