Community in My Yard - and more musings on butterflies!

I've been trying to observe my yard through a "communities" lens this past week. I've definitely noticed how important the plant life is to the organisms that live in or visit my yard, and how we as humans are ecosystem engineers in our own yards. For example, my lawn was teeming with visual insect life last week, including tiny American Coppers, Eastern-Tailed Blues, and Cabbage Whites. That is, until my husband decided to mow the lawn, cutting down a good amount of the flowers growing wild there. After that, the littlest butterflies haven't made an appearance, their tiny lawn flowers are gone, and all that's been around are the Cabbage Whites and the Eastern Black Swallowtails (both there for the larger flower nectar sources in my garden and to lay eggs on their host plants currently growing there). It really brought home how even little routine acts that we don't think much of can have a huge impact on the habitats of other organisms, and affect what will live, thrive, and survive there.

Another thing I noticed, also still watching the butterflies in my yard, is that all of the Eastern Black Swallowtails that have emerged from chrysalises under my care in my garden have been males (15 out of the 20 so far). There are females in the area, I've seen them in my yard, and I have their eggs on my fennel as evidence. This made me wonder what sort of abiotic or biotic factors affect whether a caterpillar becomes a male or a female butterfly, and I'd like to research that further. My first thought was perhaps temperature or light, but I'm not sure that either of those factor into gender ratios. More reading up on actual studies as opposed to anecdotal evidence will be needed!

One other thought while I was observing the Eastern Black Swallowtails laying eggs on my fennel involved species interactions. I was trying to decide how to categorize the interactions between them and their host plants (fennel in this case), and at first I was thinking it was mutualism. I began to think back though, and realized that I never really saw any Swallowtails or other larger butterflies on the flowers of the fennel last year. I recall seeing lots of smaller insects nectaring on and pollinating the fennel, including lots of bees, wasps, flies, and Coppers, but definitely none of the Swallowtails. Perhaps their relationship with the fennel is more one-sided, and even considered parasitism? If the plant were smaller, it could be killed by the caterpillars voracious appetites.

Publicado el mayo 27, 2020 03:22 TARDE por danivaill danivaill

Comentarios

I love this Danielle!! You have your own butterfly sanctuary and I love that so much. The way that you make your posts make me feel like I am right there with you watching the butterflies emerge in all their beauty. I like the idea on the abiotic or biotic factors affectiing the sex of the butterflies. Many different animals sexes are defined by temperature such as turtles. I researched that it is the female that decides the sex of her young. Perhaps you are seeing more males because there were less males in the area so the mother was making up for that by having mostly males.

Publicado por jobird hace casi 4 años

@Jobird those theories make so much sense! :)

Publicado por danivaill hace casi 4 años

Enjoyed reading your journal entry. What resonated with me is how you pondered the human impact on an ecosystem. I am just beginning to re-work an established "bramble" into a pollinator garden. So I have uprooted many plants (weeds or invasives hopefully) to make room for milkweed, black eyed susan, and aster. A part of me has pondered the impact I am forcing on this established ecosystem. I am certainly disrupting the natural order to serve my purpose - and the greater good of a pollinator garden.

Publicado por jenniferzw hace casi 4 años

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