Eastern tailed blues are one of those little butterflies I've never raised, and I can't remember anybody on this forum ever posting about raising them. So, I looked up the info. All the books agree that they use various members of the legume family, and all the ones they list are low growing types, not trees, such as black locust. The best information comes from The Butterflies of West Virginia and Their Caterpillars by Thomas J. Allen - "Females oviposit between the flower buds or on young leaves of the host plants usually during the afternoon. Eggs are laid singly and larvae feed primarily on the buds but will eat young leaves as well. They are attended by ants that seek their honeydew secretions. (snip) The caterpillar is variable but is usually green with pale green, oblique lateral stripes, a dark dorsal line, and a yellow sublateral line. It is covered with fine whitish hairs. The chrysalis is pale to dark green or brownish yellow and is also variable. Caterpillars hibernate, often in seed pods, and pupate in spring. The eastern tailed-blue uses legumes as hosts. In West Virginia, bush clovers (Lespedeza spp.) are a favorite host as well as red clover (Trifolium pratense). They also use alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and rabbitfoot clover (T. arvense) on shael barren sites. Other legumes also reported include vetches (Vicia spp.), beggar's ticks (Desmodium spp.), and yellow sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis)." You could buy some clover seeds of the above listed types and let your daughter sow them in her own garden. Only problem is, since nobody that I know of here has seen a cat or chrysalis, they might be hard to find, but it's worth a try. If your daughter wants to get into butterfly gardening, something like fennel, dill, milkweeds, etc. that host more-commonly-raised-by-people types of butterflies might be a good choice. I hope we have a budding gardener, maybe even a lepidopterist! :) Sherry

I know the Karner Blues will only eat the underside of the leaves. So the leaves will remain intact, but sorta turn brown and start to shrivel. That would be wonderful if you've attracted some to your garden. I have planted some too, as they are endangered here too since they tore out their natural habitat to build a humongous mall. I don't have high hopes as I know they do not travel far so I doubt they will find me. Good luck and keep us posted!

The most common butterflies here lately are Spicebush Swallowtails (although I've never found any eggs or cats on my spicebushes), and Silver-spotted Skippers. I also have Tiger Swallowtails, a Giant Swallowtail (has been staying here the past few days), various kinds of little skippers, a few Great Spangled Fritillaries, a Variegated Fritillary, Clouded Sulphurs, Eastern Tailed Blues, Gray Hairstreaks, Wild Indigo Duskwings, a female Monarch (now that a female came here about a week or so ago, I haven't seen the males), lots of Pearl Crescents, and at least six Common Buckeyes! The buckeyes were nectaring on the Verbena bonariensis. The butterflies just love those flowers and I'd never be without it. Even though it took the butterflies awhile this year to show up, I have tons of them now! :-) Cathy

Thanks, everyone. I'm glad that you liked the pics. Sherry, They weren't too hard to find on the beans. Just look for the holes. ;-) That's the only thing that I've found them on. I am guessing that they would probably be found on scarlet runner beans. I never got around to planting them this year, but I plan to next year. It was too much of a strain on my back to bend over to pick beans, so I stopped planting them a few years ago. Sadly, the Gray Hairstreaks probably miss them though, and I haven't seen any of the butterflies this year at all. Angie, It's a Gray Hairstreak. I'm sure I asked here on the forum when I wasn't sure what kind it was, so that's how I know. :) SCG, Get those beans planted! It gives a person a new reason to plant them, huh. ;-) BG, I thought it was neat raising them. It doesn't seem like many people do for some reason. Of course, it's been awhile since I have. Cathy