Going to be 76 degrees tomorrow. Shoot I should have picked up some bananas for brew!
Daily Butterfly Pictures: 85
Hah, add 10 degrees to that down here. I think I need to move up North and not playing 'snow bird' but 'sun bird'. lol
I was sitting out back there that butterfly just flew in and landed on the Silver Maple tree...couldn't believe my eyes! Saw a bumble bee today too!
Go Nanny! Spring is soon to follow.
Lily, are you saying that that is a double tail ST? Maybe a dark Tiger then?
Sheila, I'm still having difficult time to differentiate b/w Tiger- ST and Pipevines? Here is the same butterfly.
Lily....I have trouble with the Dark form TST and the BST. Here is a side by side tool that may help some.....or confuse more!
I am not positive on the pictures you posted, but in the first it sure looks like a dark form TST. All I can say with assurance is that it is not a pipevine. Dale or someone else will need to give a positive id.
The dark ones are hard. I struggle with them every year and I raise BST cats!! lol
okay, here's what I think.
Black Swallowtails have the two distinct orange dots at the bottom, whether male or female. They have a double row of spots on top side
The Black form of Tiger Swallowtail does not have the second yellow row of spots and have smaller spots orange spots on the side.
Pipevines have no spots on upper top wings.
Don't ask me about Palmedes or Polydamas!
Black Swallowtail female on left, Black Tiger Swallowtail female on right.
So anyway, I think yours, LL is another Tiger Swallowtail.
Just reporting in that I saw a butterfly yesterday. Too far away, but likely a comma or question mark. yippee.
YAY for Mrs. Ed!!
I saw a Cabbage White yesterday and one of the little blue ones...not close enough to see if it was a azure or hairstreak.
Happy for you Mrs. Ed. I've seen lots and lots of TigerSwallowtails, and at one time I saw a pair chasing one another. So hopefully there will be babies soon. lol.
We have had a few Painted Lady the last couple of days.
Also have a Sulfur, maybe Clouded?
Finally got a visitor to my platter of rotten bananas...haha.
It looks like a Carolina Satyr - haven't seen one of these in my yard before.
Can anyone confirm this one?
Russell
Nice to see those two familiar butterflies Sheila. Russell I wished I could help, but I afraid you are going have to wait for Sheila or Mrs. Ed, or Nanny to come along.
That's a beauty Russell. Did you slice up those bananas? That's nice of you. ha.
Sure looks like a Carolina Satyr, but I'm not an expert.
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Hermeuptychia-sosybius
Haha...Mrs Ed...yep I cut them up and poured some of the butterfly bait recipe on top for good measure. I got a very good deal on 10 pounds of overripe bananas and thought I would give it a try. Until today all of the visitors were flies...BIG ones..a couple of strange beetles and a few ants. Around 7:00pm this little one showed up. I am not very good at IDing these guys, but I am trying to learn. Seems that these little ones don't open their wings much, so I am getting more side profile shots than anything else. They are also pretty skittish, so I have to avoid casting shadows on them when I am stalking them for the evening photo shoots...
Love the painted lady, Sheila - very nice.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Russell
I think the sliced bananas are a nice touch, making a great background. You're doing great! Enjoy.
Dale (lepfarmer) will need to id the skippers and hairstreaks! Way too many for me to tell them apart.
Forgot to say, that is a great shot!
This message was edited Apr 13, 2011 1:54 PM
Guys, I promise I'm not seeing thing, I pulled my car into the garage as I saw a Monarch on my clematis. I rushed inside to get my camera but then it was gone. sniff sniff.
Ah, they'll be back!
Seeing lots more bfs this week...looking up here in tx.
Getting crowded at the inn...hehe. They guys/gals were competing for the same real estate yesterday evening. They seemed to be trying to "get" each other too. I have never seen caterpillars become aggressive toward each other. Pretty funny to watch. I will be looking for chrysalids today after work. It is amazing how fast the cats grow!
Russell
That does it. Next time I move, I'd move to zone 9 or higher. lol. Nice pix Russell. I've MW ready to 'house' them here, common down. lol
LL, i've never heard someone in zone 7 have zone envy! LOL. Try coming up here to zone 5! Of course, zone 3 people will think zone 5 is the tropics!
Russell, beautiful photo.
Mrs. Ed. Perhaps the reason is I came from the tropic originally. lol
Had a visit by a Bordered Patch yesterday. It is one I have a lot of host plants for but never seem to get eggs.....maybe this year!!
I love that butterfly. Wow, look at how pretty your Zinnias are!
Sheila, I haven't much luck growing Zinias in the past due to mildew problem associated with moist (high humidity) condition and shade. But, with your influence I'm going to try those lovely Zinias again for the butterflies this year. :)
Funny you should mention mildew. I was just reading about some Zinnias, as I love growing them for my butterflies and hummingbirds. i went crazy this year on the variety.
Check out this one (which I bought), especially the comments.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/179602/
Hate to deceive you ladies, so I must tell you those are still in the flat, not yet planted. I also have problems with zinnias but keep trying. I think the snails, cutworms and pill bugs do a number on mine.
Sheila, where in Ft. Worth did you get the flat of zinnias? You've convinced me I'm going to make an exception to my vow to grow everything from seed this year. I have quite a few baby zinnia plants from seed I saved two years ago but I'm wanting more early blooms for the BFs. I had two beds of the short variety two years ago and that is what first got us interested in BFs. I could not find the short zinnias for sale last year.
Got them from the place that sets up along Hulen St. at Barwick, on the west side of Hulen Mall. They were $22 per flat I believe. They always have healthy plants in flats and hanging baskets.
Nice! I rarely see flats of zinnias here.
Hah, I found some bright yellow Zinias at Wally World the other day with some Asiatic lily. They have small flat of zinnias, all orange but no brightly mix color. So I'll be keeping an eye out for 'em. Thank Marna, I'll see if I can find some of those mildew resistance kind like yours.
I think I got the fruit smoothie ones at Walmart. Seeds, that is. Let me know if you can't find them, I'll mail some off to you.
Variegated Fritilary showed up today and was really buzzing my Lantana plant. Seems like they are more active during the heat of the day than they are when I get off of work... lucky for me, I am playing hooky for the rest of the day.... :)
Russell
Thanks you Marna, I'm sure I'll find some here at local WM. Awww Russell, I love those Variegated Frits. I often see Gulf Frits around here. None so far this spring.
This is the first frit of any kind I have seen this year. They sure move around a lot...I had to chase this one down..hehe. I generally see more gulf frits than variegated, so this one was nice to see. I also caught a glimpse of a pipevine swallowtail on my red oleander of all things...no camera for that one, but I will be on the lookout for his return. The hairstreaks are visiting very frequently now, but they are so small, it is hard to get a good picture without a macro zoom lens...don't have the cash for that right now, so I need to focus on the larger specimens!
Russell