And You Shall Know Their Presence by Their Offspring ... A News Bulletin

            We of course are not out in the garden all the hours of the day, and some butterflies pit stop like Formula 1 drivers (about 3 seconds). When we are older and can't move much, we may sit out with a clipboard for eight hours for a couple of  days to see what we are missing. But for now, in this busy summer, we, like the butterflies, buzz through numerous times through the day to see what we can see. 
              On the host plants--primarily milkweed, fennel, parsley, spicebush, coneflower, penta (rare)--we every few days peek around for signs of caterpillars, such as frass or devoured leaves. 
              We were happily surprised today to find caterpillars from two butterflies, the adults of which we had not seen this year: the black swallowtail and the silvery checkerspot. 
              First, the cute one, the black swallowtail devouring the feathery tendrils of the bronze fennel.           

                  This one is not a complete surprise. The black swallowtail females are known to lay their eggs early in the morning. The second one was a bit of a shock, because this one, the silvery checkerspot, prefers coneflower as a host plant, but, we learned today, occasionally will choose a variety of dwarf sunflower. And there they were, the horde of not-cute ones. 

Below is a reference photo by Sara Bright from the terrific online resource for local butterflies, the Alabama Butterfly Atlas. 

               A couple years ago, we did a post we called A PSA From the Silvery Checkerspot, asking butterfly-minded gardeners to check when they find a horde of ugly black caterpillars ruining a coneflower, or a dwarf sunflower, or any other plant. One can always search to find out what butterflies or moths use that plant for egg-laying. The might be a horde of ugly ducklings that will grow up to be beautiful creatures like the checkerspot below, well worth the sacrifice of a flower or two. You probably will not be able to find their tiny chrysalises, but you will be happy when they return to your garden, newly emerged.