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| Question Mark Butterfly ovipositing on hackberry tree |
I was taught that if you plant a Hackberry Tree, the butterflies that use it will find your yard and reproduce there. So last year I planted the Hackberry Tree. It grew wonderfully last year and again in the early part of the summer. Winds came 3 times and broke some of the larger branches off so after discussion with Jenny, we decided to cut it down at 3 foot and take the roots out in the fall. Fast forward 6 weeks and there was lots of growth of small branches and leaves off the main trunk. The the American snout and Question Mark began to seek it out, ovipositing eggs. The American Snout only laid about 20 eggs, none of which developed into a caterpillar that I have seen. But almost every day I see up to 3 Question Mark Butterflies ovipositing. The Question Mark Butterfly will laid very small green eggs that are usually in batches or in stacks of eggs. Several days later, the eggs hatch and the caterpillars emerge. For me it's been exciting to go out every day and see new eggs the size of a small pinhead, many tiny caterpillars the size of 1 millimeter of thread and also the growing caterpillars. Finally, today, I spotted a chrysalis. Oh, the things that make me happy. Finding a chrysalis to a species I haven't seen before is one of them. Now if all goes well in about probably about 10 days there will be a Question Mark butterfly eclose. It will overwinter as an adult coming out to nectar and also to sit in the sun.
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| A stack of QM eggs |
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| A grouping of QM eggs |
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| Same grouping ready to come out of the eggs |
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| And here the same group has eaten through and gone to the back of the leaf. |
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| Size comparison to a dime |
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| Several days later the QM caterpillars are growing. This is another group as they usually don't all stay together. |
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| Still growing... |
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| And growing... |
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| Will the caterpillar ever get to the size it need to be to go into a chrysalis? |
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Finally, The Question Mark caterpillar makes a chrysalis.
Now let's see when it will eclose and fly away. And 10 days later we had twins!
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