Daily Butterfly Pictures Page 82

The whole garden would be a smogasborg for lizards or birds I bet.

[quote="Sheila_FW"]I bet it was Josephine! All of those Frostweeds and Mistflowers are doing their magic. You may not have enough MW there for all the cats you will get!

Sheila,
Was this in reply to my question about the butterfly I saw? It was on my zinnia. I don't have any Frostweeds or Mistflowers. Will have to look those up.

Thanks!
Patti

Hadn't noted any since September, to my surprise last night...

Well I got to tour the lepfarmer's butterfly farm today and it was a great outing! Wonderful plants everywhere you looked. I took pictures but then we stopped back at Frostweeds house and I left my camera there! I will get it back at RU tomorrow; then share some pictures.

We must be in the line of these lovely's migration. They were all over my zinnia's all day today, and flitting around the yard. They are soooo pretty. Some were a deep orange and others a brown-ish orange. I'm not sure what they are, but lovely whether wings are open or closed.

Another one......

One more.... they were just sooooo pretty!!!!! They really liked the orange flowers the best. Some on the red, yellows and whites, but mostly orange.

Crit:

Those are Gulf Fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae). A real beauty....and wonderful phtoos. What type of zinnias are those. They look fantastic!

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

Nice frits crit.
Hummingbird Moth tonight -

I don't know what type of zinnia they are. Just packaged zinnia I got at Wal-mart and have been saving seeds from them and replanting for years. I think some of them have crossed because of the colors I have now. Not your solid colors.

I just love the Frits! ! ! ! ! They are so pretty!

Gulf Frit. on Mex. Sunflower. We have tons of them out at the Butterfly Garden.. Plant plenty of Passion Vine if you want them stay around.

I love the Gulf Fritillaries !!! They are here all of the time. I've got the zinnias and the Mexican Sunflowers which they love especially the orange ones. I also have the passionvines and they specially like the caerulea and the Lady Margaret. Those caterpillars much away like little paper shredders.

The ones here seem to be partial to the orange zinnia's.

Have 1 passionvine start, and am trying to get more. I have lots of places to put them. Want a variety of colors!

I want some Gulf Fritillaries! LOL.

Agree how pretty those Zinnias are! I saved some Zowie Yellow from last year. A couple plants came up right, but one came up as red and the other had NO petals. Weird.

that is odd. I always save seed off my zinnia's for the following year. I would be glad to share if someone would like some. I have to warn you, my seeds *will* have petals and chaff in them. I have arthritis in my thumbs and am not able to pick out the unwanted stuff. I just plant mine chaff, petals and all. :-))

I've been lurking, but am so excited, I can lurk no longer.
The b.flys are back! At least where I live. I was lucky enough to get this photo of what I thought was a Monarch, but DH says is a Painted Lady? Just happy to get a decent photo of it resting on the honeysuckle hedge. : - )
Love all your beauties!
Walk In Beauty!
SingingWolf

Jules...saw your painted lady picture on the memory thread, that is what you have....
Repost here please.

Drat! I really hate it when DH is right! : - p
Thanks Sheila, I'll go back and edit the entry to show it, and GF, thanks for always having my back! I was so tired I guess I forgot to actually post the photo! Laugh is on me. LOL : - )
This is the Painted Lady B.fly I should have posted before. Okay, all better now.
WIB,
SW

ooo, Crit, I'd be glad to take some seeds off your hands. I can send you some of my Zowie if you want, or postage.

My asters are in full bloom and I just saw a skipper on them (no camera), other than that, pretty slim pickens.

I would be glad to send you some zinnia Mrs_Ed. I'm still gathering heads as I have been giving quite a few away. My neighbor has my stash right now but I should be getting it back soon. I want to be sure you get a good mix, so if you don't mind waiting, I'll send them as soon as I know I have all the colors in there.

I would be glad to trade for any seeds you have available. Zowie sounds great

Singing Wolf:

That's actually a West Coast Lady (Vanessa annabella), a "close relative" to the Painted Lady as both are in the same genus. That squared off forewing is one of the tip-offs.

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

LOL!! Guess me and your DH were wrong. I didn't remember to consider where you live.
Thanks for the positive id Dale, I remember someone posting a Vanessa a while back.

Dale.... Btw we enjoyed the tour so much! I have been busy with the yard and watching the Rangers play and didn't yet post pictures. I may get that done tomorrow and start a new thread when I do.

That'd be great Sheila. If you don't mind, I might get you to send me a couple to put on the DCLS website. I only got a couple of shots as I was too busy walking around talking to people to snap many pics.

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

Okay, Lepfarmer, you the smart one. : - )
Thanks for the proper ID. Now I need to go back and edit Dads Memory page again. LOL!
I have a whole bunch of photos I took yesterday of the West Coast Lady (Vanessa annabella). I guess I should start a thread showing off some of their antics. When and if I get the time!
I did want to share one I've been hoping to get a photo of for a long time. It was on my bucket list. Now I have to find something else to stick in the bucket! LOL! : - )
DH said you can't see the blue because of the position of the b.fly's wings but this is the elusive Buckwheat Blue B.fly. Since it rained last week, the Buckwheat started blooming again. I was walking down to the mailbox yesterday when I saw this one. Even better I was wearing the camera. : - )
Have two decent photos, cropped because it's a wee b.fly.
First one.

Question, how can I enter this photo into the DG database? I have some problems figuring stuff out, since the car accident.
Second photo of Buckwheat Blue. : - )
Oh, and Sheila I can show DH he was not right, but close! LOL! : - )
WIB!
SW

SingWolf:

Not all your "ladies" are necessarily West Coast Ladies -- you could also get American Lady and Painted Lady. You're lucky that you get all three in your area.

Your "Buckwheat Blue" isn't. It's a Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus).

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

I'm just lurking now, no butterflies. I have to ask, what's a Buckwheat Blue butterfly? I did a search, I'm not in CA, I don't get the same butterflies, but I came up empty. What is it?

Was out in the backyard this afternoon clipping fresh guava leaves for the Guava Skippers I'm raising and saw a small dark butterfly flit to the underside of a leaf. Got a closer look and was pleasantly surprised to find a Red Bordered Pixie!!!

I'd seen a couple earlier in the year but don't have their larval host growing in my yard. Well, what a coincidence - yesterday when I was purchasing a Black Willow from Waugh's Nursery down the road from me I saw they had Guamuchil trees in stock.

Seeing that Red Bordered Pixie this afternoon just made me hop back into my car and drive down the road once again to Waugh's Nursery to buy one of those Guamuchil Trees!!! I set it down near where that butterfly is roosting. Am hoping it is a gravid female and she will make use of the new tree!!!

~ Cat

ps...our area will be having the fall butterfly count on October 27th - if anyone will be visiting deep south Texas ya'll can join in!!! NABA's biennial meeting will be the 28th here as well.


This message was edited Oct 13, 2010 6:50 PM

terryr,
Buckwheat Blue may be a name DH made up for it, but it is what the local beekeepers call it.
lepfarmer,
I admit my ignorance. I appreciate your patience. I was injured in a car accident which did cause me to have some brain injury. I used to have a great memory, now I forget what happened yesterday, unless I see photos. Things are very slowly getting better, and the brain is far more complex than I ever imagined. So your patience and tolerance is greatly appreciated.
It's frustrating for me to have gone faster than light and now I'm down to the speed of sound.
But hey, I'm getting some halfway decent photos of B.flys which has always been something I've wanted to do. : - )
I need to start keeping a list of the various kinds I actually see here. I'm bookmarking the B.fly link so maybe I won't be such a pain. Thanks for sharing it lepfarmer. : - )
~Cat, I just adore your photo of the Red Bordered Pixie. : - )
WIB~
SW

Nice on the Pixie Cat! Danny told me he had one the other day too!


Terry, buckwheat blues are a group of butterflies out west, not a single species. There is a section on them in your Kauffman's guide.

Very cool BF Cat.

Dale, your fimbriata seeds went out today...Enjoy!

Wow ... this is what I just found amid my parsley here in upper Middle Tennessee on 10/14/2010 at 2 pm! Can you see them???

... and their two fine fat siblings!

Nice! Late babies. Guess those would be your spring butterflies

This is my second bunch of BS cats on this parsley, first was in May or June on the same flat-leaf parsley plant except it was smaller then. Guess they really like that particular plant for egg laying. Hopefully the weather will be mild enough for awhile to get them grown and on their way without freezing. I was astonished to find them.

They will make their chrysalis before bad weather sets in and over-winter there. They will emerge as adults in the spring.

That's good news. I had thought perhaps they would make it to adulthood soon and be on their way. Will they make the chrysalis where they are or ?

BST cats usually crawl off and use a solid structure or plant. I have had them in lot of different areas. If you want to know where they are, then cage and feed them; just keep them in the outside environment. When they make their chrysalis you can leave them in the cage, or pin them up on a fence where they get the morning sun and semi sheltered from hard rains that might disloge them.