Sweetie was discovered today, on plants in the herb box behind 225 Adams Street. Sweetie eats parsley, carrot tops, and dill — to fuel their transformation into a swallowtail butterfly.We’ve placed them in a habitat outside the play area. If Sweetie is of interest, you have about one day — possibly less — to observe them before they go into chrysalis. They’ll be in their “cocoon” type enclosure for 1-2 weeks before emerging…Or, they could chose to overwinter and turn into a butterfly in the spring. Check’em out soon! We didn’t have many butterflies visit or leave eggs this year, probably because of the construction — so lets celebrate this one!
We’ve just filed our annual report with the conservation group Monarch Watch as part of their tagging program. Gardeners placed small numbered ID stickers (tags) on the dorsal wings of 50 Monarch butterflies between August and October 2021. With luck, a tagged (expired) butterfly will be found in Mexico, the migration destination, recovered and reported.
A Record-Setting Yearfor These Special Pollinators
By far, this is the most Monarch butterflies we’ve counted in one season. No doubt the special new net helped with catching, but a fair amount of the butterflies were found as caterpillars on milkweed plants. The native plant species is the only type that Monarchs use for egg-laying, which is why conservation efforts call for planting as many of the drought-resistant host plants as possible. (Continued below)
Learn more about Monarch Butterfly Migration, habitat conservation and the Monarch Watch tagging program here. To date, there are 36,863 official way stations in the United States; sadly the species remains at risk, due to deforestation and the ongoing loss of natural habitats.
Migrating Monarchs Need Waystations for Food and Shelter
CVEarthlab Garden was launched in 2013 and a few years later, the play area was registered as an official Monarch Waystation. This means it provides shelter and food for the migrating butterflies. At CV, food is three different types of milkweeds and a variety of continuously blooming nectar-providing flowers, including annuals such as marigolds and Zinnia and native perennials (plants that come back every year) such as bee balm, black-eyed Susan, echinacea, sedum, coreopsis, goldenrod, violet, and hollyhock.
We have participated in the tagging program since 2019, but only started documenting CV Monarch caterpillar sightings around 2018. See the tag numbers we registered in 2021 on this spreadsheet; when a butterfly with the tag number is found it will be reported here.
Want to help support the 2022 Migration? In March we will start to grow butterfly-friendly flowers at our seed-starting event; there are many ways to help with conservation in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. Send your contact info to CVEarthlab@gmail.com and we’ll keep you in the loop! -CVEarthlab Core Committee Members
Or another species all together? At first glance, I dismissed it as a plain old cabbage white, but looking closely I realized it was more colorful (esp when it spread its wings and blue, exposing a pretty baby blue color.) Unfortmately that happened off camera…Research suggests this is likely a Spring Azure, I will keep reading…UPDATE: This appears to be a male Eastern-Tailed Blue Butterfly.
Found this gal on milkweed today; she’s in the butterfly house hanging by the garden shed behind 195 Adams. Have a look! But please don’t remove or touch her — as bacteria from humans may harm her.
I discovered several caterpillars on the milkweed today and moved one into the habitat container. You can find the netted cage hanging on the persimmon tree outside the wooden garden-border fence.
All residents are welcome to observe this Monarch caterpillar. You can move the habitat for observation but please do not touch the actual caterpillar. If you move the netted cage, please return it where you found it: under the tree in a shaded are. The caterpillar habitat should not be placed in direct sunlight.
We will keep the evolving creature outside, making sure she has fresh milkweed, and after she’s in pupa stage, making sure to note when she emerges so we can release her within 24 hours.
With luck we can try to tag and track the butterfly that will likely emerge mid-August.
Here’s the egg next to a sharpie, for scale… I will leave this egg on the raised herb beds outside the play area in case anyone wants to take a peek! –
Native to the Northeast coast, the beach plum (prunus maritima marsh) is a perennial fruit shrub especially supportive of bees. Learn more about its interesting history here
To donate, you can leave checks, made out to CVOI, with CVEarthlab in the memo line, at the CV office. Or, you can arrange for a garden member to pick up an envelope from your doorman by sending a note to cvearthlab@gmail.com . We also accept donations via Venmo electronic payment service. To donate via Venmo app, use Shari’s Rueckl’s username: @misssha
The caterpillar went to chrysalis about 9-10 days ago, so it should be nearing emergence! The warm weather likely speeds the process.
Butterfly larva. (Looks like a painted lady butterfly. See more info about development stages here)
Concord Village EarthLab 