Partridge Pea

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Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) is our smallest member of the Cassia family here at MOSI. Native to Florida, this smaller species grows 1 to 2 feet in height and favors sandy soils. Drought hearty, this tough little plant can be found growing on roadsides, upland habitats and even often disturbed areas like power line cuts and construction areas. Partridge Pea blooms with the distinctive yellow cassia flowers from July to September.

As a native Florida plant, Partridge Pea is well adapted to our climate and sometimes challenging gardening conditions so if you have a sandy area where nothing seems to grow well, try this little gem. The Partridge Pea is currently blooming in the Backwoods Forest Preserve and in the Olustee Longleaf Pine Flatwoods Garden in the Richard T. Bowers Historic Tree Grove.

Partridge pea is a host for various Sulphur butterflies including the Sleepy Orange (Eurema nicippe) and Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) butterflies and also for the diminutive Ceraunus Blue (Hemiargus ceraunus).

Skipper vs Skipper: Part 2

I posted last week about the Long Tailed Skipper and Dorantes Skipper which are often found on the same legume host plants, sometimes nearly side by side.

The chrysalis on the left is a Long Tailed Skipper (Urbanus proteus). The white coating on the outside of the chrysalis is a wax that makes the outside of the chrysalis appear frosted. Skipper caterpillars have wax glands on their abdomen that allow caterpillars to produce wax, much like bees do. Many grass skippers incorporate wax into the walls of their leaf shelters that protect caterpillar and chrysalis alike.

Interesting to me, this wax coating on the chrysalis bears a striking resemblance to a chrysalis covered in a fine layer of mold almost seeming to indicate that the insect inside has died and the chrysalis is decomposing. I am looking for more information on wax production among skipper butterflies and will share that information should I stumble across it.

The brown and beige chrysalis on the right belongs to the closely related Dorantes Skipper (Urbanus dorantes). Unlike the Long-Tailed Skipper, the Dorantes chrysalis does not have a wax coating, giving me an easy way to tell the two species apart in this part of their life cycle.

Cloudless Sulphur: A species with variety

Both of these chrysalis belong to Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) butterflies. Although the caterpillars were reared on the same host plant, in the same ten gallon rearing container and made their chrysalis within a foot of each other one is green and the other is nearly pink.

The Cloudless Sulphur is a highly variable species in nearly every form. The caterpillars are usually green but when their host plant cassia is awash with yellow blooms, the larvae eat the flowers are turn a bright yellow color. With this extraordinary camouflage you can stand inches from a brilliant yellow caterpillar and never see it among the carpet of flowers on the host plant.

Event the butterfly is variable in color. Males of the species have a clear yell0w upper wing but females can range in color from lemon yellow to nearly white with black edging on their wings. This highly variable coloration keeps me on my toes, having to always be ready to redefine my visual cues for a species in the wild. I really enjoy watching several Cloudless Sulphur butterflies emerge on the same day and looking over the color differences while the butterflies dry their wings.

A Whole Lot of Color Goin’ On

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With a new shipment of colorful new annuals and perennials, the MOSI Outside gardens have a whole lot of new color popping everywhere. The BioWorks Butterfly Garden Flight Encounter has been entirely replanted with a new selection of nectar plants including lantana, pentas, salvia and anise hyssop. The sidewalk leading to the garden is also in the middle of a colorful replanting that we hoped to have finished today, but will be completed on Monday morning.

Soaring temperatures have made this a tough week for planting and the intrepid MOSI Outside volunteers have battled high temperatures and searing sun to get our new plants installed. Still, by about noon each day we are all just cooked. Special thanks to volunteers Patti W., Colleen B., Jelena J., Naomi M. and Bonnie M. for their hard work and immense help this week. You ladies are simply amazing!

Florida Beggarweed

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"Florida Beggarweed" (Desmodium tortuosum) is also known as "Dixie Ticktrefoil". The leaves, stems and seeds are covered in tiny hairs that catch on hair, clothing and fur. These sticky seeds are able to hitch rides on just about anything that comes into contact with the plant which helps distribute the species to far destinations. Flowers are tiny, delicate and pink and occur at the tops of plants that can be anywhere from 3 to 9 feet in height.

Florida Beggarweed is a host to the Long Tailed Skipper (Urbanus proteus) and Dorantes Skipper (Urbanus dorantes) butterflies. This species is native to the tropical Americas and West Indies, but is also naturalized in many portions of Florida.

Florida Beggarweed is a member of the Pea family (Fabaceae ) which contains 236 generra. The genus Desmodium contains 76 species of plants. The genus name Desmodium derives from the Greek meaning "long branch or chain," which probably refers to way the flowers and seedpods are attached on the end of long stems.

Skipper vs Skipper

These skipper caterpillars can often be found nearly side by side on their host plants. The caterpillar on the left with the yellow racing stripes is a Long Tailed Skipper (Urbanus proteus). The fuzzy larvae on the right with the pale green colors and rows of cream colored diamond shapes is a Dorantes Skipper (Urbanus dorantes).

Their larva have a very interesting way of helping to protect themselves from predators. These tiny little caterpillars, also known as "bean leaf rollers", will chew one the leaves of their host plants and leave a flap of leaf. Using silk from their spinnerets the caterpillars will fold the leaf flap over and secure it to the leaf. This creates tiny little pockets on the leaves in which the caterpillars can hide.

Skipper larvae generally have a thin ‘neck’ just before their bulbous heads. Both of these skippers are currently feeding on "Florida Beggarweed" (Desmodium tortuosum) also known as "Dixie Ticktrefoil".

The genus Urbanus contains some 91 species and subspecies of skipper butterflies. This genus belongs to the subfamily Eudaminae and the tribe Pyrginae (spread-winged skippers). The subfamily Eudaminae contains some 55 genera found mostly in the neotropics.

Where it All Went Terribly Wrong: Post WWII Landscaping in Florida

by Kristen Gilpin and Jill Staake

Most Florida gardeners today are familiar with the concept of “Florida-Friendly Gardening”. It involves simple steps like eliminating water-hungry turfgrass, minimizing use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to protect our waterways, focusing on native plants, and avoiding exotic invasives. But the ideas behind Florida-Friendly Gardening didn’t evolve overnight - instead, like many things, they were developed in response to serious mistakes Florida residents made in the past. A Florida gardening book from 1962 shows the astonishing turnaround Florida gardeners have made in the last 50 years.

The Way We Were: In the last one hundred years, Florida’s population has boomed to over 18 million residents. But in 1900, Florida had a population of 528,542 people and was a largely agrarian state. That all changed with the land boom of the early 1920’s and near doubling of the state population just after World War II. Low property costs, a gorgeous climate, and an inexpensive cost of living saw rapid Florida development. Urban areas sprouted vast tracts of suburban housing developments and millions of new residents streamed into Florida. These new homeowners were from all parts of the nation and looking for some ways to make their new properties look lush and tropical.

Gardening in Florida is like gardening no where else in the country. High temperatures, seasonal rains, and extended dry seasons test even the most experienced of gardeners. New Florida residents were looking for gardening tips and wanted fast-growing plants that would make their property look more established. Without the Internet or TV gardening programs to consult, many residents of Pinellas and Hillsborough county tuned their radio dials to listen to Uncle Pasco Roberts’ Radio Garden Club.

“The Radio Garden Club is a 15-minute program over Radio Station WSUN (St. Petersburg, Fla.) five days a week (Monday through Friday) at 1:45 to 2pm. It is devoted to What Grows in Florida... How to Grow It... and Where to Get It.” (Florida State Horticultural Society, 1950)

Uncle Pasco’s show was so popular it led to the publication of The Book of Florida Gardening in 1962. It featured a month-by-month gardening guide and even a section on the newest gardening craze, hydroponics. It’s clear that Uncle Pasco wanted to provide his readers with garden tips that would help them combine traditional northern gardening with the exotic feel of the tropics.

The first chapters of the book focus on establishing a turfgrass lawn (“No matter whether you have a modest or palatial home, estate of building, it usually takes a beautiful lawn to give it the proper setting,” he notes on page 15), along with planting roses, azaleas, and lilies - plants Northerners would be familiar with, even if they were a little challenging to grow in Florida’s climate. He also provided lengthy chapters on hibiscus, camellias, and gardenias, appealing to the desire to create a tropical oasis. Judging by the stock most nurseries carry, it’s fair to say these same desires exist among gardeners today. Although Uncle Pasco rarely recommended a native plant to these new Florida gardeners, many of his recommendations are still popular and acceptable in modern Florida gardens.

So What’s the Problem? It’s when Uncle Paco begins to focus on trees that we begin to see how these new residents quickly created an ecological nightmare for Florida’s native plants. Of the 24 trees he recommends in his chapter “Fast Growing Trees”, 18 (75%!) of them can now be found on the FLEPPC Category I and II invasive species list, which includes plants that are or may become “invasive exotics that are altering native plant communities by displacing native species, changing community structures or ecological functions, or hybridizing with natives.”

Let’s take a look at some of the recommendations from Uncle Pasco:

• Golden Rain Tree: (Koelreuteria elegans) native to eastern Asia, in China and Korea is a fast growing and colorful tree that does incredibly well in Florida. It is now listed as a category 2 invasive species in Florida.
• Melaleuca : (Melaleuca quinquenervia) is an aggressively spreading member of the myrtle family with blooms that attract butterflies and bees. Planted in numbers to help drain swampy portions of the Everglades, these trees quickly escaped plantings. Mellaleuca is highly flammable, which helped to worsen wildfires in the area and increase their intensity. It is now listed as a category 1 invasive in Florida.
• Tree of Gold (Tabebuia argentea) is native to South America where it was an important nesting tree for the highly endangered Spix’s Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii). Each year it blooms with brilliant yellow trumpet shaped flowers.
• Golden Shower Tree (Cassia fistula) is native to southern Asia and blooms with lovely yellow flowers each spring. It develops large seed pods and has seeds that are toxic.
• Earleaf Acacia: (Acacia auriculiformis) It is native to Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. It is now listed as a category 1 invasive in Florida.
• Australian Pine is native to Australia. Uncle Pasco Roberts notes that the shallow root system has been recently identified as a problem with the note “during the worst of hurricanes in the Everglades, they blew across the roadways and became a hazard.”. He further notes that the planting of this tree has become prohibited but continues to recommend it as windbreak protection perfect for wide open spaces and sandy beaches! It is now listed as a category 1 invasive and is prohibited from further planting in Florida.
• Chinese Tallow (Sapium sebiferum) is native to Eastern Asia and is now listed as a noxious weed on the Florida Invasive Species List. This tree had rapid growth and quickly outperforms native tree species. It is now listed as a category 1 invasive species in Florida.
• Mother’s Tongue Tree (Albizzia lebbek) is native to tropical southern Asia and drops huge seed pods over the course of two months in the spring. It is now listed as a category 1 invasive in Florida.
• Monkey Pod Tree (Pithecolobium) native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. Uncle Pasco Roberts writes: “The tree is good for shade, ornament and for food for monkeys”. Well, at least our Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay can find some good forage out there!

Perhaps the most interesting recommendation is the Java Plum (Syzgium cumini), which is native to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Indonesia. Uncle Pasco particularly praises this tree for for its fruit, and includes a recipe from his wife for Java Plum jelly. He proudly credits himself with the spread of this Category I invasive in the Tampa Bay area, noting on page 61:

The author came across several [Java Plum] trees in Laurel, Fla. about 1949 and from seeds and small trees obtained... I have helped popularize this tree in Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties to the extent that there are many hundreds now growing and some have reached 60 to 70 feet in height. The first seeds I planted produced a growth of 20 feet within three years...

Uncle Pasco does not recommend a single native tree from Florida or even from the Southeast United States. This sort of gardening advice is precisely what landed Florida in the spot it is in today. Costly remediation efforts are being conducted every year to remove trees like these that have escaped cultivation and are outperforming our native trees. Non-native species are often unaffected by local diseases and pest populations and can spread unchecked by the normal balances of nature. To learn more about the problems caused by invasive plants in Florida, visit the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council website.

A 1962 view of “pesky worms”: Uncle Pasco’s 50-year-old advice contains other recommendations that modern gardeners would do well to ignore. Among these are his recommendations on fertilizer (everything needs it!) and pesticides.

Butterfly gardening has really only been popularized in recent years, so reading 50-year-old commentary on caterpillar destruction can be a touch unsettling.The beautiful Cloudless Sulhpur and Orange Barred Sulhpur butterfies host on many species of cassia, including Christmas Cassia (Cassia bicapsularis). Butterfly gardeners today welcome these creatures, but Uncle Pasco disagreed. In the planting guide for April on page 89, he says, “This is the month that most of the insects, pests, etc begin to show up in numbers... For instance those pesky worms appear on... cassia (Cassia bicapsularis)... and look like part of the foliage or flowers. Spray with arsenate of lead.”

Uncle Pasco seems to dislike caterpillars on general principal. The quick and darting Canna Skipper butterfly hosts in the leaves of native and ornamental cannas where it rolls the leaf around itself for protection from predators. In the February planting guide (p. 86), he tells us, “One of the old time garden favorites that is staging a comeback is the canna... they are very easy to grow but are bothered however with leaf-rollers that cut good sized holes in the leaves. This may be controlled with a Chlordane dust.”

Not surprisingly, every pesticide Uncle Pasco recommends is now banned or not used in the United States. Chlordane was a carcinogenic insecticide that has not been sold in the United States since 1983; arsenate of lead was banned in 1988. He also recommends Nemagon (banned in 1975), Toxaphene (banned in 1986), and explains the proper application of DDT for flea control.

Lessons Learned: It’s important to remember that we can’t blame Uncle Pasco Roberts for his advice. A number of the species he suggests were also found listed in an article by the Florida State Horticultural Society from 1951 entitled Ornamental Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for South Florida Homes by Frank J Rimoldi. Clearly, this was the sort of information that was available to new Florida residents in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and they didn’t know then what we know now. The gardeners of 50 years ago had no idea how out of control their plantings could become. No one meant to destroy native habitats, or apply pesticides that would cause cancer, but lack of knowledge caused widespread and far-reaching damage.

What should we as modern gardeners learn from Uncle Pasco? Perhaps the most important thing to understand is that we all must become more considerate and thoughtful gardeners. We should learn more about the plants we choose to put in our yards, and think about what will happen when we’re no longer there to take care of them. Mexican Petunia is tempting at the nursery with its fast-growth habit and numerous pretty purple flowers, but this Category I invasive is displacing native wild petunia (Ruellia humilis) used by Buckeye caterpillars as a host plant, and it’s nearly impossible to remove once established in a yard due to its deep root system and aggressive seed distribution. Florida-Friendly Gardeners are learning to consider native plants when possible and carefully investigate non-native species before introducing them into the ecosystem.

It’s really about a return to common sense. If we can avoid chemicals in the garden, we should, whether the EPA tells us they’re safe or not. Today’s “safe pesticide” is tomorrow’s DDT. When chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers are necessary, we can use them sparingly, rather than applying them widely and regularly regardless of need. Rather than looking for fast results, which Uncle Pasco and the new Florida residents of 50 years ago desired, we can plan for the future and work toward a yard worth having and enjoying - safely.

Uncle Pasco teaches us to learn from the past. As Dr. Dale E. Turner said, “Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.” We don’t need to cast blame on Uncle Pasco and his contemporaries, but we can certainly see where they went wrong and try to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

Polydamas Swallowtails

The Polydamas Swallowtail is also known as the Gold-rim and the Tail-less Swallowtail. This species hosts on Pipevines (Aristolochias) and is found through Central and South America as well as peninsular Florida, southern Texas and the Bahamas.

By consuming Pipevine plant species, Polydamas Swallowtails take in the aristolochic acids in the leaves and become distasteful to predators. Just like Pipevine Swallowtails they are often avoided by predators and may be a Batesian model in the Swallowtail mimicry complex in some parts of their range.

Eggs and Larvae: Eggs are laid in clusters, usually on the newest growth of Pipevines. Egg clusters usually have 10-14 eggs each but can have fewer if the butterfly is interrupted or frightened off while ovipositing.

The young caterpillars are gregarious and feed together in small groups after hatching from their eggs. These groups will travel together from leaf to leaf but begin to split up as the caterpillars grow larger and need more food. Polydamas Swallowtails have voracious appetites and eat rather quickly. They can also be quite messy, chewing on leaves and detaching them from the vines where they will drop to the ground, uneaten.

Caterpillars with a tan: Larvae of the Polydamas Swallowtail found outside on Aristolochia have a striped brown on darker brown appearance with short orange-red tubercles. Larvae reared indoors are a deep uniform brown, almost black in color and have short tubercles that are more bright red in color.

As the only difference for these larvae is the presence of sunlight, I can only figure that the UV present in sunlight may help to bring forth this coloration in wild caterpillars. Larvae brought inside for rearing lose this coloration in a few days and will appear nearly black in color. Any further information on this color change would be greatly appreciated.

Pupa: Chrysalis of the Polydamas Swallowtail can be found in both green and brown forms. Green chrysalis are more prevalent when located among foliage. Brown chrysalis are often found on tree bark or close to the ground. These coloration differences help to better camouflage the developing butterfly inside. This species can enter into a state of hibernation called diapause and overwinter as a chrysalis.

Adults: Unlike most swallowtails, the adult Polydamas Swallowtails lack the hind wing protrusions for which the butterfly family is named. Mostly black in color, the butterfly has yellow markings that edge the bottom of its lower wings.

In years with a mild winter, you can find Polydamas Swallowtails nearly throughout the year. After this past harsh winter the population seem to have taken some damage as they have only returned to the gardens in the past month or so.

Photo Credit: Chrysalis Photo by T.J. Couch

Perspiration and Inspiration

Guest post by Jill Staake, creator of My Florida Backyard

On a steamy Florida summer day, the kind of day where you work up a sweat just going out to the mailbox, it can be hard to imagine why anyone would voluntarily spend several hours pulling weeds in a garden that's not even their own. But volunteers at the MOSI BioWorks Butterfly Garden do it every day of the week. What makes all the perspiration worthwhile? For me, it's the inspiration I find along the way.

A recent muggy Tuesday morning found me arriving at MOSI as usual, armed with gardening gloves and SPF 100. I discovered Kristen (the woman who makes BioWorks tick) already hard at work with another volunteer, Patti. They were in the Tree Grove, attempting to "find" the sensory garden under the Ray Charles Live Oak. Passionvine and beach sunflower, two wonderful native plants when kept in their place, had taken advantage of the summer sun and rain to grow out of control, hiding the smaller plants beneath. I dove in, untangling what seemed to be miles of passionvine from the chenille plants and mint, and pulling other pesky weeds along the way.

Frequent water breaks in the shade were imperative, and during one of these came my first moment of inspiration. "Oh, look at you!" Kristen exclaimed, as she unearthed a small fuzzy creature from the sweet potato vine. Patti and I crowded around to admire the Leopard Moth caterpillar she'd found. Sweat poured from our faces, but for a moment we all forgot as we enjoyed this little gift from nature. We were soon back to work, but a few minutes later I spotted one of the rarer visitors to the garden, a Queen butterfly, hard at work laying eggs on the milkweed. Kristen ran inside for a net, quickly catching and releasing the butterfly into the Flight Cage where hopefully she'll continue to lay eggs, allowing us to raise another generation of these wonderful creatures.

A few hours in the sun were more than enough, and once that section of garden was cleared and the debris trucked over to the compost pile, Kristen declared an end to the gardening for that day. Plenty of work remained, though, as all the caterpillar rearing tanks in the lab needed to be cleaned and supplied with fresh food. After taking stock of the tanks, we filled a bucket with water and headed out to gather pipevine, milkweed, rue, and other host plants. We'd barely made it out the door when Kristen's sharp eyes spotted a lovely little Snowberry Clearwing Moth perched on the firebush outside. Others walked right on by as we marveled at the fuzzy green body and delicate transparent wings. Kristen mentioned they use Coral Honeysuckle as a host plant, and I vowed to keep an eye on my own coral honeysuckle at home for future evidence of these visitors.

We gathered the plants we needed, along the way collecting several dozen Polydamas eggs and caterpillars off the pipevine and a few Black Swallowtail caterpillars from the rue. The sun beat down pretty heavily as we tackled one of the worst of the plants we needed - Wild Lime for the Giant Swallowtails. This tree is filled with needle-sharp thorns, and Kristen and I constantly muttered "Ow, ow, ow" as we cut the branches we needed. Between the sweat pouring into our eyes and the prickly spikes attacking our fingers, the job was pretty miserable, but another moment of inspiration was just ahead.

"Look - a tropical checkerspot!" Kristen said, pointing out a tiny blue and brown butterfly nearby. We crouched down to look more closely. "She's ovipositing!" Kristen proclaimed as we watched the butterfly bend her abdomen up and gently deposit an egg on the underside of a leaf. After she finished, we plucked the leaf, along with several of the same plant nearby, and took it into the lab. If we're fortunate, the egg will hatch and we'll be able to observe the life cycle of this small butterfly from start to finish.

Back in the lab, we changed newspapers and rinsed out tanks, putting in new food and pinning chrysalises into cases for display in the window. There were nearly a dozen species of caterpillars in the lab today: Monarch, Polydamas, Cloudless Sulphur, Sleepy Orange, Spicebush, Long-Tailed Skipper, Giant Swallowtail, Black Swallowtail, Gulf Fritillary, and one we're reasonably sure is a Virginia Tiger Moth. After more than a year of volunteering here, I know all of our common caterpillars by sight, as well as what they feed on. This is knowledge I certainly didn't have before I started, and which I've been able to take home and apply in my own yard. Volunteers don't get paid in money, but information is constantly available and free to anyone who wants to absorb it!

When I climbed into my car to head home, I was feeling pretty disgusting on the outside. My clothes and hair were drenched with sweat, and a fine layer of dirt seemed to cling to me everywhere. But I felt very satisfied on the inside, because I knew that once I'd showered off the grime of the day, the inspiring moments would seem even more clear. When my husband asked about my day at MOSI, I would tell him about the Leopard Moth caterpillar,the capture of the Queen, the Snowberry Clearwing Moth sighting, and the ovipositing Tropical Checkspot. The perspiration of a day of volunteering at MOSI washes away pretty easily, but the inspiration stays with you for a long time to come.

Interested in volunteering at MOSI BioWorks? Click here for more information.

Population Explosions

Ever find yourself entirely inundated with caterpillars, like reader Liz E. from Alabama? Suddenly and as if overnight, the ground is crawling with them and they are raining down from the trees. This kind of population explosion can often be seen in species like the eastern tent caterpillar (Malacosoma americanum) and other moth species but also with several species of butterflies and other insects like cicadas, ladybugs, locusts and cockroaches.

So, now we are on to the fascinating topic of insect population dynamics!

I imagine that many people just clicked their browser window shut after reading that sentence so if you are still reading, you must be interested in the topic or you are currently knee deep in such an explosion of an insect population and want to know how it may play out. So, let's get on with the science!

Population limiting factors: Usually a population of insects is limited by certain factors: parasites, predators, disease, availability of food and environmental conditions. At all stages of their life moths and butterflies are preyed upon, infected and parasitized which decreases the population. Many of these factors (parasites, predators, disease, availability of food ) tend to increase with the population and are called density dependent factors. If there are only a few moth caterpillars, they are hard for predators to find. If there are thousands of caterpillars, predators like birds can find them with ease and may even flock to an area to consume them with abandon. Environmental conditions are not related to population density and can be considered population density independent factors.

A regular life cycle: Let’s assume that a female moth lays 100 eggs, like the Imperial Moth eggs pictured here. Some of those eggs will likely be infected by a parasite and will never hatch. The remaining caterpillars will be subject to parasites, predators, disease and environmental factors like adverse weather conditions. Additional hardships can be found if the food source for the larvae is scarce. What caterpillars survive to pupation will again be subject to these limiting factors which will leave far fewer adult moths than the original number of eggs. If 10% of the original 100 survive that leaves us with 10 adult moths. If half of those are female and happen to find a mate before being eaten, they will lay more eggs and the cycle will continue.

With each generation the population will grow slightly to moderately, unless one of the limiting factors is lessened. Let us say, for example, that a late frost killed many amphibians and reptiles that would normally prey upon the caterpillars. This suddenly allows many more caterpillars to survive through pupation to adulthood. With more adults there will be more females which can lay more eggs. The next generation of the population will be much larger than usual.

Boom: The lessening of any regularly found limiting factor or even an independent event such as an early mild weather that increases host plants can cause an insect population to increase rapidly. Suddenly, or so it will seem, the world around you will be swarming with insects that cover the ground and greedily consume their hosts, sometimes denuding trees or even sections of forest. With each successive generation the population will increase more and more until either a density dependent factor starts to level out the population explosion event or a density independent factor strikes.

Want to crunch the numbers? I found a great online insect population simulation that was constructed by Hein Bijlmakers. This simulation allows you to control limiting factors and their impact upon your simulated population. Using the pre-set simulation factors and starting with a first generation of just 1000 eggs, the graph shows the simulated increases in the population that can lead to a population explosion. Each generation experiences a near exponential of growth and the population quickly gets out of hand.

Eventually, as with most population explosions, some limiting factor either dependent upon or independent of population density will cause the explosion to collapse.

To learn a little more about populations and the factors that influence them, check out this great AP Biology presentation about ecology and populations put together by a science teacher and his wife from Dublin Scotio High School in Dublin, Ohio. Thanks to Aaron and Candice MacKenzie for having such fine information available on the internet.

Examples of Population Explosion:

Butterflies on Navarro Ridge: In 2005, Navarro Ridge in Mendocino County, California experienced a population boom of the California Tortoise Shell (Nymphalis californica) butterfly. The larvae denuded host plants and pupa were so think on branches that bears began to knock branches over and prey upon the pupa. Imagine that: enough butterfly chrysalis that bears can make a meal. The following spring of 2006 was wet and cold and there were far fewer butterflies to be found. Read more about Navarro Ridge here.

Ladybugs in England: This British invasion of tiny beetles happened in the summer of 2009 when hoards of ladybugs descended upon Somerset and Norfolk England. The ladybugs were feasting upon their favorite food, aphids which were particularly thick before the ladybug population explosion. In their hurry to find food, ladybugs also blanketed yellow objects like cars and posts until they determined that color and flavor didn’t always match.

Cockroaches and Loathing in Las Vegas: Las Vegas, Nevada is currently experiencing a population boom of cockroaches. A particularly wet and mild winter in 2009 did not produce weather cold enough to kill existing cockroaches and their eggs. Current hot temperatures in the area are causing the now much larger population to become very active as the cockroaches move inside and try to seek shelter in moist and dark places like utility boxes and homes of residents.

In summary: When a major environmental event like a hurricane occurs or we just get a really wet spring, we can pretty much lay money on the mosquito population in Florida goings nuts. Every tiny factor in the web of life has to be perfectly balanced for populations to achieve mutual balance. Nature is awesome, but rarely so perfect as to keep precise order. Fluctuations and occasional population booms have always occurred in the incredible chaos of our Earth. Although these population booms can sometimes seem truly biblical in size, they generally play themselves out in short order. Until then, just watch where you step…

Poll: Have you seen this butterfly?

The butterfly I am currently in search of is the White Peacock (Anartia jatrophae) Butterfly. This small species is often found near pond margins, wetland edges and the banks of various waterways in the state where their host plants Water Hyssop (Bacopa monnieri) and Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) are plentiful.

This butterfly was previously very common on the MOSI grounds and throughout the Back Woods Forest Preserve. However, after the harsh winter and many freezes, I have seen not a single member of this species anywhere in my travels about Florida.

If you have seen any of these butterflies, please vote in the poll below and then leave a comment about where you sited them. Thanks so much for your time and information!

Have you seen White Peacocks in 2010?

While I was out...

It seems while I was out sick last Thursday that I missed some visitors to the garden who are also readers of this blog. If you are the couple from Miami that dropped by on July 29th, please drop me a line. I am truly sorry I was not here to greet you personally!

And for the rest of you tens of readers out there, if you are coming to visit the BioWorks Butterfly Garden at MOSI, please drop me a line so I can try to clear a few minutes in my schedule. There is always some time to be found for our garden-loving guests.

Lastly, I have some passionvine suckers that can be free to a good home. We are continuously pulling out young plants with nice tap roots when they come up in the wrong place. Passionvine is the host for a whole mess of butterflies:
Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charitonius)
Julia Longwing (Dryas iulia)
Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae)
Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia)

If you can use a teeny tiny passionvine, please comment here or email me at kristeng@mosi.org and we will make some arrangements! I may only have a few at a time, so please contact me to see if I can pull a few suckers. I am always happy to help someone else catch the butterfly gardening bug.

Coral Honeysuckle

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It really doesn’t matter what time of year, Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) seems to always be gorgeous. This flowering vine is native to Florida and can reach lengths of 15 to 20 feet. Used as a groundcover and as a climbing vine, Coral Honeysuckle is evergreen and nearly ever-blooming.

Flowers of Coral Honeysuckle are trumpet shaped and are a bright flashy red in color. These flowers are attractive to nectaring butterflies (from my own observations, especially sulphurs) and also to Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris). The local hummingbird population at MOSI seems to favor Coral Honeysuckle and Firebush (Hamelia patens) above all other plants in the gardens. This vine produces a bright red berry in the late fall and winter. These berries are a great snack for populations of songbirds.

Coral honeysuckle is a host plant for the amazing little Snowberry Clearwing moth (Hemaris diffinis) and also for the Spring Azure Butterfly(Celastrina "ladon") which can be found in extreme northern Florida and portions of the Panhandle.