#zone9garden

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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TW INSECTS WORMS CHRYSALIS CATERPILLARS

WHAT IS THIS?!?!?! Looks like fresh Swallowtail butterfly cocoons, but I’m not sure, it’s hard to find a quickguide on just the chrysalis pics of California insects.
My mom saw one on her kale plant (IN the house overnight, bc the plant comes in at night) and said an entire leaf was missing/eaten down overnight, and to come give the worm to my mantises before it eats more…

So I look, and it’s not moving. I see a second one and poke them a bit to try and see what they do, but they’re not even grabbing the leaf or moving, and they look like chrysalises. It’s too hard to see them outside in the sun where the plant goes out during the day, so I decide to pull them off so I can look at them inside, and AHAH! They’re attached by a string of silk, onto a mat of silk that’s then attached to the kale leaves. So, I pinned the silk mats to some fabric to leave them hanging in a critter carrier.

I have no idea how to care for butterflies, but I guess being The Bug Guy is now my life, so why not. ((If anyone knows what they are, please share! I’m on the central coast of Cali.))

#chrysalis #chrysalises #cocoon #cocoons #larva #pupa #caterpillar #caterpillars #butterfly #butterflies #moth #moths #insect #insects #bug #bugs #insectidentification #swallowtail #swallowtailbutterfly #garden #gardening #zone9 #zone9garden #zone9b #california #pandemicgardening #kaleplant (at Santa Barbara County, California)
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