As a wildlife habitat certified by the National Wildlife Federation, the Conservancy Butterfly Garden provides the four basic habitat elements needed for wildlife to thrive: food, water, cover, and a place to raise young.

In addition to attracting butterflies and moths, the gardens attract many other organisms.

Invertebrates include: bugs, beetles, bees, wasps, ants, flies, dragonflies, cicadas, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, gnats, millipedes, planarians, and spiders.

Vertebrates include: snakes, lizards, turtles, songbirds, birds of prey, woodpeckers, raccoons, and yes ... squirrel monkeys.

 

 

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Photos of our wildlife visitors:

Above: Milkweed seed bugs (nymph and adult) thrive on scarlet milkweed pods, and cotton strainer bugs (nymph and adult) eat wild cotton bolls.

Below: Left: A thorn bug holds tightly to a Bahama cassia branch. Its great camouflage as a thorn disguises it on plants like Bahama cassia and catclaw. This female is shown beside her eggs. Right: adults care for their young. Note the many small nymphs near the larger adults.

 

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Above: Left: A spotless ladybird beetle rests on a false willow leaf. Middle: A ladybird beetle pupa looks for aphids to devoir. Right: A citrus root weevil waits to mate on a seaside goldenrod flower.

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Below: An iridescent weevil, Eurhinus magnificus, was spotted on a wild lime tree in Garden 11 on February 4, 2010. The bottom photograph below was sent by Ian Bartoszek, Biologist, Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Environmental Science Division, Naples, Florida 34102 to Paul Skeeley, Collections Manager, Florida State Collection of Arthropods, Florida Department of Agriculture-DPI, 1911 SW 34th St. P.). Box 147100, Gainesville, FL 32614-7100. Paul identified the beetle on February 22nd, 2010. The sighting of this weevil in the Conservancy garden may well have been the first time this beetle was spotted on the west coast of Florida. The host of Eurhinus is reported to be Cissus sp. (grape family)

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Below: An unknown beetle larva eats a false willow leaf and soldier beetles mate on a goldenrod flower.

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Above: Left: An unknown insect has laid its eggs on coco plum. Note the triangular arrangement of the eggs. Each egg is approximately 1 mm in diameter. Right: A stinkbug nymph goes for a stroll on a very "hairy" leaf.

Below: Scale insects (Orthezia insignis Browne) in several stages of development cover the stem of a crimson dicliptera plant.

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Bees and wasps are two pollinators that frequent the gardens.

Often, creatures visit the garden and we don't see them; but, we do see evidence that they've been here. As shown in this photograph, something has been chewing the mahogany leaves in Garden 1. The culprit: a leaf cutter bee. This bee uses it jaws to cut several holes in each leaf. As the bee completes the cut, it hovers in place, buzzes loudly, and uses its jaws to grasp the piece of leaf with its legs. Then, it carries the cut portion away to wallpaper its burrow (nest.) An individual might return to the same plant over and over for a period of days. A leaf cutter bee is solitary; it does not live in a hive like most other bees. But, like other bees, it is an important pollinator. It collects pollen and stores it beneath its abdomen with stiff hairs. A photo of one of our leaf cutter bee visitors is shown below:

 

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Left: An unknown tachinid fly rests on a leaf in Garden 14. Most tachnid fly females lay their eggs on the skin of a specific species of insect. The larvae feed on the host tissues, causing death. Hopefully the host species for this tachinid isn't one of our caterpillars.

 

 

 

 

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Below: Left: A perfectly camouflaged roseate skimmer dragonfly warms in the morning sun on a pink shrimp plant flower. In addition, other dragonfly species often rest on vegetation as shown below on dill, wild cotton, and wild lime.

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Above Left: A lubber grasshopper holds tightly to a coin vine stem. Right: An orchard spider hides under its horizontal web, waiting for a small animal to get stuck in its web.

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Another important garden habitat exists beneath the rocks that border the gardens. When the rocks are lifted, a variety of creatures are seen scurrying for shelter. Shown below (at left) is one of the many carpenter ants that colonize the sand below the rocks. At right, a carpenter ant is shown carrying a stranded pupa to safety.

 

Above: Cockroaches and beetle grubs also live under the rocks, as do millipedes and terrestrial planarians shown below.

 

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Reptiles seen in the garden include Cuban anoles, black racers, ring-necked snakes, and blind snakes. The ring-necked snakes and blind snakes have been located under rocks. To date, blind snakes have eluded the photographer. Below, an anole suns itself in the garden, while another well-camouflaged anole eats a cockroach.

 

Below: A black racer slithers over a dead palm frond and a ring-necked snake poses for its picture. Note: the ring-necked snake is beginning to shed its skin. The scale over its eye is translucent.

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Below: Another reptile has been occasionally spotted. In 2008, this female yellow-bellied slider turtle laid her eggs in the middle of the butterfly garden trail. The eggs were moved to a secure location in Garden 13.

On May 13, 2010, another female was spotted laying her eggs in the garden trail. Below, photo 1 shows her preparing her nest. Photo 2 show her laying an egg. (Turtle photos below are by Roz Katz)

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Below: Several bird species visit the butterfly gardens.

Above: In 2008 and 2009, a female cardinal used the wild lime tree in Garden 11 to nest and raise her young. A blue-gray gnatcatcher is often seen and heard as it flits from branch to branch searching for gnats in the mangrove trees bordering Garden 13.

Below: Woodpeckers are often seen and/or heard tapping away to find insects hidden under the bark of trees. The red bellied woodpecker (left) and the piliated woodpecker (right) are our two visitors.

Below: Red shouldered hawks also frequent our garden. For several years, they nested in the coconut palm in Garden 4.

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Below: Two mammals visit the gardens.

 

 

One group of visitors, the raccoons, aren't at all uncommon in Southwest Florida. These animals visit on a regular basis, as evidenced by the scat they leave behind.

 

 

 

 

 

But our other visitors are pretty unique.... squirrel monkeys. Native to Central and South America, this clan of monkeys has roamed along the Gordon River since the 1950s. Our visitors are probably descendants of monkeys that escaped from captivity. They chirp to one another and jump along the tree canopy of the gardens looking for food. They are omnivores, with their primarily food being fruits and insects; but, they also eat nuts, buds, eggs and small vertebrates.

 

 

 

 

 

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Links:

Index To Photographs of Plants in the Gardens

Plant Lists by Garden

Conservancy of SW Florida Butterfly Garden Home Page

Conservancy of SW Florida Home Page.

Please report errors to Susan Snyder at ssnyder2@columbus.rr.com