Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 18, 1 by debnes_dfw_tx

debnes_dfw_tx wrote:
HI y'all!
First, I have a site for Cory.:-S:
http://www.babynames.com So you have a better chance of not running out of names, lol!

Butterflies are free, and meant to fly as soon as they can. There will be an individual love for each that you release, but their life is only temporary, and they need to get busy with theirs as soon as their wings are dry, There is a collective love for wildlife that you will no doubt develop more, because that is definatly your direction. I hope you and Lily, (mom), never run out of butterflies to name. I always look forward to the next one, myself...:-).. Even when the next might be next spring.

A funny thing happened today.... On August 4, I had 2 GST chrysalids. One eclosed and one stayed indside. After a few weeks I put it in a common glad cage with some other 'duds'. I was saving them for my son to look at in biology class. Well, that was 'my' reason... Turns out the other one wasn't a dud at all. It was perfect! A month and 40 days later than the other one, even though they were both raise at the same time from the same mom. I took in about 8-10 eggs today from the hercules club.

So I guess we can safely say, if the chrysalids look right.... continue saving them from would be predators, and keep waiting. Unless the chrysalis turns black, or some other obvious sign of death is clearly visible, expect they might eclose. GSTs are particularly hard to tell, since their chrysalis is moddled and rough textured... so especially do this with them.

There were many different species flying through the yard today, my SIL came over and helped me pull some weeds and cut suckers from the tree that was cut down. It sure helped me out a lot, but some of the pics can wait 'til tomorrow. Yawwwwn!

Oh, and Chris, an Orange Sulphur was laying eggs on the cassia today..
:-S debnes

There was a male monarch and a male queen patrolling the milkweed all day today. I suppose they don't know of another milkweed patch for a long way to nectar at while waiting on the girls. Here is the cool queen, who was more interested in the Vitex, than fighting over the yard, lol.

This message was edited Sep 15, 2007 8:11 AM