Butterfly gardening

[Lydia]

I have a small garden in which I grow both nectar and butterfly host plants. Three years ago, my sui mei was happily infested with the dendrophthoe pentandra, having been 'planted' there by a sunbird. I waited and waited and thought nothing would ever come out of it. However, a Painted Jezebel did come along and laid a bunch of eggs on it, which goes to show that often good things do come to those who wait.
Since my host plant was a young one, I knew there would not be enough leaves to feed the whole family. So I feverishly scoured the entire neighbourhood and to my great delight, found a good supply of the required leaves nearby. A roadside red mulberry tree was covered with not only one, but 2 types of tropical miseltoe, the other being macrosolen cochinchinensis. I was thus able to raise generation after generation of Painted Jezebels on the host plant from this tree
Fast forward to 1 month ago: I passed by the mulberry tree and found it had been chopped down. This is an unhappy end to not only a constant supply of leaves but also eggs, caterpillars and pupae, leaving only happy memories of my beautiful Painted Jezebel.

[Lydia]

Here is the photo of the butterfly:



You may view more pictures at the link below:
http://imgur.com/a/xiqRh

[Great Mormon]

Thats quite a number of newly eclosed PJs! Good thing that you didnt remove the mistletoe from ur sui mei, and also, now you can keep an eye out for the next generation of PJs to return

[Lydia]

My mistletoe died because the PJezebels kept returning to lay eggs on the leaves. I had to let the young caterpillars remain and feed on the leaves before moving them to containers with leaves taken from the tree nearby when the cats grew larger. This went on for months until my mistletoe was devoid of leaves and died.

Now my caloptropis gigantea and asclepias currasavica are heavily infested with Plain Tiger cats. However, even if all the leaves are eaten, the plants will recover. These plants seem to be much more vigorous and can sprout new leaves in a few weeks. The females then return to lay eggs again.

[Commander]

My mistletoe died because the PJezebels kept returning to lay eggs on the leaves. I had to let the young caterpillars remain and feed on the leaves before moving them to containers with leaves taken from the tree nearby when the cats grew larger. This went on for months until my mistletoe was devoid of leaves and died.

Now my caloptropis gigantea and asclepias currasavica are heavily infested with Plain Tiger cats. However, even if all the leaves are eaten, the plants will recover. These plants seem to be much more vigorous and can sprout new leaves in a few weeks. The females then return to lay eggs again.

The PJs tend to do that and in the field, I can guess that there are some batches of cats that will starve to death because there is not enough food for them. But for this batch, thanks to your intervention, they made it!

If you have an oversupply of Plain Tiger cats, you can try bringing them over to the butterfly gardens at Tampines-Changkat, Pasir Ris Park or Tampines Eco Green, all of which have planted these two host plants. At the moment, they are quite plentiful there.

[teotp]

My mistletoe died because the PJezebels kept returning to lay eggs on the leaves. I had to let the young caterpillars remain and feed on the leaves before moving them to containers with leaves taken from the tree nearby when the cats grew larger. This went on for months until my mistletoe was devoid of leaves and died

How about rearing them with artificial diets plus stimulant (extracts from leaves)? Indeed, I am planning to collaborate with Cher Hern again to try that out after we return from Langkawi.

Teo T P

[Lydia]

I have brought my Plain Tiger caterpillars to the Orchard Rd Butterfly Trail but when I returned to check on them some time later I found that they were gone. The leaves of the host plants were pristine, without signs of having been eaten at all. This happened 2x. So, I don't leave my cats in public gardens any more. In my garden, the cats sometimes do get eaten, strangely enough, when they are big and mature. I have also seen birds, such as the yellow vented bulbul, eat the butterflies. I bring in my cats, when they are about to pupate, to my enclosure where they are safe. This morning I released 15 of them, 12 female and 3 male. The numbers will probably be in favour of the males tomorrow so it will be 50-50.

I'm very interested in the artificial diet that you mentioned. I've heard that the Monarchs can be bred on them. What exactly goes into the food?
My host plants can only support another 100 cats at most and the females keep returning to lay eggs.