MORE BEAUTIES… AND ANOTHER BEAST

By Linda Rippert, FBMG F2004

 

    Swallowtail butterflies are beautiful creatures, and we have several varieties of them that visit our gardens in this area!  I have personally raised a number of them over the past few years, including the Giant Swallowtail, the Pipevine Swallowtail, the Eastern Black Swallowtail, and the Polydamas Swallowtail.

 

    The Giant Swallowtail, pictured at left, has laid eggs on Rue in my yard, and

also will use citrus trees.  The young caterpillars look like bird droppings-brown

and white.  The tails on the butterfly’s hindwings have yellow centers.

 

 

 

 

             The Pipevine Swallowtail, shown here on the right, has laid eggs

Aristolochia fimbriata and also on other Pipevines including the Gigantea,

but the caterpillars cannot tolerate feeding on the Gigantea and will die if

they are not transferred to Fimbriata or another vine.  This butterfly is a

male; the females do not have the blue iridescent shading.

 

  

    The Eastern Black Swallowtail has laid eggs on Rue, Parsley, and

Dill in my yard.  The caterpillars start out brown and orange and as they

grow turn green with black stripes with yellow dots.  The one shown here

on the left is a female-mostly black with blue; the male is mostly black

with rows of yellow spots.

 

 

 

             The Polydamas Swallowtail has laid eggs on Pipevines including

Gigantea, Fimbriata, Calico and Tri-lobed varieties.  The caterpillars tend

to cluster together on the stems of the vines.  This butterfly has no tails

like the other swallowtails and is mostly black with a row of triangular or

heart-shaped yellow spots on top of the wings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

AND THIS EDITION’S BEAST—The Land Planarian

 

This month I received the “Dirt Doctor Weekly Newsletter” (dirtdoctor.com) which included this article: “Dangerous Beast in the Garden -- Breaking Story”. The beast in question is an Asian exotic, a land planarian, or flatworm, that’s harmless to people but preys on earthworms. It’s appearing in our gardens in the Houston area. I’ve seen several in mine, usually in moist places, under pots and once on the siding of my garage.

    This creature is very flat. It can stretch out as long as 20 inches and

is between 1/8 to 1/4 inch wide. The head is shaped like a spade. The

color is a light to medium brown with two dark brown parallel lines

running along its back. According to the Dirt Doctor, Howard Garrett,

the Flatworm is known to be a “parasite that eats earthworms and

can wipe out entire populations”. According to TAMU, which is more

cautious in its conclusions, “Most terrestrial (non-aquatic) planarians

in North America are exotic, having arrived here via the trade in potted

foliage plants. Although land planarians do not attack plants, they are

predators of earthworms, a fact that has raised concerns among some

biologists. Unfortunately, little is known about their distribution, ecology,

or true impact on earthworms in Texas.”

This worm does not like dry climates or strong sunlight. Dr. Garrett suggests using orange oil in the bottom of a container to kill the Flatworm. I killed the last one I found in my garden by putting it on the sidewalk in broad daylight for a while. It dried up and withered away.

    I urge you to familiarize yourself with this earthworm predator and help researchers find out if they are dangerous in our gardens. You can read more at dirtdoctor.com and subscribe to the email newsletter. I also urge you to visit TAMU’s excellent site: (http://citybugs.tamu.edu/FastSheets/Ent-1039.html).

 

 

Giant Swallowtail

Pipevine Swallowtail

Female Black Swallowtail

Polydamas Swallowtail