Susie

[Susie]

What if they're all the same sex?

Then I will be jolly suprised if they breed.

[Susie]

It looks like continental swallowtail to me, too, Susie, hence my question. Perhaps they're easier to rear than British swallowtails, taking a much wider range of foodplants. And, as Gibster says, it would perhaps be inappropriate to sell British swallowtails willy nilly at an event like that, though I know British swallowtails are quite widely bred.

Guy

Thanks, Guy.

[David M]

What if they're all the same sex?

Then I will be jolly suprised if they breed.

Me too.

What will become of them then? Released to roam the countryside or lepidopteral house pets for the rest of their days?

[Susie]

House pets. I wouldn't release them because (a) they may carry lurgies and (b) it would confuse the records of BC if someone recorded them as migrants.

[Susie]

Swallowtail number two has just hatched and I don't think number three is far behind

[Jack Harrison]

Susie probably made a typo:

feeding on buddliea in a vase

I think you meant Bowles Mauve.

Jack

[Susie]

Susie probably made a typo:

feeding on buddliea in a vase

I think you meant Bowles Mauve.

Jack

Nice of you to go out of your way to post about what you thought was my mistake in my diary but I think I know what I meant, thank you.

It is photographed on bowles mauve but it didn't feed on it. It has been feeding on a buddliea called honeycomb.

[David M]

When they're in your house, where do they roost?

[Susie]

Where ever they want within the confines of the kitchen and dining area. So far they have chosen to roost on the branches of the buddleia in the vase.

What's your point with these questions, David?

[David M]

Just interested to know. I've never kept butterflies in the house.

[Susie]

Okey dokey. Well fire away if you have any more in that case.

[Susie]

Think of their existance as being along the same lines as tropical butterflies being kept in a greenhouse. It's basically the same thing.

"http://www.facebook.com/v/10150402692291972"[/video]

[millerd]

Here's a question: how do you stop the butterflies heading straight for the nearest bright window and battering themselves against the glass? My experience of butterflies indoors is that they invariably make straight for the light, regardless of nectary inducements to do otherwise.

Dave

[Susie]

For some reason they haven't tried to do that, even on Monday when it was very sunny. Curious now I think of it. The flowers are right next to the window and they seem content to perch on that when not flying or the white curtain next to the window. If they do start battering themselves I do have netted containers they can go in.

[Piers]

Your own private tropical butterfly house eh Susie? Good for you. It makes a change from keeping land snails, cockroaches, scorpions or tarantulas. In fact it's no different from keeping any other insect or invertebrate in captivity or as a pet.

Fingers crossed you achieve a pairing.

Piers.

[David M]

Have the males established any leks yet?

[Susie]

There is only one male and one female so far. He's a pathetic specimen in as much as he doesn't seem interested in mating. He spends most of his time sitting on the buddleia or feeding although at the moment he is sitting on the bottom of the ceiling light.

[David M]

When they're not feeding, what do they do? Are they doing circuits of the room or just lazing about?

[Susie]

Lazing about most of the time.

[Philzoid]

Your own private tropical butterfly house eh Susie? Good for you. It makes a change from keeping land snails, cockroaches, scorpions or tarantulas. In fact it's no different from keeping any other insect or invertebrate in captivity or as a pet.

Fingers crossed you achieve a pairing.

Piers.

Totally agree with Piers on this one!

Good luck Susie. There is always a chance you've had a pairing without seeing it.