That is really neat Linda, what plant was the cat on?
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 64
Great AL Linda! I haven't seen any cudweed growing wild at the ranch. I feel like raising some more ALs. Perhaps those weeds will show up closer to the fall season.
I still remember getting the scat scared out of me when I'd open up those cudweed fluffs looking for caterpillars. I found spiders way too many times!!! :o)
~ Cat
Went to the NBC (National Butterfly Park) in Mission, TX today. Got a new lifer - a Clench's Greenstreak :o) Yippee!!!
~ Cat
Gobs of Queens on the milkweed out there too.
~ Cat
I just love the turquoise antenna nubs of the Great Southern White :o)
~ Cat
Gorgeous pictures Cat!!!
Beautiful pix Cat~.
Wow, Cat - a green hairstreak and a great southern white! I don't get any green hairstreaks (junipers or otherwise) and only rarely see even a cabbage white, so those look real exotic to me.
Linda, I've read that American ladies will use artemesia, but I only find them on cudweed here - we don't have any wild artemesias, and I haven't planted any of the types you can buy at garden centers. Do you know the scientific name of the wild ones that grow at the edge of your woods? Have they ever used any of the garden varieties there?
Thanks!
Sherry
Wow both of you ladies have me drooling!! If DH could handle the heat better I would drag him down your way!!
Cool butterfly pics, Cat! For some reason, I really like the green butterflies!
I haven't ID'd that one artemisia for sure...seems like they all look so similar. The other artemisias in my back yard came from a swap and the person who gave it to me didn't know the species on it either. But I've never seen any butterfly use those. Just that one plant on the front half of the property had cats...and it's only happened twice now. So maybe I'd be better off with cudweed!
Yeah, it was uwfully hot today. Am dreading our butterfly count on July 18th and 19th!!! It's gonna be sooooooooooooo hot!!! But with the sporadic rains we've gotten lots of natives are blooming and the butterflies are picking up. Probably saw a good 30 different species today and that's not counting any skippers.
Ya'll need to remember out butterfly festival is in October - the fall season where we hope for cooler temps but don't always get them :o)
Was outside cleaning some seeds I'd harvested and stopped every now and then to walk around the yard - saw three wee Clytie Ministreaks on the blue porterweed. They use legumes - creeping mesquite is what the book says but I've never been able to see a female ovipositing on anything. Am wondering if they use plumbago - as I always see some on that back at the ranch. Of course, the place is surrounded by mesquite trees so there's no telling what they actually use out here!
~ Cat
This message was edited Jun 28, 2009 5:01 PM
What a darling little hairstreak, Cat!
Sherry
Nice HS pic! It was awfully hot today. I have not been out in it a whole lot. We have been doing a demo and remodel on a bathroom. Not any structural changes, but did tear out a 2" thick tile floor and a subfloor. But the new tile is in now and we grout in the am. Advil is my friend!
I was down at the pond adding water (no camera) but saw a BST laying eggs! The Gulf Fs are doing a number on my PV that is in the sun. One poor little Maypop that Josephine just gave me keeps having eggs laid on it. I move the cats to a blue crown that has an abundance of leaves because it is in some shade. So it's feast or famin here.
Enjoying everyone's pics during my breaks!
Baby come back !!!!
they love the plumbago !
A little butterfly love.....
Nice BF pics! I was in San Antonio today....like being in an oven this afternoon, 104°...I'm still recovering. The PVST cats, some are starting to get big...eating, eating, etc.
Two of the Spicebush ST cats pupated next to each other on the same stick.
Linda, they want to grow up together..haha...is it humid where you are? We're roasting, and it's so humid, your outside for 5 minutes and clothes are soaked. Lots of different swallowtails, gulf frits are rampant, and I've only seen one Zebra Longwing so far, no monarchs to be seen, which I really don't get cause they are usually pretty abundant. I was at a friends house over the weekend about 15 miles south of me and she had some but said not as many as usual either, at least she had some, I've had none! Not as many Sulphurs either.
Great shots my friends! I may get to go out and bf hunt with the camera tomorrow. Tile is finished in a bathroom and now we can hang fixtures etc today.
This is an old shot but talk about togetherness. They both emerged fine.
My first monarch! Keeping her in our covered studio while the rain passes today...
Beautiful monarch, aren't their colors bright and gorgeous when they emerge?
Just found this Queen cat today. It's on the porch now..on a milkweed in a pot. I found some smaller ones, but was wondering. Do the Queens develop the 3rd set of antanae
or do them come that way right from hatching. If not I finally have some monarchs too!!
Found this one ( and about 8 more today too) but only two sets of antanae, so monarch correct ?
smile for the camera
opps forgot the pic of the monarch babies.
Oh wow, the monarch and queens cats. they are more colorful than I remember them! I don't know the answer to your question. I'd like to learn too.
The Queen cats have 3 rudimentary pairs of antennae when they first hatch from the egg. It might be a little hard to see at first. So probably Queens and Monarchs both, huh?
I have one BST cat that already pupated. Then besides the younger ones, there are 3 of the 5th instars. I thought they'd never stop eating! Finally one just now dumped and is wandering around the container...not ready to settle down on the sticks yet.
This message was edited Jul 1, 2009 3:17 PM
ok, so I think I have both. I just didn't know if the Queen's didn't have their 3rd "eye" right away. So I thinik I have both which to me is great news.
i like them both and they both are much more receptive to "handling" than other BF;s cats. I love to hold them and talk to them, course everyone else thinks I'm a nut case cause I talk to them and like "pet" them.
It's beginning here,,, if we get some rain, it would help...
mjs,
Queens are born with three sets of antenna-like tubercles. The caterpillar differ slightly in color - well out here anyway. Queens tend to have either yellow or red near the base of the tubercles whereas the monarch is black.
Here's a old photo of a Queen first instar - you can barely make out the tiny dark tubercles :o) CUTE but voracious as well. Hope you have plenty of milkweed!!!
~ Cat
This message was edited Jul 1, 2009 10:02 PM
Queen 2nd instar photo - the tubercles are more visible now
~ Cat
Cat,
Yup I do have plenty of Milkweed. I was actually starting to get really frustrated cause I hadn't seen any Monarchs and only a few Queens. Guess they snuck in cause now I've got both. More Queens than Monarchs so far. I've brought the Monarchs that I found in, their pretty small still, I brought a couple Queens in but several of them were already pretty big and probably just about ready to pupate.
The Reakirt's Blue chrysalis got dark this morning - but I had to work the 6am-2pm shift so missed the emergence. Found a cute little butterfly waiting for me when I got home though :o)
Here's the chrysalis. It has a small indention near the head - have no idea how it got that - it didn't have it when it pupated. The wee butterfly emerged healthy.
~ Cat
Here's the wee one sitting on the end of a Q-tip. How many angels can dance on the head of pin that look this cute :o)
I have released the Reakirt's Blue butterfly into my back yard. I held the Q-tip near the heliotrope blooms and it crawled over and is quietly perched on the flowers. (not that a butterfly can really make much noise) :o)
~ Cat
This message was edited Jul 2, 2009 3:55 PM
Do you think it may be from the intake of the fluid in prep of emerging that created a void? Or was it that way just after it pupated?
Is that not the cutest little thing!!
This message was edited Jul 2, 2009 3:54 PM
The chrysalis had been fine up until it turned dark - I never dropped it and had it inside a smal indention in floral foam to keep it from moving around when I picked up the container. There were no signs of damage so I was thinking along the lines of it wiggling around inside the chrysalis - and as it is sort of a vacuum in there - perhaps a void as you say was created before the butterfly emerged.
~ Cat
I got to release a GST yesterday along with two cabbage whites I decided to bring in and observe.
Still busy with the remodel job. I am taking pleasure when I can.
Very nice Cat and Sheila, I have three GSTs in chrysalis now, looking forward to their eclosing.