caterpillars and butterflies
Fauna is spending a few hours a week at our local arboretum volunteering in it’s native butterfly house. It’s not the kind of butterfly house you see at the zoo full of tropical butterflies, but the type of butterfly house that is full of native Ohio caterpillars, butterflies, and moths. What an amazing experience for her and she is learning so much! While she is volunteering Araina and I are exploring, discovering, and taking lots of pictures (I took 298 yesterday) of the arboretum. Here are some of the beautiful creatures we found yesterday-
Monarch (Danaus plexippus)
Larval food: milkweeds
Adult Monarch
Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor philenor)
Larval food: pipevines
Pipevine chrysalises- notice the gorgeous iridescence-
Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes)
Larval food: prickly ash, rue, hop tree, and citrus plants
Giant Swallowtail larva munching all over the hops tree.
Adult Giant Swallowtail
Cecropia Moth Caterpillar (Hyalophora cecropia)
Larval food: willow, maple, cherry, lilac, boxelder, ash, elm, and birch
Eastern Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes asterius)
Larval food: carrot and citrus family- dill, parsley, fennel, and Queen Anne’s Lace
Feeling solitary-
Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus glaucus)
Larval food: willow, birch, cherry, and poplar
Araina Silvery Blue Butterfly (very rare)
Larval food: watermelon, berries, peas, and popsicles
Araina and I did a little spying and snapping pics of Fauna while she was volunteering! 
That’s the back of her in the peachy pink shirt showing a couple the Giant Swallowtail caterpillars in the hops tree.
I have more pics to show on a later date.
“That’s all.”
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We recently nurtured and released an Eastern Black Swallowtail from our backyard. It was great fun. Here’s our story about it if you want to check out.
http://sewingschool.blogspot.com/2010/07/we-grew-butterfly.html
As usual, I love seeing what you’re up to!
wow, those are truly beautiful pictures. thanks for sharing!
What a cool opportunity for a little nature loving girl!
Wow. You captured some great moments in nature. And I LOVE spying on my girls, too.
wow absolutely stunning photographs. Thankyou for sharing them because they have inspired me to create!
What a fabulous experience for all of you. We found an Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillar on our carrot tops one year and brought it into the house to watch it develop, then released it when it finally emerged as a butterfly – that’s when we figured out what it was.
Your photos are a.maze.ing!
Those photos are amazing! Incredible! I hope to one day be able to take photos like that! And how wondering that Fauna is volunteering. I just know that when my children are older, they’d enjoy a volunteer opportunity like that!
those are all soooooooo beautiful. how wonderful to be surrounded by that.
Claudia
http://lilmuselily.com/2010/07/19/monday-outdoors-picture-11/
Hurray for our newest BH volunteer! Great nature pics, lady…will the talents never cease? It was great to see all of you at Lewis’ birthday party
Thanks Shawna, she is really enjoying it, she likes the responsibilty.
~how blessed she is to be able to experience such a moment in her life…an amazing adventure and exquisite gifts of nature..warm wishes and brightest blessings~
beautiful pics!
Lovely, lovely! We’ve been fortunate to find a lot of those in natural settings over the past year. I can’t imagine how wonderfully overwhelming it would be to enter a tent full of them!
Lisa, the girls at your “local arboretum” are flipping over your photos. They can’t believe I am related to someone so talented!
How else am I supposed to label the arboretum w/out giving away location dork!?!? I can’t belive your related to me either.
How great that she’s getting to volunteer at such an educational venue. I hope to find such opportunities for my little homeschool crew. Thanks for the idea!
I also loved that pic of Araina, the silvery blue butterfly. So fun!
Your photos are gorgeous… I’m totally enchanted!
What a wonderful and fun thing for Fauna to do. Beautiful photos!
As he was leaving for work a few minutes ago, my husband informed me that there’s an Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillar in the garden. Yay! We normally find them when they’re teeny and raise them inside (we have a lot of predators in our garden). With the new baby, I haven’t been as garden-oriented as I’d like. It’s nice to know this one has survived long enough to grow to a safer size.
What beautiful pictures and such a great experience for your daughter….. not to mention a nice time with just you and the little one to wander
Fauna is a great addition to our educators in Butterfly House. She gets pretty annoyed with me when I watch her at work! Great photos Lisa!
Only 298?! You did well!
It looks like a magical place and what a wonderful experience for fauna. I’m sure she will remember this work experience forever. maybe she will become an entomologist?
How wonderful for Fauna! Your photos are amazing:)
So beautiful. 300 photos in a day of butterflies sounds about right. We’ve been enjoying the Painted Lady butterflies visiting our backyard butterfly bush but haven’t seen too many others this summer yet. And no monarchs to speak of. In years past we’ve collected eggs and raised them to be butterflies
http://fimby.tougas.net/Raising_Monarchs
Looks like a lovely day. Thank you for identifying the larvae.
What a great opportunity for Fauna to enjoy the lovely butterflies!
Your photos are gorgeous!!
Oh that is a wonderful experience
here in Guam we are beside ourselves everyday watching the monarchs coming to lay their eggs on our milkweeds that we planted outside our living room window.
Super neat pictures, beautiful! How great to be able to spend time there.
amazing pics. We have a caterpillar we found a couple weeks ago…not sure if it is a butterfly or a moth though… I guess we’ll soon see… Mica
What a cool volunteer gig for Fauna!! And super bonus that you and Araina get to hang out and explore. Beautiful photos (of course)!!
What a fantastic experience! We have a butterfly house at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles & both of my sons love visiting. How fun to be able to volunteer!
Wow, it must be butterfly week! I’ve seen butterflies cropping up all over blogland this week, even my own. What a wonderful opportunity for Fauna, and how fun for you and Araina too.
What a wonderful summertime activity! And the photos and education that she has gotten are wonderful! I absolutely love swallowtails but we don’t see many in Marysville – saw a lot more in school in Southern Ohio.
xo Erin
Your photos are breathtaking!
How awesome for Fauna to be able to spend so much time there and to be learning so much. Love your pics…and I really love that very rare Araina Silvery Blue Butterfly. It’s beautiful.
HA! Thanks Debbie, I know the cheese factor is quite high with that pic, but I really couldn’t resist!
These are phenomenal photos…and what an incredible experience for Fauna! Several summers ago I discovered a caterpillar in my parsley, and I brought it to work to show the preschoolers I was teaching. We made a little habitat for it, and observed it as it ate all my parsley, then hunkered down into its chrysalis. It was pretty incredible the day it emerged — the children were just about beside themselves! We let it go out on our playground, and planted some parsley out there the following day, in hopes that it would come back and lay more eggs.
Thanks Crystal. I bet it was an Eastern Black Swallowtail on your parsley plant.
Oh lucky lucky Fauna! She must be just loving that. You know the Monarch has always been my favourite! x