American Lady Butterfly ~ Vanessa virginiensis
Don't you love it when a plan comes together?
Adding butterfly host plants to your landscape sometimes doesn't yield instant outcomes. But this week, planning and patience paid off.
A very tattered American Lady butterfly was flying around the yard checking out the plants in our prairie area. Migrating from the south she arrived on last legs ready to start the next generation.
She found two host plants, Field Pussytoes (
Antennaria neglecta) and Pearly Everlasting (
Anaphalis margaritacea) and laid several eggs on each.
I'll be watching for signs of the spiny caterpillars who weave themselves into a feeding cocoon by tying up the host plant foliage around them. They will make several of these webbed feeding stations on each plant.
Read an
earlier post about the host plant Pearly Everlasting.
Also an
earlier post about the host plant Field Pussytoes.
