I am not sure either...maybe the BF guy will be able to decipher what it is. Not the great est photo to work from either.
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 75
I'm leaning toward Pipevine, myself. A female Tiger would be much larger and the Spicebush has more and larger white spots going up the wings. Plus, on the Spicebush I think we would have seen a bit of the blue-green color at the bottom of the wings even given the angle of the photo. Based on the way the small white dots go up (but not all the way up) the sides of the wings it sure looks like a Pipevine to me.
Rounded up six Monarch cats today. The duskywings were having a conference outside Mom's window; there must have been six or seven. It rained a lot yesterday and today (yea!) so I guess everyone was out to get something to eat while it was dry. Also saw a Gulf Frit, Phaeon Crescent, and a Sulphur. Transplanted four Gulf Frit cats to the larger passion vine. Two woolybears spotted - one on said passion vine, the other on milkweed. Oh, and some lubber grasshoppers met the bottom of my new sneakers!
Melanie
"...and some lubber grasshoppers met the bottom of my new sneakers!" lol Mel.
This pic is from another year, but I'm seeing tons of these cats this year. Eight-spotted Forester Moth...I see them on the wild grapevines and crawling around all over. Either they've run out of food and they're looking for more or...this is a massive pre-pupation dispersal. Lots of the wild grapevines have been stripped. I relocated some cats to other vines in case they were still wanting food.
Busy day! Mom released the Zebra ST that was in the chrysalis I found (!) on the neighbor's property. I have three tanks of Zebra ST cats separated by size and I had to go pick more food for them this evening. Found six more Monarch cats in the yard. Painted Lady emerged and promptly flew away.
Darn lubber grasshoppers have been nibbling on the milkweed! I swear, they'll eat anything! I thought nothing could be weirder than them eating my bromeliads; they're tough like shoe leather and have spines for goodness sake! Why would anything eat that? Nothing else even thinks about eating my bromeliads! I don't think they can eat too much of the milkweed because I see where it looks nibbled around the edges but not eaten (and not like how a caterpillar would chew it). Squished about five more today with my aforementioned new sneakers, LOL!
Spotted today: Zebra ST (probably the one Mom let go), Giant ST (no eggs, booo!), Phaeon Crescent (lots of these guys around lately), duskywings, and Gulf Frit. Had to transport more Frit cats to the larger passion vine. They finally laid eggs on that one so now it will be inundated with cats. Even saw one on my p. lutea; the Zebra Longwings generally go for that one. Mom says the Frit is out there every day egg-bombing my passion vine. I'm also seeing lots of Wooly Bear cats. Usually I see one or two over the course of a season but I've seen about five in the last week. At least the tussock moth cats have disappeared. But I still have that lubber grasshopper problem...
Melanie
Sounds like it is really here.lots of great pics. I still have tons of work in the garden. The GF have worn 3 vines to the ground. Peacocks are starting to show up. The hyssop grows crazy along the canals here.
Hey, I just noticed the bug of the day is that neat beetle with the eyespots I saw a few days ago. http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/78/
The comments say it eats wood boring insects which makes sense because it was near the garage where Dad does his woodturning. I've told Dad this is a "good bug" and to leave it alone if he sees another one. You should see the wood worms that came out of some of the wood he was turning. He had a face shield on like a welder's mask and he looked like the front of my car in lovebug season (they come flying out when he spins the wood on his lathe). Which reminds me, it's lovebug season right now. They haven't been too bad but we just got a lot of rain so that could change. Today I was looking for cats and I kept finding lovebugs instead. Very annoying!
Melanie
Nanny:
It's a female Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor).
Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com
Thanks Dale!
My regional guy has not gotten back to me yet.
Dale, here are a couple of pics from the FW Bot. Garden I got of you releasing.
and another
Two pics from the butterfly exhibit where Dale supplied the chrysalis Scarlet Mormon mating
And then my now most favorite butterfly~~~~~~~~~~~Emerald Swallowtail
Those are most beautiful pics. Thanks Dat.12
Wow...how cool!
I am hoping to hear from the Indiana Regional Guy...there have been no reports made of pipevine here in Putnam County.
I have this huge giant thing hanging around my lemon mint (which are also huge and giant). From looking at photos on the web, I think it's a Snowberry Clearwing (because of the bumblebee-ish yellow and black bands). But lemon mint isn't one of the nectar plants I see listed for any of the hummingbird moths. Does that suggest any different species to yall? Or it's just taking advantage of what food is at hand?
One thing that is distinctive, other than the hugeness, is that when it sips at a flower, it shakes it at the end, as if it's shaking out the last drop. I don't think I've noticed this with other insects, although maybe it's just because this thing is so big that it shakes the whole top of the plant.
(It won't hold still long enough for a photo. It took me two days of following it around the yard to get enough of a good look to guess at an ID.)
Thanks!
Battered and torn Red Admiral.
I HAVE A RED ADMIRAL!! WOO HOO!! hahahaha... I have a few of them actually!! it's funny though, I happen to have an ash tree with some of it's leaves infected by something. They look like aphids as they are tiny & white. The leaves are curled up with white sticky stuff in it & the RA loves it! I also have a lot of lady bugs in this area which is why I am thinking aphids.
These RA are my first .. never had them in my yard, & I have rotten fruit out, only the RA's are on the other side of the house! hahaha.. I am sure they have found the fruit though!! I had to move the dish of fruit though, & I think it is working out better.
I have a few other smaller bf's, which are the norm. I think I also saw a Gulf Frat the other day too!! yippee!! hahaha
Sheila... you have babies?? (BF"s that is!!)... my dill isn't big enough yet!! I certainly am envious of you all with your bf's!! hahahaha... but my butterfly bush is in bloom so I am hopeful!! I just hope my neighbor doesn't use pesticides for her plants..her yard is right next door, with not much in between!!
I am way behind with everyone & I miss you but I am off to an Emmaus walk this weekend starting tomorrow night & return Sunday evening!
Hope to catch up with y'all next week!! Have a good weekend & I look forward to all the updates then!!
Realbirdlady, hope someone will help I.D. your mystery caterpillar on the mints. Cindy, have a good trip, and hurry back. More BFs flitting around but none stay long enough for pic. ops.
I spotted a georgeous newly emerged Monarch yesterday as I was admiring my Oak Leaf Hydrangea blooms. It stopped just for a moment to nectar there, then I lost site. No camera of course. I have seen Pipevine STs but so far not found eggs. I have not seen but one Gulf Fritillary which is strange because I have the evergreen passi and usually have an abundance of them. I have a couple of Giant ST cats, 3 Black ST, and at least six Varigated Frits found on pansies.
We are having flea problems due to the drainage issues that my yard has. Rain water from all the yards on my block flow into a storm drain that is just outside my fence. I am trying to only treat the grassy area and use organics. We are also going to try the cedar mulch around the perimeter and under the deck.
Cindy....You might ask that she sprays low so it doesn't mist over on your side. I had the same problem and had to move my host plants away from that neighbors fence.
Melanie....love the Julia and Buckeyes.
Sheila, did you really think you would get away without a pic of you at the Butterfly Exhibit? LOL
Here's my garden report......I have seen Black Swallowtails which laid eggs all over the dill and parsley from last year. Red Admirals, cabbage white, Question Marks and Hackberry Emperors. I still don't see any Pipevines though, I had none last year either. When I asked Dale Clark he said it was not a good year for them (meaning last year)
I had one black swallowtail emerge from its refridgerated storage from the fall.
Sheila, I am waiting for the chance to talk with her but am not able to "catch" her.. we don't have a fence between us & the other night as I was coming home I saw her with the Round up! By the time I got out she was gone inside! We don't have a bad relationship, it's just she doesn't kow anything about gardening & I have tried approaching her on other occasions & she just gives me the brush off.
I don't like impromptu visits as that usually comes across as being unkind so I just hope she was doing that one plant!! When I do get the chance I will let her know that by her spraying RU she could kill the hummingbirds... as she likes them..I don't think she cares about the butterflies, as I mentioned to her last year about my butterfly bush/garden & that's when she gave me the brush off!
Now that I think of it, maybe that's why I haven't been getting hummers.... I wish I could write her a letter to tell her so! hahaha
By the way...love the photo of you at the FWBG.... now that we've met in person :0) I will recognize you if I went again.... that's if they have it again.
cindylove.............. Timing and Presentation is everything....there will come a time when you feel it is right to educate her. If find that most people just don't realize what they are doing. Hang in there and tell her when the time is right.
Peg....you could have cropped out that profile! LOL! I loved working there this year, not sure just how many hours I got in, but it was a bunch!
Cindy....Maybe if you have a flame acanthus, monarda or some other plant that hummers love; offer it as a gift for her. As you talk about that plant, discuss your bfs, and how fragile they and the hummers are when pesticides are used.
Oh and the butterflies in the garden at FWBG comes every two years, hopefully they don't cut it from the City budget. Hopefully it will be funded by Bot. Gdn Society if so.
Hi guys,
I haven't posted in a while but thought I'd share this Pipevine Swallowtail cat...
They've been laying eggs on both the A. elegans ( calico) and the A. trilobata ( dutchman's), haven't bothered with my white veined, but that may be because they have enough of the others.
Sheila, great idea for handling Cindylov's neighbor.
Peg -- thanks for posting the pictures from the exhibit. One point of clarification -- I didn't supply the pupae but ordered them from various suppliers around the world. I did bring in a few local species, though. It was a lot of fun and certainly couldn't have been accomplished without the volunteers. We had over 43,000 people in March so we're planning on doing it again in 2012. We're having a meeting about it on Thursday, in fact. Sheila, I know at one time you were leading the pack on putting in the most volunteer hours. Many thanks!
Remember, local people, mark your calendars to come tour my butterfly farm, Butterflies Unlimited on August 7th. Consider this an open invitation to anyone in the area (southern Dallas County, Texas).
Dale
Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com
Adding it to my calendar now, thanks Dale.
Wow...a butterfly farm!
I so wished I lived closer!
We'll post some pictures, Lily. That is if I can remember to take some. I'm usually running around so much that I forget to do that. Sheila, Peg, Josephine, remind me to take pictures (or better yet, bring your cameras).
Dale
Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com
Thank you Dale, Sheila, Peg, Josephine please remember to remind Dale of his camera, and don't forget yours. ^_^
Trust me....if I go this year DH will be there too and both of us will have cameras!
I am not missing it this year as I did last year.
I don't plan on missing it either Peg!
hi everyone! beautiful weekend here. Still getting everything put together in the garden. Its hard when you work for 15 minutes and have to sit in the shade for 30 minutes.Slowly but surely I keep tellin myself. Got a few nice pics. Here is one of a me taking a shade break.
Here is a nice one of the Giant.
Here is another.
Viceroy, now that's a pretty Viceroy, Viceroy. ^_^ How hot was it there in the Sunny State yesterday? It was above 90F. here I forgot taking my break, but drank alot of water and sat under the water misting every so often to cool down. I've never seen a Giant in person. That's pretty.
If it wasn't that hot here yesterday then I wasn't sweatin. It sure felt like it. There were two giants chasing each other around most of the day. But it's hard to take good pics when your sweatin like a pig. The lens gets all foggy.