Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY PICTURES #101, 1 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
Thanks Sheila! Dad and I were talking today about how anyone can be a hero and I was saying that mystery bicycle guy was my hero.

Today we went back to the correct preserve but I still didn't find the orchids I was looking for. I did find the Florida Butterfly Orchid (Encyclia tampensis) though so that was cool. And I took four bottles of water, had on SPF 70 and lots of bug spray with super large amounts of DEET. Dad gathered some of the sawtooth blackberries and snacked on them. So we were ready if things got desperate, LOL!

I did get some cool butterfly photos for everyone. I enjoy seeing which species live in which kind of environment: scrub, swamp, flatwoods, etc.

First up is a Duskywing. I've never seen one in the wild; they've always been in my garden. Second and third photos are of a Zebra Swallowtail caterpillar on pawpaw. There was a lot more pawpaw growing in the preserve than I would have thought. I thought it was too wet for pawpaw, but there were some drier sites where it was growing alongside the blackberries. In the spring, when the blackberries bloom, the Zebra STs are all over them.

Fourth photo is a Ceraunus Blue (I had to check my book to be sure). I get a lot of Cassius Blues at the house because I grow their host plant, plumbago, so it was neat to see a different kind of blue. You can tell the difference between them because the Ceraunus has only one spot rimmed in orange whereas the Cassius has two. Fifth photo is some kind of Hairstreak; I didn't get a look at the side so I couldn't tell. That's really weird because Hairstreaks hardly ever sit open-winged but this one was basking on Bloodroot.

Melanie