Ah...just remembered...if you plan to raise those Queens - keep the last instars away from the first instars and chrysalids. They can be cannibals. Not sure why this one starting munching on this chrysalis - but am thinking it smelled too much like milkweed????
~ Cat
Hi Mellie and Cat,
Thanks for the heads up on the white BF from Oregon. I looked in my Kaufman's guide, and its either a Checkered White, a Western White, or a Becker's White. I'd lean toward a male Becker's White, since the marking were nearly an exact match.
MJ, congrats on the Zebra eggs--if you run out of passion vine you can send some of those eggs to me.
Mark
Mark...I concur! I didn't even see the Becker's White. See what happens when to us deprived southerners who don't get those pretty little northern butterflies :o)
~ Cat
ps...don't feel too bad for me...we still get about 320 species...just no big Tiger or Zebra Swallowtails that everyone else like to gloat about :o) ...and you can bet those alpines and cold weather butterflies would never show up here where our temps are in the high 90's to over 100 most of the year!!!
Cat, I rarely see the TPS either (wish I saw them more)...I guess there are usually just one or two passing through. But this year this is the second group of cats so far. I don't think I've found the cats more than once a year up to now. It does seem like the cats should show up down there on those plants also. But I've got 5 large plants in my yard, not to mention a few very small ones which I'll dig up later. Maybe the close proximity of large plants attracts them. Oh, I forgot, one fairly large plant out by the creek also. One thing I haven't seen on them is eggs that haven't hatched yet. Seems like by the time I see the folded leaves, all the eggs have probably hatched. Wish I could spot the butterfly laying eggs sometime. I've found about a dozen cats so far this time.
Mark,
Well you'd have to take some of the Gulf Frits with it!! They are rampant here this year. Idon't even bother bringing them in.
Cat, I picked up a few containers like your stackable ones, so that I can separate them now.
Hey all, I forgot to post that my article on raising caterpillars ran today. Thanks to all of you who helped!
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2358
Super article Marna!!!
Hey everyone! This is getting long again so I started us a new thread here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1016010/
Melanie
