Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 38, 1 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
Mom was on Polydamas duty today and got to see one gut purge. "Right while I was eating breakfast; it was so disgusting!", she exclaimed. Then, she got mad at one when it knocked another caterpillar down from his sling. The Poly cats have a real problem with trying to share silk and crawling on top of the cats that are trying to pupate. I'm separating them and I have one critter keeper that I'm calling the "chrysalis box". I had it at work today and my manger's secretary came over to check on them and said she wanted to see when they come out. Any day now...

While I was weeding there was a crazy Polydamas flying around me and nectaring on the plumbagos. Mom says the Zebra Longwing comes every morning to the porterweed and that it even chases off other butterflies and the hummingbirds when they get near! Here's a picture of one of my resident duskywings, also on the porterweed (of course).

FYI, I was picking caterpillars off the plants in the flight cage at MOSI this weekend so I could bring them inside to the tanks. There were some kids (and adults acting like kids) so I let them hold the cats under my supervision. They were so cute - the kids and the cats! One of the girls said the Monarch cat felt like it had "little velvet feet". I also had a sulphur cat and there was an older lady who took pictures of my hand with the caterpillars on it! It's so fun sharing butterfly knowledge. There was a dad asking about how big the cats get and how they're "born". We happened to have some eggs on the milkweed so I showed him and he couldn't believe how small they were. I also got a thumbs up from a young boy who was happy to hear I relocated a Cuban anole (lizard) rather than kill it (it was in the flight cage). His mom asked, "What do the lizards eat?" I responded, "Butterflies", LOL!

Melanie