# Natures Balance ??



## Rick (May 31, 2008)

The thread Hien started a way's back on pest problems indoors / greenhouses/ and in the jungle reminded me of something that might be educational in my front yard.

We planted two native Pipe vines in our front yard several years ago. One is Dutchman's Pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla) and the other is the regular Pipe vine (A. tomentosa). They were planted about a year apart, and they both took 3 years to get big enough to flower.

Although native to TN they are not common, we have no neighbors with these plants, and for all the miles of exploring we have done in the woods around here we have never come across any of these plants.





The second flowering season of the oldest plant we found it getting munched by this caterpilar




This is the caterpillar of the pipe vine butterfly, which is a large dark metallic blue butterfly of the swallowtail genus. The adults do not visit the flowers for nectar and do not pollinate the flowers (in fact we have never had seed set from these plants). They lay there eggs on these plants and the caterpillars go to town. Supposedly the pipe vine is one of the only plants that these butterfly's use as forage for their larvae.

The interesting part of this story is that they never lay eggs on both plants in the same year, and for probably about 6 years now they have alternated between the two pipe vine in our front yard. Also, they only seem to lay enough eggs so that the plants never get more than 1/4 to 1/3 of the leaves eaten off the plants before the caterpillars mature and pupate. The caterpillars may get attacked by parasitic wasps (I've never noticed a sick one), but they look too nasty to be bird food, so they seem pretty unchecked when they get to munching. They are definitely not bugged by torrential rains or winds, which are not uncommon when these guys are on the vine.

So I'm always amazed that there seems to be some kind of arrangement between the plant and the butterfly that keeps both surviving in balance.


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## likespaphs (May 31, 2008)

neat


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## Rick (May 31, 2008)

Pipe vine flowers. Dutchman pipe on the left and regular pipe vine on the right. There is a huge tropical giant pipe vine with amazing (big as your face) flowers.

It can't smell anything, but there always seem to be flies hanging around the flowers.




Also timing is everything. It's only been a couple of days since I took the pic of the caterpillars and there were dozens. Today there is not a single one left on the plant, and they hardly made a dent in the foliage this year.


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## Yoyo_Jo (May 31, 2008)

That is _really_ an interesting story. I always wonder in a case like this how the heck the insect happens to find your particular plant, especially when there are no other plants like it nearby. Must be a special radar. I wondered the same thing about delphinium worms; I planted them in my yard, no delphiniums nearby that I knew of, and then the next thing I know, the worms are eating my plants.


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## Rick (May 31, 2008)

Yoyo_Jo said:


> That is _really_ an interesting story. I always wonder in a case like this how the heck the insect happens to find your particular plant, especially when there are no other plants like it nearby. Must be a special radar. I wondered the same thing about delphinium worms; I planted them in my yard, no delphiniums nearby that I knew of, and then the next thing I know, the worms are eating my plants.



Yes that is another cool part of the story. How bad do the delphinium worms eat up your delphiniums?


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## Yoyo_Jo (May 31, 2008)

Well, so bad that I pulled all the delphiniums out. Though I should have just tried cutting the foliage back to six inches early in the season, and that would have starved the worms (I was young and foolish back then).

I'm in a new house with a new yard in a brand new subdivision right now and planted delphiniums last year. I'm watching them like a hawk...


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## SlipperFan (Jun 1, 2008)

Interesting.

I found one of those caterpillars in my garage yesterday. I thought it was some type of butterfly, so I took it outside. Glad I did.


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## paphioboy (Jun 1, 2008)

Those are very unusual aristolochias... Never seen any like that.. The ones I have ever seen are the Calico (A. calico or A.sipho) and the really big one, with the 'pipe' nearly 30cms long...


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