Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: My Zebra Swallowtail Thread, 1 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
Hello everyone! I didn't want to hog the daily thread so I figured I would just start my own. If you've been following that thread, you know I've been catnapping ZST cats and raising them. Well, my first one eclosed yesterday! I'm going to use some of my older pictures to walk you through the stages - maybe you'll learn something!

This is the pawpaw that grows in my area. It's asimina reticulata according to my Parks and Rec connections (I work for the county). Most pawpaws are big trees (asimina triloba) that have banana-like fruit; in facty, my grandma has a few in her yard in West Virginia. But it's too hot in my part of Florida. Instead, we have about six different asimina varieties that are endemic to the state. They all look like shrubby bushes, and I've yet to see one much taller than 5 feet. ZST only lay their eggs on asimina species. They nearly always lay it on the new growth so it gets easy to find caterpillars - once you know what to look for.