Today we found pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor hirsuta) eggs for the first time this year. It is ironic that the one pipevine (Aristolochia californica) site that we frequent that we have never actually once witnessed a pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor hirsuta) this or any other year was the one site that we finally found their eggs today, making the first eggs of the year. Albany Hill has a large stand of pipevine growing along Cerrito Creek in a somewhat hidden location partially covered by other plants. But this is just the kind of place the stuff likes to grow and boy, this stand of pipevine is incredible both in size and vigor. We only discovered it this year, but like noted above, we've never actually seen any pipevine swallowtail flying around the hill or anywhere in Albany. While we don't doubt at all the ability of the relatively long-lived and strong flying swallowtails to find and locate their only host plant even when it's in the shade, it still came as a little surprise when we found two clusters of eggs there after not checking for several weeks. The first cluster, located on a new shoot (not particularly significant to note here since the entire vine is covered in new shoots) near the top of the vine and consisted of 17 eggs (unfortunately, a few were rubbed off and lost on the way back because we didn't have anything to hold the cutting with the eggs with). The second cluster was laid on the underside of a not so attractive leaf which also located very high up. There are 14 eggs in this cluster, but 9 of them appear to have had their insides sucked out, probably by some kind of true bug (Hemiptera). I say that this find was ironic because we have been visiting our other local pipevine sites routinely for the past six weeks. Specifically, we have been taking scheduled two week interval trips to Tilden Regional Park and its botanical garden (Berkeley, CA) and visited Canyon Trail Park (El Cerrito, CA) a few weeks ago to no avail. Many times, we even witnessed the butterflies flying in the places near the pipevine (though they appeared to be mostly males). At the same time, our own pipevine swallowtails have basically all emerged sometime this month from diapausing chrysalises from last year. It was quite obvious that their spring flight had already initiated, but for some reason there were no eggs at all. Perhaps the females had not yet had quite enough time there to mate and get themselves ready to start spilling their eggs in big enough numbers for us to discover. And perhaps coincidentally, it is a bit strange that the pipevine growing at Albany Hill is also far ahead of those at other sites in terms of spring growth (they must have broken dormancy much earlier) and so happened to receive the first eggs of the season. Anyway, tomorrow we are going to take a look at the other sites and see if we have any luck now. It is almost May, so by now we are certain that it isn't too early. ![]() Authors Brian Liang
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Timeline 2012–2017
Albany, California This timeline is a series of daily posts recording our observations on and experiences with various insects in Albany California and surrounding areas, from 2012-2017. Since we did not publish this site until 2016, posts before that were constructed retroactively. Starting in August 2017, we moved to Ithaca, New York; posts from there on can be viewed at Timeline 2017-present: Ithaca, New York. Archives (1,011)
August 2017 (49) July 2017 (121) June 2017 (79) May 2017 (77) April 2017 (91) March 2017 (35) February 2017 (12) January 2017 (10) December 2016 (12) November 2016 (26) October 2016 (49) September 2016 (84) August 2016 (94) July 2016 (99) June 2016 (53) May 2016 (21) April 2016 (4) January 2016 (1) August 2015 (3) July 2015 (3) June 2015 (2) June 2014 (3) May 2014 (1) April 2014 (3) March 2014 (3) December 2013 (2) November 2013 (2) October 2013 (5) September 2013 (11) August 2013 (15) July 2013 (9) June 2013 (5) May 2013 (4) April 2013 (3) March 2013 (2) February 2013 (3) January 2013 (2) December 2012 (2) November 2012 (1) October 2012 (2) September 2012 (2) August 2012 (5) July 2012 (1) June 2012 (1) Authors
![]() ![]() Full Species List (Alphabetical by scientific name) Note: - Not every species we encounter is necessarily presented on this site, rather a selection of those that were of particular interest to us and that we felt were worth documenting. - We can't guarantee that all species have been identified accurately, particularly taxa we are not as familiar with. Lepidoptera Actias luna Adelpha californica Agraulis vanillae Allancastria cerisyi Antheraea mylitta Antheraea polyphemus Anthocharis sara Argema mimosae Attacus atlas Battus philenor hirsuta Bombyx mori Caligo atreus Callosamia promethea Coenonympha tullia california Citheronia regalis Cricula trifenestrata Danaus plexippus Eacles imperialis Erynnis tristis Estigmene acrea Eumorpha achemon Eupackardia calleta Furcula cinereoides Heliconius erato Heliconius hecale Heliconius sapho Heliconius sara Hyalophora cecropia Hyalophora columbia Hyalophora euryalus Hylephila phyleus Hyles lineata Junonia coenia Langia zenzeroides formosana Lophocampa maculata Manduca sexta Morpho peleides Nymphalis antiopa Orgyia vetusta Orthosia hibisci quenquefasciata Pachysphinx modesta Papilio cresphontes Papilio eurymedon Papilio glaucus Papilio machaon oregonius Papilio multicaudata Papilio polyxenes asterius Papilio rumiko Papilio rutulus Papilio zelicaon Phyciodes mylitta Phyciodes pulchella Pieris rapae Plejebus acmon Poanes melane Polites sabuleti Polygonia satyrus Pyrgus communis Rothschildia jacobaeae Samia cynthia advena Samia ricini Smerinthus cerisyi Smerinthus ophthalmica Strymon melinus Trichoplusia ni Uresephita reversalis Vanessa annabella Vanessa atalanta Vanessa cardui Unidentified Lepidoptera Hybrids Papilio glaucus × Papilio rutulus Papilio polyxenes asterius × Papilio zelicaon Orthoptera Melanoplus devastator Phaneroptera nana Pristoceuthophilus pacificus Scudderia mexicana Trimerotropis pallidipennis Phasmatodea Carausius morosus Phyllium giganteum Mantodea Mantis religiosa Phyllocrania paradoxa Hymenoptera Apis mellifera Bombus vosnesenskii Brachymeria ovata Linepithema humile Pediobius sp. Polistes dominula Xylocopa varipuncta Unidentified Diptera Lucilia sericata Unidentified Hemiptera Brochymena sp. Leptoglossus sp. Nezara viridula Odonata Argia vivida Libellula croceipennis Coleoptera Coccinella septempunctata Cycloneda polita Diabrotica undecimpunctata Hippodamia convergens Araneae (Class: Arachnida) Araneus diadematus Phidippus johnsoni |