A very 'rare' butterfly sighting for Guelph gardener

It was a sighting like no other for Kelly Main of Guelph when an unlikely visitor made a rare appearance at her downtown property this past summer. 

The Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly, Battus philenor, arrived in June and was seen nectaring on Main's hanging flower basket and laying eggs on her Dutchman’s Pipevine.

"It was a lovely Saturday morning. We were just having our coffee on our back porch and I noticed the butterfly on our annual basket, full of petunias. And so, I watched it and where it went, as it headed towards our fence," Main said. 

"When I spotted it at first, I did not know what it was. I didn't realize I was the first in Guelph, and that what I was seeing was so rare."

After confirming that the butterfly was in fact a Pipevine Swallowtail, the sighting became even more exciting for Main, who later realized there was no previous record of this species laying eggs and reproducing in Guelph.

"I knew I hadn't seen it before. I'm not a butterfly expert by any means. I'm pretty good with my native plants, and we are also bird watchers, but I'm not one to keep lists," Main said. 

"I'm not a tracker like that with my plants, birds or butterflies. But now, I might, I just might do that."

Main is a lover of gardening. Her property in the Sunny Acres neighbourhood displays a passion for supporting local species by incorporating native plants. 

"I tend to not water. I just kind of let things go. So, I was a very lucky to have put the Dutchman’s Pipevine in," she said. 

Main is a member of the Grand Gardeners Facebook group which is where she met Thelma Beaubien, who is an avid butterfly lover who has photographed and recorded 72 species across Ontario including 31 species in her own butterfly garden.

"That's how I met Thelma and a lot of other amazing people especially during COVID-19, I was just meeting people in their gardens. For me, it was a real lifeline. I have met so many generous gardeners, who share their plants and share their knowledge," Main said. 

"It's been such a positive group for me and it's grown very quickly since I've been a member. It's very special." 

According to Beaubien, who wrote of Main's rare butterfly sighting for Nature Guelph, only four Pipevine Swallowtails have ever been recorded in southern Ontario. 

In 2012, possibly due to a mild winter and unseasonably warm spring, hundreds of the species entered Ontario from the southwest. From 2013 to 2023, on average, 11 Pipevine Swallowtails have been reported throughout Ontario. 

"All of the numbers seem to point to that happening. It looks like this year, there were quite a few sightings of the Pipevine Swallowtail. So, I think there is something to that, that they are moving to our area. There have been other spottings," Main said. 

According to Beaubien, the rare species feeds on plants in the genus Aristolochlia. There are two species in the genus that are grown in Ontario, the Dutchman’s Pipevine,and the more common Wooly Dutchman’s Pipevine.

Both contain aristolochic acid that makes the species 'unpalatable' to predators.

"It is so fascinating the way nature works to protect itself," Main said. 

"Thelma has been involved in extensive research on putting in some non-native varieties for the pollen collectors in the fall. In her Waterloo front yard garden, she's been able to prove fairly convincingly, that if she has some flowers that are non-native, they are supported and do support the native butterflies passing through."

Main said there is much knowledge and science behind understanding this symbiosis. 

"That's where my heart is," Main said. 

"Now, I feel like I'm in that visceral space of saying, 'you know, if I just took that out, and put this in, then you can have butterflies, and birds and berries.'" 

Since moving back to her old downtown neighbourhood in 2007, Main could not imagine living anywhere else. 

"I am literally on Sunny Acres Park. I love that neighbourhood," Main said. 

"I first moved there in 1999 and then we were around the corner from 1999 to 2005. When the kids were little, my husband got a job at the University for Peace, the only UN mandated university. So, we took the kids there for a few years. We loved that neighbourhood so much, we came back."

Gardening has always been a part of Main's life, in one way or another. 

"My dad was a teacher, so we always were taken across the country or the continent, camping. We did all the nature trails and parks. I've also done a lot of summer jobs on the land, not as a naturalist per say, but working for different parks," Main said. 

"I've been able to connect with the land. And I actually remember the Latin names of plants. My kids really appreciate it."