DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 74

Another skipper that was enjoying the plant sale.

Back at home on the phlox, the skippers are still at it. Look how his proboscis is unfurling! Too cool!

While crawling through my neighbor's yard (literally), I found this Painted Lady. Unfortunately, as you can see it couldn't get its wings dried into their proper shape. I took it to the museum in hopes it could survive in the flight cage, but it was not to be. I crawled around looking for caterpillars, but they're hiding themselves well.

I've just read that dillweed will keep aphids away!!!! HEY!! I already have some for the butterflies, so I am going to plant it near my roses..since they are aphid magnets! So.. I am doing two things for one!!! Whoo hoo...
NOW.. I just hope the grasshoppers stay away!! I HATE them!! Since I don't use any pesticides now they can become overpopulated!!!
I have problems with grubs too..but I am hoping nature will take care of them..birds love 'em!!
I saw a Gulf Frat yesterday!!!

I made a new friend while crawling around the neighbor's yard. This is a rare, endangered Florida Gopher Tortoise. This is their mating season so they've been moving around a lot more than normal. Unfortunately, I've seen more hit by cars this year than I have in the past. I'm always really careful driving through their known habitats and I've scooped more than one out of the road over the years. This guy was munching away and I think he's sticking his tongue out at me, LOL!

I did get some nice nectar plants at the sale (and the cleome doubles as food for the Checkered White), but my main goal is always to hit the Bromeliad Guild's booth. The guy gave me a flyer and asked if I knew about the upcoming show. I said, "Oh, you mean this weekend at Selby (Gardens in Sarasota)?" He said no, they were actually competing with Selby. I felt bad, but looked at the flyer and realized the Selby show is Fri-Sun and the Tampa show is Sat-Sun. I had planned on going to Selby on Friday anyway, so I told him I'd come to the Tampa show on Saturday and that way I'd see both! Dad decided he wanted to come to Selby with me and you can expect I'll have more butterfly pictures from there to share with everyone. Sarasota is a good hour south of me (and I'm on the north side of Tampa anyway) so maybe I'll get to see some butterflies I don't normally get in this area. Let's hope anyway!

Melanie (who is money-poor and plant-rich at the moment)

We've had lots of ladybugs helping the aphid problem and I've literally washed down several plants myself, but they're really aggressive this year. I just started seeing the lubber grasshopper nymphs and I've squashed every single one I see. Those things eat my bromeliads! They'll eat anything! I mean, bromeliads have to taste like shoe leather and they have spines! What kind of crazy insect would want to eat that?

My goodness, such activity. I saw a little blue today. No pictures so I don't know what it was, but was pretty happy.

I haven't seen any Blues, but the plumbagos aren't blooming. Another reason to give them a good dose of compost...

whooo hooooo, beginning to see a few up here in Georgia. Saw the little blue one, zebra swallowtail, and ETS.

Hey Mellielong..that is some tortoise!! hahahaha.. if I saw one of those in my yard I would freak!! hahahahahahaha..just kidding..actually what a beautiful creature.
Mellielong, do you grow tropical milkweed?? I'm sure you do... I was just wondering.

I read today that soldier beetles eat grasshopper eggs!!! I wonder if I have any of these beetles in my garden!! As I could use them soon as I just know those pesky gh's are coming!! Since I don't use pesticide they just loooove to feast on my roses!!!

Hi everybody...long time since I was here. But I do lurk and read during the winter. I have had lots of Cabbage Whites and seen few sulphurs and small little blue ones around.

Today though WOO HOO!!! The first Eastern Tiger Swallowtail of the season...and of course it was a girl too!! I sure hope we have more BF's around this year since last year was so dismal here!

Sure made my day!! ^_^

WOOO HOOOOOO.... yeah nanny! I hope this means more for the rest of us too! hahaha
Good to have you back!

That's a 'purdy' one, congrats Nan.

I was just so excited to see it!! LOL

Yes, so pretty! I think that those, the RA's and the American Ladies are doing okay this year. Just wish I'd see a Monarch or two. I took a pic of this AL cat the other day and now it's pupating. I have two other AL cats also. I happened to see some cudweed plants while out hiking one day and noticed cats on them. I dug up one plant so I could raise the cat on the plant. Just turns out there were 2 more I didn't notice on that plant. Looks like I'll have to go back for more cudweed. The plant I rescued is fine, but it won't be enough.



This message was edited Apr 18, 2010 11:35 PM

And also, the Stinging Nettle plants finally paid off. I found 2 Red Admiral cats on them. Here's one of the two. And yes, I have to wear gloves when I do anything with those! But that's not so bad, since there's only two.

Very Cool! I may try monarchs again if I find cats this year, but no more BST's for me to have to over winter!

Even though this would be the year to help the monarchs, I have NOT had good luck with them. Such dilemmas.

Just spread the milkweed love and if you can go beyond that...that's extra lovin'. I wish we could have an alternative Monarch winter destination that could be totally protected against all harm. I wonder about the GST's also. Around here, they haven't been doing well the last year or so, but that may be at least partly because of weather. I still wonder if all the harmful chemicals we put onto the land and the massive development (destruction linked with human overpopulation) of natural habitats will eventually destroy butterflies...and maybe ourselves. And now we have volcanic clouds over quite a few countries...a quite natural disaster...but harmful to many creatures.

LOL I've got the milkweed love going, but as far as raising them… I feel like I"m killing them.


Here's my first BF picture of 2010. Not that I haven't tried to get others. This is the best I could do so far, a fluttery cabbage white.

Cute CW Mrs_Ed. A clear view of the tinsy lovely. I've got the Milkweed loving thing going on too. I'm adding a few more varity of the genus to the front garden this year.

My Whorled Milkweed came back and then some (seedlings)! It's a native plant, but I've yet to see a monarch actually use it. That's okay, it's pretty anyway.

I used A. curassavica and a cultivar called 'Hello yellow' I think in years past. This spring I'm adding 3 more different species. I must have collected the seedpods pretty well last year. No seedlings found so far. Those that piggy bagged into my tropical and benefitted from being in the GH, they're now making flowerbuds. Woohooo. I think I saw an American Lady today. No camera available at the moment though.

Oh, woohoo, after a harsh winter this year. My 'Maypop' are beginning to pop in the garden. Common down Gulf Frits.!!!

This beautiful Red Admiral paid me a visit while I was relaxing after a days work in the yard.

Wow, beautiful a view Cindy. Are those Lilac? Here I thought Lilacs won't do well in warm(er) climate.

Yes those are Lilacs. We have tons of them growing here. Well we are still having a small winter here. Today it is raining and about 50 miles up the road from me it is snowing, lol. We are to get rain tomorrow also and next Tuesday and Wednesday.

I love the Red Admiral's & hope to see one one day. I saw a tiny orange this afternoon...yeah! hahaha
My tropical milkweed is starting to peep through!!! I have ONE seedling of swamp milkweed coming up!! hahahaha

I found a Monarch kit online but will have to wait as it says I have to have milkweed at least 18" tall.. the one in my planter is almost there..it's doing very well. I can hardly contain myself as I really want a Monarch kit!! hahaha

I found a dead BST today downtown. It looks perfect. Is there anything I can do to preserve it?

I spotted a few yellow swallowtail butterflies up here in zone 6b yesterday. They were drinking from our azaleas.

This must be a Red Admiral year. There was 3 cats I found on Stinging Nettle and now I'm finding them on Pennsylvania Pellitory. Weird. The pellitory, which is a weed, has been here forever, never found any cats on them. This year is different somehow. The butterfly population increased due to more rain or they had to stay longer in the southern areas because the winter zapped everything...don't know! Anyway, they're here!

Cindy:

If you want to see a Red Admiral in your yard put out a rotten banana (or other spoiled fruit) right now and I can pretty much guarantee you'll draw one in. They're one of the most common butterflies on the wing right now in our area.

Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com

I saw my very first sulpher today! A Yellow Swallowtail and several other small beige butterflies with round dots on the hindwings which I don't know what kind. It was some beautiful day! I'm continue to add more plants for the garden, fennels and such.

Those gopher tortoises are big scaredy cats. Usually when they get that big they're not afraid of humans but this one was awful shy. He even growled at me! Right now is their mating season so they've been roaming a lot. Unfortunately, this means they end up in the road sometimes, and while many people are able to stop and help them cross the road, there are still many that get killed by cars each year. There are several burrows where I go to collect butterflies and caterpillars and I love when I get to see my tortoise friends as well.

I do grow the tropical milkweed. I wish I could grow some of the native stuff, but it's not commercially available and I've never recognized any in the wild. Our Monarchs overwinter this far down in Florida, and we have a great crop right now. In fact, the manager of the butterfly exhibit at the museum has been trading Monarchs to some of her contacts in order to acquire Buckeyes and Painted Ladies.

Dad and I went down to Selby Gardens for the bromeliad show and sale and there were lots of Monarchs flying around and all the caterpillars we saw on the plants were huge! Even Dad could spot them.

There were a lot of Polydamas flying around, but I only saw one clutch of eggs and no caterpillars on the pipevine. I also saw a few Sulphurs flying around, and one was laying eggs on this cassia tree that had to be thirty feet tall (probably an exotic variety). No picking eggs on that one!

The moth caterpillars are starting to take over here. We're being inundated with Tussock Moths and these orange cats that look like Gulf Frits, but are fuzzier. Both of these cats were eating my wisteria so they had to be put down! Seriously, those tussocks get all over the house, the trailer, the boat, etc. I've also seen several of these looper caterpillars. I see them from time to time, but lately there's been a lot of them. I leave them alone since they're not out of hand like the other species.

I was hunting through the pellitory again and this time I found caterpillars! Unfortunately, they weren't Red Admirals. They're some kind of moth; I looked them up in my book and they're just normal little brown guys. But I brought two inside and they've made their cocoons.

Fortunately, my boss at the museum found two Red Admiral cats on pellitory! So I still get to experience their life cycle.

The Polyphemus eggs hatched and now we have loads of caterpillars. I can't wait to see how much they've grown this week!

Here are some of the Buckeyes we traded for at the museum (it's like our version of the NFL draft which my brother is currently obsessing over). But these Buckeyes don't come from Ohio - although I think they eat as much as a football team!

Skippers hardly ever sit still with their wings open (except for the spreaded-wing kind) so I was super excited to get this picture.