We’re warming the planet with our carbon burning activities, and everyday I see new evidence of that fact. For those of you who don’t believe that global climate change is happening, here’s yet another example of how animals are adapting to the warmer climate.

Last summer in Cleveland, I noticed a proliferation of a previously uncommon dark form variety of the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). When I lived in Georgia for several years, this particular dark form was fairly common.  It was recorded that the dark forms were prevalent in the South and that the light forms were widespread (but more common north of Tennessee). Up until last summer I rarely, if ever, had seen a dark form female in Cleveland. Yet, here they were and not just a few of them. Almost every female Tiger Swallowtail was dark form. It’ll be interesting to see if last summer’s booming populations of dark female tiger swallowtails were just a coincidence or if they really are migrating northward due to warmer Cleveland summers. I suspect the latter. 

Posted by Cynthia Druckenbrod 

Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail dark form on top, male below

I love going into the Glasshouse in the winter, especially on sunny days, and seeing dozens of tropical butterflies flitting about. We’ve brought in some new species from Ecuador, and they are exquisitely beautiful! Speaking of butterflies, I receive a few calls every winter from families who have found moth cocoons or butterfly chrysalises or praying mantis egg cases on branches in their yards. Sometimes, they are attached to Christmas trees. When the cocoon, chrysalis or egg case is carried indoors to our warm houses during the winter, can you guess what happens? That’s right, the moth, butterfly or hundreds of praying mantises emerge at the wrong time of year! What can you do? You can bring it to the Garden and we’ll release it into the Glasshouse, where it’ll live out the rest of its life.  You could also attempt to feed the butterfly in captivity with a solution of 50/50 honey to water, which will help keep your butterfly alive for a few days. The challenge is that our houses are typically very dry in the winter and therefore not butterfly friendly, so don’t expect it to live for very long, unfortunately. If you bring in a moth cocoon and it hatches, it’s likely a silk moth. They don’t feed as adults and only live about week to breed and lay eggs before dying. For mantises, they would need live flies or other small insects to feed upon to survive in your house in the winter. My suggestion -  bring them to Garden if they hatch.  More importantly, thoroughly check the Christmas trees or branches you bring into your house in the winter so that nature can emerge when it is meant to emerge - in the spring.

Pictured above: Heliconius melpomene plesseni