I found another tiny BST cat this morning on our walk. so I have 4 now. I think we keep our house to cool so I am starting to put them out during the day now. I don't want to have any to overwinter like last years late one.
Bad shot...saw this fillting in the back yard yesterday.
Hey Elaine, I wish I had thought to look up some DG people to visit. We may get out that way again next year. We have family in Atlanta and Lawrenceville.
Anyone coming this way, that would like to stop in and say hi, please dmail me your plans. I would love to meet you. I plan on making it to S TX in the fall this year God willing DH or I don't have surgery again! The last three years either he or I have had back surgeries. We could have some nice vacations if it weren't for buying the neuro surgeon a new boat, etc!
I spotted this one in the bamboo early this morning.
I had lots BF's around today while I was working in the today!! So nice to see even if I didn't get pics. Had monarchs & BST and a Fritillary(sp?) not sure which one.
Did get a couple of Buckeye's! On the echinacea...
and on the marigolds...
My largest BST cat gut purged this morning!! He is on his stick now.
Tonight I caught my next biggest shedding...sooo cool!!!
This was feaky...like its face fell off!
Love those Buckeyes! And unless we start getting some rain, those Agalinis plants won't come up and I'll have no Buckeye cats!
This message was edited Aug 19, 2009 10:59 PM
wow Nanny, pretty cool.
I’m quickly running out of new butterfly photo ops in my yard so I will need to travel to our regional public butterfly garden where hopefully I’ll see some far less commonplace than what I am posting.
Is this a so-called “BST” ?
No it isn't a BST, it appears to be a Pipevine ST.
Look at this link and compare the photos at the bottom of each side by selecting the butterflies you want to compare.
http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabambc/frames-0species.asp
I posted a tough angle for an easy ID. I’ll look for a better POV later.
Thanks.
GD
You said:
it appears to be a Pipevine ST.
It's a female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. You can see the faint dark stripes on your first photo.
~ Cat
This message was edited Aug 20, 2009 12:08 PM
Thanks a million, TexasPuddyPrint,
It looks like you could be helpful as a teacher as I try to learn some of the complexities of Butterfly ID. As a newbie observer, I am fascinated by the intricacies in how they interact with each other. This includes many familiar displays I’ve seen elsewhere in Nature such as ritualized combat. Who would have thought that?
This might be my last post until I get back from the big regional Butterfly Gardens. You are obviously skilled at Butterfly ID. Being able to tell the boys from the girls is impressive. Later, I hope to have one on my memory card that will test that skill level and give you a satisfying challenge.
Thanks again,
GD
GD,
Don't give me too much credit - I still carry around a copy of the Kaufman Guide: Butterflies of North America :o)
Sounds like you could be more fascinated by raising and releasing butterflies :o) We'll surely have you hooked in short time!!! We will all look forward to new butterflies photos.
~ Cat
Since I stopped raising monarch cats, I have some cute photo ops. However… I was *just* a bit to close for focusing.
awww...cute!!!!
Okay...I think this is a fritillary...but which one?????
Hackberry Emperor???
Cut it out nanny! No fair getting more than me!
Do you have some brew out?
My bad GoldenD.... Thanks to TPP for getting you on the right track. I haven't seen a Dark form of the TST and forgot about it. I really didn't take time to look at the picture. I have my 4 year old GNephew for two nights and am not getting much computer time!!! Enjoying it though. Later.
Yeah Nanny...stop showing off :o) hee hee!!! Am glad at least you are seeing butterflies. Nary a one out here...it's been soooooooooooooooo hot!!!
The last one is a hackberry - notice the forewing inncer cell bar - if it's broken (hence hacked) it's a hackberry :o) The one before that looks like some type of emperor as well not a frit. I could be wrong - could be another hackberry but hard for me to tell at that angle. Do you get Tawny emperors there?
~ Cat
This message was edited Aug 21, 2009 7:52 AM
No brew exactly but I do have the tomatoes that were no good all in one area rotting. Mrs. Ed, all is fair in love, hummers & butterflies!! LOL
I had looked at the Tawny Emperor last night on the link where you can compare..and it did not look the same...BUT I just checkd the map for my area and we do get them and the pics looks exacly the same. Thanks Cat!
My BST made its chrysalis last night...counting the days!!
Some how Wednesday night a tree frog got into the house. DH found it yesterday morning. So here he was trying to catch this frog first thing in the morning... before the dog sees it too!! When he got home he said I can have all the caterpillars I want, but he was drawing the line at toads & frogs running loose in the house! LOL
This message was edited Aug 21, 2009 9:12 AM
ha. Ribbett. NICE zoo you have going there.
Alright, I have a 7 year old nephew coming to stay for the weekend. We are going butterfly hunting, so I expect the list to be LONG about what we saw.
I've been a little distracted lately because I bought a new camera! I'm still trying to figure it out. It's a Sony Cybershot DSC-H20. I forget who just bought one here on the forum but when I saw the pictures and then read the reviews online, I knew this was the camera for me. I'm going to take it to the museum tomorrow and test it out some more. I haven't taken any pictures outside yet since I've been working all week and then it rains in the evenings.
Here's a picture of my Tiger ST cat. He's the biggest one and he molted last night. This was a few hours before he molted.
Melanie
Excellent shot, Melanie, with your new camera. Very detailed.
Take lots of photos and share, share, share. :-)
congrats on the new camera Mellie. That's so exciting :-)
Well, I'm still trying out my camera and getting used to it. I wanted to take some pictures outside at the museum, but as soon as I started it began raining! I came home and got a few shots, but now it's dark outside and I'm sure more rain is on the way.
For now, I'll start with some caterpillar shots. Here's my Zebra Longwing.
I found a new friend in the garden this afternoon! This is a Tersa Sphinx Moth for those who don't know. The like to eat pentas; luckily, my pentas are big enough I don't really notice the leaves being eaten. Plus, I have about four plants next to each other so I suppose they could eat a little of each.
My parsley piggies are still munching away.
Had a White Peacock in the yard today. No hits on the bacopa yet, but it's so small it wouldn't support a cat anyway.
And finally, this has been a great year for Sleepy Oranges. I've seen so many all summer long. We've had them at the museum and I've raised them at my house. Mom and I were in my vegetable garden the other day and one came flying up from my plants. Mom liked the black that lines the top of the forewings. I like having pollinators at my beck and call, LOL!
Melanie
Beauty on my Vinca.
Question here.......I have the one BST that made its chrysalis last week. I now have a second that will be ready to do it this week maybe. Can I put it in with the first one or will they eat/ damage the chrysalis??
GP, hang on to that pic for the photo contest. It's fabulous!
Nan, you can generally put them in there without a problem. The only time I've ever seen one eat another chrysalis is when they had absolutely no food left. The Polydamas did that at the museum a few weeks ago and I posted to our message board that all volunteers should stuff the critters so full of pipevine they look like they're going to pop. You can't overfeed the little suckers, and I never wanted to see (or clean up) that kind of thing again.
The biggest problem I have is that the cats tend to like to crawl on the chrysalises. Some species are worse about this than others. Actually, the Polys do this a lot. They're such troublesome cats! I've had them knock chrysalises down from where they hang due to all the crawling, but generally the chrysalis will wiggle around and the cat eventually gets the message and scoots along.
Melanie
Thanks, Melanie. Do you happen to know what type mine is?
Gardenpom...looks like a male Delaware Skipper to me...but don't hold me to that. We don't get those down here in south Texas.
~ Cat
This message was edited Aug 23, 2009 7:45 PM
I think you are right, Cat...thanks.
I'm not sure which thread we're supposed to post on, but here is mine for today. I believe it is a Viceroy.
Barb
