The Glorious Destruction of my Passion Vines

Investigating egg-laying locations

Soon after the ladybugs-and-aphids experience I wrote about last month, I was able to witness the entire life cycle of another interesting insect:  Gulf Fritillary butterflies!  Ever since moving to Arivaca, I’ve seen the adults of this species fluttering through my garden and feeding on many of the flowers there.  But because Uno and I have left Arivaca in May during previous years, I'd never gotten to see any of their eggs, caterpillars, or cocoons (aka chrysalis).  I had learned that these beautiful orange butterflies prefer to lay all their eggs on a Passion Vine so that their caterpillars can feed on its leaves, and in previous springs I had been happy to see Passion Vine starts popping up all around my studio porch… so after we decided to extend our stay in Arivaca this year into the summer months, I became excited about getting to see the result. 

Sure enough, as soon as the Passion Vines got tall enough to start twining their way up the rock pillars and trellis of my studio porch, the Gulf Fritillary butterflies began to notice.  Almost overnight, there were multiple adult females flying to and fro among the vines all around my studio.  

The tiny eggs of a Gulf Fritillary

A mighty big bite for a tiny caterpillar

  

Within a few days, I began to notice beautiful, tiny, black and orange caterpillars gnawing their way through the leaves, as well as the tendrils and stems of the Passion Vines.  I was so thrilled!  The caterpillars' “warning colors” and the soft-but-sharp-looking little spines on each of their segments are a strong message to predators of, “I taste bad and will make you sick”, so even though my garden is filled with birds and lizards, the number of caterpillars kept increasing each day.

It's a Passion Vine party!

At the same time that the caterpillars grew larger and larger, shedding their exoskeleton and growing a new one during each stage of their growth, all the Passion Vines grew more and more raggedy.  Even though there are around a dozen vines scattered around the sides of my studio porch and in a nearby Mesquite tree, it didn’t take long for each of them to have 5 or more caterpillars munching away.   Soon all but the two biggest vines were just leafless stumps, yet still the munching continued, and more eggs hatched into hungry new caterpillars.  It was such a complete and utter destruction, yet somehow I wasn’t a bit sad!

Gnawing on a "stump"

Every day I checked on the "little darlings" and watched for cocoons to appear, but I guess my eyes just weren’t sharp enough to see through their incredible disguise.  Their cocoons look exactly like a dried leaf or piece of bark!  I looked and looked through the nearby tree branches and trunks, even with binoculars, but to no avail.  Nature and evolution has truly given these butterflies excellent defenses: the “warning colors” and spines of the caterpillars, their well-disguised cocoon, and last but not least, the ability of the adults to emit a foul odor when they see an approaching predator.  Note to the universe: if reincarnation exists, I’d be happy to come back as a Gulf Fritillary, even though their life span is relatively short!

 This cocoon looks like it's attached to a stucco building!

 
By the time the last caterpillar disappeared into a cocoon, I wondered whether any of my Passion Vines could possible survive their glorious destruction.  I’ve always loved the purple stems, strange-shaped leaves, and spectacular flowers of Passion Vines (though I grew a different species in my Seattle garden) so I was really hoping for a rebound.  A couple of times a week, I gave each of the vines a drink of water and looked for any signs of new growth.  It took a while, but the majority of the vines began sprouting new leaves, tendrils, and branches, and once again began climbing up the porch pillars and the Mesquite.  This whole experience has made me even more excited to have the thrill of seeing their flowers later this summer.  What an amazing plant, and what an amazing gift to have been able to witness its glorious destruction and its glorious revival!

New growth of a vine on the Mesquite 

New growth of a vine on a rock pillar

Now that I've seen just how truly resilient Passion Vines are, I look forward to seeing their glory for many future years, and in no longer having to wonder about their ability to survive.  We humans are resilient too - sometimes more than we know.  


Like the Passion Vines, though we sometimes feel broken under the weight of life's challenges, we also can rise, begin again, and be glorious as we meet each new day with all our might.











Another garden feature that can attract and nurture butterflies is a homemade "puddling pond". Butterflies prefer to take in fluids by drinking muddy water, because it contains dissolved minerals and salts that help to strengthen their scales. "Puddling" is done mostly by male butterflies because they can also concentrate the salts and minerals into their sperm and transfer them to the females during mating, which increases the viability of the eggs she lays. This transfer also supplies the female with minerals and salts for her own health, which is another reason why females don't need to "puddle" as often as males.


Have you ever seen butterflies gathered around a mud puddle in your garden, or out in a natural area?  (By the way, they will also drink minerals and salts from wet cow pies and horse pies, and even from carcasses)  Recently we had a water leak near our meter that wet down the soil around it for a couple days, and as soon as the sun came up every morning, many butterflies gathered around for a "puddling session".

I saw one of the butterflies even visit our ground-level concrete birdbath to drink from edge of the water there.  This made me wonder if the debris from wood chips and leaves around the edge were what it was trying to access, but I accidentally scared it away and didn't get to see it actually drink.

All you need in order to build your own "puddling pond" is a large plant saucer (preferably cracked so it lets water out slowly) or a 2ft square, thick sheet of plastic with holes poked it it for drainage.
Dig a shallow, flat hole for the puddling pond somewhere in your garden that stays sunny, and that is also reasonably close to an outside spigot for easy refilling.  It's also fun to build it close enough to a seating area for doing some "puddle-watching" while you sip your morning coffee or tea.

The soil you dig out will be used to back-fill the saucer or thick plastic sheet after it's put in the hole, so save the soil in a bucket or off to the side.  When placing your saucer or plastic sheet in the hole, strive for it to be as level as possible so it retains water well, then back-fill it with your saved soil.  Wet your puddling pond every evening with a sprinkle from the hose or watering can so it is ready for moths (they "puddle" also, though they are seldom seen doing it) and is still moist in the morning when the butterflies awaken.

Butterflies also enjoy perching on a warm rock to warm their wings in the morning before starting their day of flying, so using rocks to cover the edge of the saucer or plastic will make it more decorative as well as more functional.  Here are two examples of a completed "puddling pond", one is inside a garden bed near some Fleabane (a favorite butterfly flower) and one is just off to the side of a crushed rock area near my studio porch.  Both are made from 12" diameter, cracked, clear plastic plant saucers.

 The photo and video to the left are of a different butterfly species, the Mourning Cloak.  As adults, this species has the amazing ability to migrate, and also to overwinter - even in cold and wet climates such as the Pacific Northwest - by squeezing themselves into deep bark cracks and other sheltered spots.  This is why they are typically the earliest butterfly species you will see in the northwest and other cool climates, and why their wings are already tattered in late winter or early spring.

In this "second year" of their life, the adults live just long enough to mate and lay eggs.  Another interesting fact about them is that they rarely feed on flowers, and instead prefer to get their sugar in the form of tree sap!  Unlike most other caterpillars, who are seen slowly moving around only on their host plant (such as Gulf Fritillary on Passion Vines), Mourning Cloak caterpillars can move quickly and "roam around" far from their preferred host plants of Willow, Elm, and Hackberry and frequently seen on non-host plants such as the Mesquite in the video!



Last but not least, check out these last two photos below, which are closeup views through a microscope of the scales on butterfly wings.  Each species has its own scale shapes and its own mind-boggling colors, most of which we cannot see with our human eyes.  Nature is something else!!!

Photo credits
All photos and videos by Emily Bishton except:

• Gulf Fritillary eggs by jaxshells.org
• Gulf Fritallary cocoon by whatsthatbug.com
• Gulf Fritillary on a Passion Vine by www.butterflyidentification.com
• Mourning Cloak by www.butterflyidentification.com
• Butterfly wing scales (green) by Richard Prum
• Butterfly wing scales (purple and orange) by Charles Krebs