#pierisrapae

THE BUTTERFLY HATCHED!!!!

They’re Cabbage Butterflies (Pieris rapae) which doesn’t surprise me, except that the colour of the chrysalis is way different! We have these everywhere, and I have already fed two of the caterpillars from the same plant to my mantises, and they are sure destructive! But as adults, these butterflies are beneficial pollinators. So… my mantises aren’t getting any Mexican Wedding Cookies today.
❄❄
Once this one’s wings are dry tomorrow, I will let him go free. Hopefully the other one hatches, too. I’d love to keep them, but I don’t feel like setting up an entire butterfly habitat when I already have so many buggies, and these guys aren’t anything special for this area.
((Now if they were Western Monarchs… I would devote as much time and effort as I could to raise and release more… I’m still SO upset about their population decline, even if the numbers for this year are looking more hopeful than last year. I’m still struggling to even get Milkweed to survive in my yard, though. At least I still have more seeds I can plant.))

Still, it was fun to suddenly see a butterfly when I checked on the enclosure. I see so many of their orangey eggs on my mustard plant, I may need to remove it from the planter where I have radishes (because the radishes are getting nibbled now, too, even if they don’t have eggs…)

#butterfly #butterflies #chrysalis #chrysalises #cocoon #cocoons #pierisrapae #insect #insects #insectkeeping #bugkeeping #bug #bugs #garden #gardening #california #cali #pandemicgardening #zone9b #zone9 #zone9garden #pollinator #pollinators (at Santa Barbara County, California)
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