Re: birds in the garden (and fennel)
- Subject: Re: birds in the garden (and fennel)
- From: John MacGregor j*@earthlink.net
- Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 15:23:34 -0700
on 6/23/03 1:47 PM, Catherine Ratner at catherineratner@earthlink.net wrote:
> Hi John,
>
> In writing about the fennel, you could have added that it is a host plant
> for the beautiful Anise Swallowtail Butterfly which many people refer to as
> a Tiger Swallowtail. I never get any butterflies as the mockingbirds eat
> the caterpillars! If you grow it as a garden plant and cut off the flowers
> as they fade, of course you will never be troubled by seedlings.
>
> Cathy Ratner
Cathy and all,
On Saturday I saw my first Anise Swallowtail of the year industriously
laying eggs on the largest clump of bronze fennel. But I never expect to
see any new generation of butterflies unless I collect the eggs and rear
them indoors. The tiny Braconid and Ichneumonid wasps that feed on the
fennel's pollen (there are hundreds--perhaps thousands--of species) very
promptly lay their eggs on the Anise Swallowtail's caterpillars and their
larvae hatch out and burrow under the caterpillar's skin, proceeding to eat
it from the inside out. That is, if the paper wasps don't pretend the
caterpillar is chewing gum and fly off to their nests with a wad of it to
feed their larvae. Even if the cat is lucky enough to survive to the pupal
stage, there are wasps that parasitize the chrysalis.
Somewhere a lucky Anise Swallowtail or two must escape these depredations,
or they wouldn't be any. But so far, in more than a decade of looking for
them, I have yet to see a chrysalis produce a live butterfly on fennel. But
last year I did observe a couple of them survive to butterflyhood on a
Valencia orange tree!
John MacGregor
South Pasadena, CA 91030
USDA zone 9 Sunset zones 21/23
