Ed. — Archived from the Sunday, Aug. 25, print edition.
VIRGINIA BEACH — I was ecstatic when I came home recently to see a beautiful baby fluttering against the walls of my butterfly habitat. A swallowtail had emerged from its chrysalis. I was excited, but I was also filled with angst.
That stubborn storm named Debby was still spinning around at the time. Debby brought lots of rain and showed no signs of leaving. I was very nervous about releasing the butterfly because of the storm — and even more nervous about how long he could remain in that enclosed habitat with no nectar plants.
I knew that a newly emerged butterfly can generally go 24 hours without nectar, but what if the rain continued past that period?
The forecast promised rain all of the next day, so, in the morning, I plucked a few zinnias and obedient plant flowers and placed them in the habitat to provide a food source for the baby. Then, I sent a social media message to the Butterfly Society of Virginia seeking advice.
I have to give a shout out to this group because, in my experience, they always return calls or messages promptly, and they’re always eager to help. Within an hour, I received a message reassuring me that the butterfly should be okay if he was released during a lull in the rain.
It was too late, however. He’d already flown. He escaped when I opened the habitat for just a second to check on the host plants that the caterpillars were munching.
He flew into my face for a second almost as if he were taunting me for trying to keep him captive. Then he ascended upward toward the treetops.
Fortunately, it was during a lull in the rain, and I only hope he found shelter when it rained again later that day. I was curious, though, about what to do during periods of heavy, extended rainfall and what could be done if newly emerged butterflies can’t be released after 24 hours.
I called Maurice Cullen, a science teacher at Princess Anne Middle School who has been raising butterflies for years. I’m a novice at keeping caterpillars in a habitat, and this swallowtail was only the second one that I’ve had emerge. I had a lot of questions for Cullen, but the first was what to do during an unrelenting rainfall.
Feed the young butterflies flowers and sugar water or Gatorade, Cullen said. They love zinnias, but they also like lantana or native flowers. You can also place the sugar water in a small container at the bottom of the habitat, but Cullen really likes hanging a soaked sponge from the top.
During any lull in the rain, release the butterflies even if you expect more rain. They know how to take shelter, Cullen said, because they’re programed to live in the wild.
Still, butterfly eggs often don’t make it to maturity.
“Out of 100 eggs, two may survive,” Cullen told me.
The eggs, caterpillars and chrysalises are delectable little morsels for other insects, birds and other predators.
That’s exactly why I decided to try raising my caterpillars in a habitat this year. I’d gotten tired of seeing caterpillars munching on my host plants but rarely seeing a chrysalis develop. I decided to try to protect as many caterpillars as possible this summer.
The course of raising caterpillars hasn’t been a smooth one. The first one that I placed in the habitat formed a chrysalis, but it split within a few days. It was obvious that the hull was hollow and there was no longer a viable chrysalis.
I asked Cullen why that happened. Did I inadvertently kill it?
Probably a tiny wasp managed to lay eggs on the caterpillar or chrysalis, Cullen said, and the young wasps devoured the chrysalis.
“Everything has a purpose,” Cullen told me, and the caterpillars and chrysalises serve as a food source for many animals, including the songbirds that we all love.
Cullen also advised checking the habitat well before packing it away in the fall because there still might be a viable swallowtail chrysalis hanging in there.
A swallowtail chrysalis can take a long time to hatch and sometimes winter over or even survive for two years before emerging. If you see a chrysalis, leave it, but don’t bring the habitat into the house because a warm indoor environment could trigger a mid-winter emergence. Instead, leave the habitat in an unheated garage or other sheltered area.
Remember, too, that you can’t save them all, and nature will take its course.
“Without caterpillars, there would be no birds,” Cullen said.
The author is a contributor to The Independent News. Her journalism has also appeared in The Virginian-Pilot.
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