I had 4 morning shifts in the Roston Native Butterfly House in June. The weather was getting hotter and the house was full of active butterflies and caterpillars…the moths were, as usual, sleeping in their cage.

On the first shift of the month, it had been wet the night before and I noticed a lot of tulip poplar leaves on the floor when I first walked in. Right after I took this picture, I noticed there were a lot of tiger swallowtail caterpillars on the floor too! Fortunately, I hadn’t stepped on one. Getting them off the floor became the priority…and then picking up all the leaves and cleaning frass off the table/sweeping the floor. I was glad I had gone in 30 minutes before opening so I had time to get it all done.

I don’t take pictures every shift…it depends on how many people come in. On one morning there were multiple field trips that came through – so no pictures from that day! I did get pictures of several kinds of caterpillars: tiger swallowtail, pipevine swallowtail, and cecropia moth.

The female Diana Fritillaries were the ‘big, beautiful butterflies’ of the month but there were some monarchs and zebra swallowtails that I photographed as well.

On the way down to butterfly house, I often stop by the rain garden near the Botanical Center. There were milkweed seed pods just beginning to form and skippers visiting the cone flowers there.