Swallowtail butterfly

Today I made a really cool discovery on the wild lime that I bought a few weeks ago at the native plant show. The wild lime doesn't produce fruit for humans, but supposedly the birds do eat the .25 inch fruits it does produce

The wild lime is also a host plant for the swallowtail butterfly. A host plant is a plant that a particular butterfly looks for to lay her eggs on and when they hatch this is what the caterpillar will feed on until it is ready to change. They are very important in the butterfly garden since many caterpillars only eat certain things. For example the monarch looks for milkweed, the gulf fritillary lays her eggs on passion vine

Now the swallowtail caterpillar is interesting, it basically looks like crap, bird crap to be exact. This is a defense mechanism, what bird wants to eat something that looks likes poop. Right now I have 4 of these guys on my wild lime. I am so excited about this. I hope these grow to adulthood and come back and continue the cycle in my backyard. Oh and the bird is one of the ibis that shows up now and again and eats the bugs in my yard, I am sure they are enjoying my chemical free yard, and helping me by eating the bugs and leaving behind some natural fertilizer.