Brooding Butterflies

 

Common Sunflower is a native larval host plant for one of our brooding butterflies. 

In human terms, brooding typically means showing deep, quiet unhappiness but when it pertains to butterflies, it describes how many broods or distinct generations of butterflies a species produces in one year. Summertime in our area highlights those butterfly species that have multiple broods spring through fall, also called multivoltines. The most commonly seen multiple brooders include Queen (Danaus gilippus), Gulf Fritillary (Dione vanillae), Bordered Patch (Chlosyne lacinia), White-striped Longtail (Chioides albofasciatus), and Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) butterflies.

Queens are most often confused with Monarchs, given their mostly rich orange-brown coloring, with white spots nearest the wing tips and in the black wing margins, but lacking the Monarch’s bold black wing veining. Like Monarchs, their native larval host plant is milkweed, specifically Antelope Horn, Fringed Twinevine, and Butterfly Milkweed.

Queens are often mistaken for Monarchs.

Gulf Fritillaries are another mostly orange butterfly, with a few black markings on the wings above and many elongated silvery spots on the wings below.  They have slightly elongated wings and their flight is fast and usually well above the ground. Their native larval host plant is passionvine, including Purple Passionvine, Fetid Passionvine, and Yellow Passionvine.

Gulf Fritillary nectaring on Blue Mistflower.

Silvery spots on the underside of the Gulf Fritillary.

Bordered Patches can be remarkably variable, but typically have black forewings and hindwings with an orange and/or creamy white median band of spots that can vary in width. Their native larval host plants are in the sunflower/aster family, specifically Common Sunflower, Cowpen Daisy, and Black-eyed Susan.

Bordered Patch on one of its native larval host plants, Cowpen Daisy.

White-striped Longtails are brown butterflies with very long tails and a prominent white stripe on the hindwing below. This characteristic is usually easy to see since these butterflies typically perch with their wings closed. Their native larval host plants are legumes in the pea family, namely Panicledleaf Ticktrefoil and Softleaf Mimosa.

White-striped Longtail nectaring on Blue Mistflower.

Pipevine Swallowtails are our most familiar dark swallowtail, black above with a single row of pale spots near the wing margins. Males have a beautiful blue-green iridescence on the hindwing above, and both sexes have a single row of bright orange spots in an iridescent blue background on the hindwing below. Their native larval hosts plants are pipevines, including Swanflower and Virginia’s Dutchmanspipe.

Upperside of a male Pipevine Swallowtail.

Underside of a Pipevine Swallowtail.

These multiple brooders produce three or more continuous generations per year, often flying repeatedly from early spring to late fall. The final brood of the year often exhibits different physiological or behavioral traits, such as delayed development or seasonal movement, that allows them to survive winter conditions. In the case of the species outlined above, most move further south as the temperatures fall and then north again as they rise, but the swallowtails overwinter hidden away in chrysalis form until warmer temperatures coax them to emerge in spring.

Aquatic Apalones

Spiny Softshell Turtle

The genus Apalone is thought to come from the Greek apo meaning ‘separate’ and the Anglo-Saxon alone meaning ‘solitary’, as well as the  Greek apalos meaning ‘soft’ or ‘tender.’  All of these terms apply to the members of this genus, which is comprised of the softshell turtles native to North America.  Turtles of this genus exhibit marked sexual dimorphism, or the condition where the two sexes of the same species exhibit different characteristics beyond their sexual organs.

Females grow to twice the size of males, in terms of carapace or shell length.  In males, the claws on their front feet are longer than those on the back feet, enabling them to better hold on to the female while mating.  In females, the claws on the back are longer, for digging into sandbanks in order to lay her eggs.  Lastly, males have a thicker, stout tail that extends well beyond the edge of its carapace, but the female’s tail is relatively thin and barely extends beyond the carapace.  From a behavioral standpoint, the female is much more solitary, wanders more, and requires deeper water, while the male often congregates with juveniles in sandy shallows and while basking along exposed banks.

Spiny Softshell Turtle

There are two species of softshell turtle in Texas. The more common Spiny Softshell Turtle (Apalone spinifera) is found throughout the state, while the Smooth Softshell Turtle (Apalone mutica) is found only in parts of the eastern two-thirds of the state. The Spiny Softshell’s olive-gray or tan carapace is leathery and flat, and has small spines along the front edge, which explains its species name.  At home in rivers, lakes, ponds, and other bodies of water with muddy or soft bottoms, its spends its time feeding on aquatic insects, fish, and crayfish, basking or floating at the surface, or buried in soft, shallow substrates.  Its long neck and snorkel-like nose allows the turtle to breathe at the water’s surface without having to leave its buried location. Females typically grow to 22 inches, while males top out at 8.5 inches in length.

Smooth Softshell Turtle

The Smooth Softshell’s olive-gray to brown carapace is also leathery and flat, but lacks any spines, bumps, or projections.  This characteristic is reflected in its species name, which means ‘shortened’ or ‘docked.’  It also prefers bodies of water with soft, sandy bottoms, and basks on banks, logs, rocks, or under shallow water with its long nose exposed.  Primarily insectivorous, it will also consume vegetation and small invertebrates and fish.  Smaller than the Spiny Softshell, females grow to 14 inches and males to 7 inches in length.

One odd but amazing fact about softshell turtles is that they are believed to absorb 70% of their oxygen through their skin.  The other 30% comes from pumping water in and out of their pharynx or throats, which contain many tiny projections of tissue with small blood vessels that provide a huge surface area for oxygen absorption.  This adaptation allows them to remain underwater for several hours.  Now that’s one highly aquatic Apalone!