A gentle flutter in your balcony

To watch caterpillars grow, molt, pupate and butterflies emerge and take flight, is a rewarding experience your garden can easily provide you.

A Lime butterfly on a Lemon plant.

My first encounter with an army of caterpillars was many years back when I had just ventured into gardening. A dozen caterpillars were happily munching away the leaves of the Curry Leaf plant to their hearts content. It was a young plant, and I was worried that it would get destroyed. In an impulse, I snipped the branches and threw them away. A few weeks later, I saw a bright green caterpillar on the Crepe Jasmine plant. It too was devouring leaf after leaf, and its droppings covered the ground. It froze the moment I touched the branch, its haunting blue eyes stared back at me and vanished into the wrinkle of its head. The guilt of throwing away the caterpillars from the Curry Leaf was already tormenting me. I decided to leave them alone and learn more about it.

A Very Hungry Oleander Hawk Moth Caterpillar

A few days later the skin of the caterpillar starts changing to brown.

Internet informed me that the caterpillar was called an Oleander Hawk Moth and it prefers the Oleander or the Crepe Jasmine to lay its egg. The caterpillars feed on the leaves, and when it was time to pupate, the skin turns into a combination of black and orangish brown. It then reaches the ground and starts to pupate among the dry leaves. I kept observing the caterpillar for the next few days until it changed colour. I was at peace that I didn’t break the branch away.

In the final stages of being a caterpillar.

A stunning Oleander Hawk Moth resting on the ground, freshly emerged from its pupa.

The next time I saw a green caterpillar on the Curry Leaf plant, I left it alone. I knew from experience that the leaves would spring back to life in a matter of days.

Most butterflies are attracted to colorful flowers. However surprisingly some prefer overripe and rotting fruits, bird droppings, animal dung, or even dead animals. But for a caterpillar to grow and satiate its voracious hunger, butterflies lay their eggs on specific plants called food plants or host plants.

A baron butterfly absorbing nutrients from a Guava fruit half eaten by birds.

In order to attract butterflies I also needed grow food plants. I started with Ixora, Pentas, Lantana, Hamelia Patens, Marigold, Cosmos, Periwinkles, Porcelain flower etc. These are sunlight requiring plants. The butterflies not only feed on the nectar they also bask on them to receive sunlight.

The crowning moment of growing a garden happened when I watched three butterflies emerge out of their pupa on consecutive days: the male and female of the Common Mormon Swallowtail and a Common Rose. Watch a lime butterfly emerge from its chrysalis.

A Lime plant in the backyard regularly hosts the Common Mormon caterpillars. But the Common Rose required the plant of genus Aristolochia for its larvae to feed. A retired professor, whom I had met serendipitously during one of my walks, gave me the seed pods of the Aristolochia Grandiflora vine to me.

Aristolachia Grandiflora

Aristolochia Grandiflora is a perennial vine that spreads across compound walls and fences. The duck or pelican shaped flower stink, and so do its seeds. Growing a vine is a bit tricky. As you already know, not all seeds turn into plants, and after a series of trial and error, a sapling showed up. Four months later the vine outgrew the small trellis, and quick enough a couple of Common Rose Caterpillars appeared on the vine. I was thrilled. At first, there were about eight of them. Over the days the numbers dwindled, and only one of them reached the pupal stage. I love how a caterpillar looks like a zombie the day before it starts building the pupa.

A spiky Common Rose butterfly caterpillar clinging to the black metal trellis.

The next morning I found a pink pupa, suspended by a silk girdle. As the days drew near for the butterfly to emerge, the pupa started turning transparent. Nineteen days later, on a sunny morning, the colourful Common Rose flew out.

Comparison of two butterflies.

It is a rewarding experience, to watch caterpillars grow, molt, pupate, before the butterflies emerge and take flight. In the last few years, apart from growing food plants like Lime, Curry leaf, and Crepe Jasmine, I’ve also grown Passiflora, Kalanchoe, Ginger Lilies, and Custard plant which are the host butterflies such as Tawny Coaster, Red Pierrot, Grass Demon, and Tailed Jay. Bamboos attract skippers and browns. The Common Baron hosts on the mango tree while it feeds on the ripe fruits of Guava. We have now seen nearly eighty varieties of butterflies flutter through the garden.

A garden is not just a collection of plants. It is an ecosystem which also attracts birds, bees, wasps, insects, and moths. The choice of the plants depends on the choice of colours you see and the sounds you want to hear.

Until Next time

Cheers from Hydrangeas This article first appeared in Deccan Herald on 22 November 2020. Pictures added here are mine.