As the weather heats up, butterflies and caterpillars multiply. I’m seeing more butterflies, and more different kinds as well.

Senna, my main host plant for Sulphur butterflies, is just starting to emerge from the seeds dropped by last year’s plants. The other day, I watched a small, yellow Sulphur flutter from plant to plant, laying its tiny white football-shaped eggs. I brought some inside.

This morning I noticed that a caterpillar had hatched. Ragged holes on its leaf indicated it had started right in on eating.

Caterpillars generally don’t wander away from their host plants. So in their early stages, you can just leave host plant stems in a vase, as long as you use tissue or cotton to block access to the water (caterpillars don’t understand water, and will crawl down stems and drown).

This year I’m trying something new – putting my senna stems in a mixed bouquet. We’ll see how that goes.

The cats are hard to see, but the tiny spots of fallen frass around the base of the vase let me know that they’re munching (and pooping) away.