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If you include its life as a 'child' butterfly and 'teenager' butterfly (caterpillar and chrysalis) it lives from five to eight weeks.
An adult butterfly lives an average of two weeks in the summer. In cool spring and fall temperatures, they may average a slightly longer life. Adult butterflies in diapause (overwintering as an adult) may live for months. The length of time may vary slightly from species to species. Zebra Longwing adults live for several months.
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Giant Swallowtail caterpillars are called 'Orange Dogs' because they eat citrus trees. They also eat other plants in the citrus family.
They will also eat rue. Normally, they won't easily change from other plants to rue so if you find one on a citrus tree, it is best to keep feeding it leaves from the same tree.
Learn more at Giant Swallowtail Butterfly
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I’m not sure who advised you but what they must be talking about Monarch butterflies and the disease must be OE Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, a serious Monarch butterfly disease. The reason I believe that OE is the disease that the person was talking about is that it is the disease that is ‘carried on their wings’.
WHAT IS THE LIFETIME OF BUTTERFLIES?
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An adult butterfly lives an average of two weeks in the summer. In cool spring and fall temperatures, they may average a slightly longer life. Adult butterflies in diapause (overwintering as an adult) may live for months. The length of time may vary slightly from species to species. Zebra Longwing adults live for several months.
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"Hi I found a giant swallowtail caterpillar and I brought it home with me. I would like to know which would be an appropriate host plant so it could survive and I could see it turn into a butterfly."
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They will also eat rue. Normally, they won't easily change from other plants to rue so if you find one on a citrus tree, it is best to keep feeding it leaves from the same tree.
Learn more at Giant Swallowtail Butterfly
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"I was wondering which catepillars should I purchase for the red passionflower that I will be purchasing and growing by my pool area."
Sadly, red passionflower is poisonous to our butterfly caterpillars in the US. The burgundy 'Lady Margaret' seems to be safe for our native species of butterflies. This doesn't mean not to plant red flowering passsionvine! The blooms are beautiful. But if you wish to help butterflies reproduce in your yard, choose another species to plant either along with or instead of red passionflower. |
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Burgundy blooms |
Red Passion Flower NOT safe for butterfly caterpillars! |
Safe for caterpillars! |
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"A concern has been brought to my attention. Would you please tell me what you know of this. I was advised that butterflies brought into our area (Atlanta) from more than 100 miles away could carry a bacteria on their wings that would affect our local butterflies here."
I’m not sure who advised you but what they must be talking about Monarch butterflies and the disease must be OE Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, a serious Monarch butterfly disease. The reason I believe that OE is the disease that the person was talking about is that it is the disease that is ‘carried on their wings’.
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and the smaller dark football shaped items are OE spores. |
with a scale on the shell |
eating its egg shell |
The first sign that what you were told isn’t true is Monarch butterfly migration. Monarch butterflies migrate in the spring from Mexico. They ARE coming from over 100 miles away to begin with! BUT – that being said, read on. Disease is a serious matter and you are wise to ask questions.
Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) is a protozoan disease that affects butterflies that use milkweed as a host plant. It infects many Monarchs all over the US in varying degrees. In the tip of Florida, about 85% of Monarchs have OE. In the eastern side of the US, 30% – 35% are infected with OE. In the western half of the US (west of the divide), about 2% – 3% are infected with OE.
OE is natural – even with an 85% infection rate, the southern tip of Florida has Monarchs flying year round. With an 85% infection rate, the Monarch butterfly population does not seem to be in danger in south Florida. But many Monarch butterflies die from OE; not a happy thought.
The reason the infection rate is so high in the tip of Florida is simple. First, there are Monarch and Queen butterflies year round in south Florida and second, the plants never freeze to the ground which means that spores are always present for caterpillars to eat. The cycle simply doesn’t have a rest. Further north, milkweed freezes to the ground, disintegrates, and spores wash into the soil. Monarch butterflies are not present with a large population year round. When fresh leaves grow in the spring in the north, new caterpillars are eating fresh leaves that few Monarchs have touched. Thus – fewer spores = fewer Monarchs with disease. But earlier in the spring, fewer butterflies in the wild are infected with OE. Later in the year, more are infected with OE.
Teachers often have big problems with OE when they bring in wild caterpillars. The caterpillar contracts the disease when it eats a spore – and the spore can be on the eggshell. Over 100 spores fit on one wing scale. When a caterpillar is brought in from the wild that has already eaten one or more OE spores, the butterfly already has the disease.
As Monarch butterflies fly around and land on milkweed plants, these spores fall onto the leaves. As caterpillars eat the leaves, they contract the disease.
When a female lays an egg, she may leave one or several scales on the eggshell. When the hatching caterpillar eats its eggshell, it may be eating from one to hundreds of spores.
Atlanta and OE; there is OE in Atlanta. If you go outside and catch a wild Monarch, there is a good chance it will have OE. Not as great a chance as someone further south of you bringing in a wild Monarch butterfly!
Our farm offers a free OE check for those who have problems with their caterpillars and butterflies. At times the scales that are mailed to us are covered with OE spores – even from New York or Michigan. The information sharing how to send some scales (it doesn’t harm the butterfly) is at the bottom of our OE page linked above.
Ophryocystis elektroscirrha is a bad Monarch butterfly disease but it is ever present in nature. Many, if not most, butterfly farmers take OE serious. Using careful prevention and rearing techniques, their Monarch butterflies do not have OE. OE and other disease prevention is a basic part of our butterfly farm seminar and internship program.
If you are buying Monarch butterflies for a butterfly release in your area, ask the butterfly farmer questions about his/her butterfly rearing operation in reference to disease. Does he/she check the breeding stock for OE? Are the Monarch eggs washed with a disinfectant? Are the milkweed plants grown inside a greenhouse or screen house where wild butterflies cannot get to them to leave spores? If their plants are grown outdoors, are the leaves washed with a disinfectant before they are fed to butterfly caterpillars / larvae? If the farmer takes offense at your questions – I would wonder why. Disease is serious!
If you bring in Monarchs from the house next door to your house in Atlanta, there is a good chance you will bring in OE. The distance you bring them from doesn’t have anything to do with whether you bring in disease into your region of the US. When you’re buying Monarch butterflies, whether the butterflies have disease depends upon the care a farmer uses when raising his/her Monarch butterflies and with their milkweed, not with the distance they originated from your home.
Some diseases are inside the egg – the baby is born with the disease and nothing can be done. Luckily OE isn’t one of them! It HAS to be eaten for the caterpillar to contract the disease. When a butterfly breeder's rearing operation is focused on disease prevention, you eliminate OE from their butterflies.
On the webpage linked above, we share how we raise OE free Monarchs and help others to do the same, whether as a hobby, a teacher, or whatever. We wash our Monarch eggs with a bleach solution so that when the hatchling caterpillar eats its egg shell, it will be clean of any disease pathogens, including OE. We grow all our milkweed plants inside greenhouses (six of them) so wild Monarch and Queen butterflies cannot get to the plants to leave spores for our caterpillars to eat. (All university rearing operations that I am familiar with, raising moth and/or butterfly, wash their eggs in a disinfectant solution to kill all disease pathogens.)
The short answer to you question is that it doesn’t matter where they are coming from but how they are raised!
Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) is a protozoan disease that affects butterflies that use milkweed as a host plant. It infects many Monarchs all over the US in varying degrees. In the tip of Florida, about 85% of Monarchs have OE. In the eastern side of the US, 30% – 35% are infected with OE. In the western half of the US (west of the divide), about 2% – 3% are infected with OE.
OE is natural – even with an 85% infection rate, the southern tip of Florida has Monarchs flying year round. With an 85% infection rate, the Monarch butterfly population does not seem to be in danger in south Florida. But many Monarch butterflies die from OE; not a happy thought.
The reason the infection rate is so high in the tip of Florida is simple. First, there are Monarch and Queen butterflies year round in south Florida and second, the plants never freeze to the ground which means that spores are always present for caterpillars to eat. The cycle simply doesn’t have a rest. Further north, milkweed freezes to the ground, disintegrates, and spores wash into the soil. Monarch butterflies are not present with a large population year round. When fresh leaves grow in the spring in the north, new caterpillars are eating fresh leaves that few Monarchs have touched. Thus – fewer spores = fewer Monarchs with disease. But earlier in the spring, fewer butterflies in the wild are infected with OE. Later in the year, more are infected with OE.
Teachers often have big problems with OE when they bring in wild caterpillars. The caterpillar contracts the disease when it eats a spore – and the spore can be on the eggshell. Over 100 spores fit on one wing scale. When a caterpillar is brought in from the wild that has already eaten one or more OE spores, the butterfly already has the disease.
As Monarch butterflies fly around and land on milkweed plants, these spores fall onto the leaves. As caterpillars eat the leaves, they contract the disease.
When a female lays an egg, she may leave one or several scales on the eggshell. When the hatching caterpillar eats its eggshell, it may be eating from one to hundreds of spores.
Atlanta and OE; there is OE in Atlanta. If you go outside and catch a wild Monarch, there is a good chance it will have OE. Not as great a chance as someone further south of you bringing in a wild Monarch butterfly!
Our farm offers a free OE check for those who have problems with their caterpillars and butterflies. At times the scales that are mailed to us are covered with OE spores – even from New York or Michigan. The information sharing how to send some scales (it doesn’t harm the butterfly) is at the bottom of our OE page linked above.
Ophryocystis elektroscirrha is a bad Monarch butterfly disease but it is ever present in nature. Many, if not most, butterfly farmers take OE serious. Using careful prevention and rearing techniques, their Monarch butterflies do not have OE. OE and other disease prevention is a basic part of our butterfly farm seminar and internship program.
If you are buying Monarch butterflies for a butterfly release in your area, ask the butterfly farmer questions about his/her butterfly rearing operation in reference to disease. Does he/she check the breeding stock for OE? Are the Monarch eggs washed with a disinfectant? Are the milkweed plants grown inside a greenhouse or screen house where wild butterflies cannot get to them to leave spores? If their plants are grown outdoors, are the leaves washed with a disinfectant before they are fed to butterfly caterpillars / larvae? If the farmer takes offense at your questions – I would wonder why. Disease is serious!
If you bring in Monarchs from the house next door to your house in Atlanta, there is a good chance you will bring in OE. The distance you bring them from doesn’t have anything to do with whether you bring in disease into your region of the US. When you’re buying Monarch butterflies, whether the butterflies have disease depends upon the care a farmer uses when raising his/her Monarch butterflies and with their milkweed, not with the distance they originated from your home.
Some diseases are inside the egg – the baby is born with the disease and nothing can be done. Luckily OE isn’t one of them! It HAS to be eaten for the caterpillar to contract the disease. When a butterfly breeder's rearing operation is focused on disease prevention, you eliminate OE from their butterflies.
On the webpage linked above, we share how we raise OE free Monarchs and help others to do the same, whether as a hobby, a teacher, or whatever. We wash our Monarch eggs with a bleach solution so that when the hatchling caterpillar eats its egg shell, it will be clean of any disease pathogens, including OE. We grow all our milkweed plants inside greenhouses (six of them) so wild Monarch and Queen butterflies cannot get to the plants to leave spores for our caterpillars to eat. (All university rearing operations that I am familiar with, raising moth and/or butterfly, wash their eggs in a disinfectant solution to kill all disease pathogens.)
The short answer to you question is that it doesn’t matter where they are coming from but how they are raised!
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check butterflies for disease. |
from its chrysalise due to disease; OE |
bleach solution kills the spores |