Daily butterfly pictures #89

Crit:

Yes, that's an Imperial Moth. A real beauty.

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

Monarch

Cabbage White

Hummer

TigerST female on my Joe Pye.

Male monarch on swamp milkweed

PS, I know it's male because of the other pictures that didn't come out so well

Thanks Dale

Viceroy caterpillar on Cottonwood.

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

That's one awesome 'warrior' there Dale. grin~

Whoa. Cool.

Thanks to Dale, I know know this is a male TST. (right Lily?)

If I'm wrong I'm going back to the bird watching forum!

the drought is easing up around here

not to steal Lily's thunder, but yah, that's a male TST. Your swamp milkweed is looking good. mine has aphids this year. first time ever.

I haven't seen any aphids this year, last year all the plants were covered.

At the end of the year we cut them all to ground level, and threw all the plants on a bonfire--it was a messy job but I think it worked.

ah. good plan. I have to do that with all my iris anyway to get rid of borers. And I'm moving this plant this fall too.

Whoa! BCH, I'm flattered that you asked. lol. Thank Marna for coming to the rescue. lol There is no thunder to be stolen here, only lightning. lol Just kidding. Love that swamp MW, how come mine never blooms? I've that thing over two years. Not enough sunlight maybe? sniff, sniff ~~

we don't do anything special w/ the swamp milkweed plants--but they do get lots of sun--also they get a lot of pruning as we harvst them for the monarchs we raise.

Red Spotted Purple on Black Knight

Monarch on Black Knight

TST (female) on Black Knight--everyone loves this plant

Nice BCH! Love that purple color. I have a "fourth of july" variety of the butterfly bush and one part of it looks a lot like the black night you have pictured here. The other two parts are kind of a light pink and white. I don't know if this is a graph or actually 3 different plants growing in the same pot. The blooms fade fairly quickly on mine in the heat, but they are reliable bloomers. I guess we don't get TST here in South Texas...I have never seen one of those here. Nice pics.

Russell

Thanks Russell, here is one of the TST black form

Yep, just looked up fourth of july, and it is a combination of three types

What a place for a question mark to decide to sit still for a pix.

LOL, Marna, good catch!

That's funny.

I've been seeing a buckeye, could be 2 or 3, flying around the last couple of days, but that is all. Really slim on the b'flies here this year. :-(

ur welcome, but i was half serious!

Butterflies must be heading south because I have lots of Monarchs all of a sudden. Released three last week, found a chrysalis by the garage door (it's in the house now), saw one flying around, and have eggs on my plants. Here's the chrysalis I found. The caterpillar must have wandered 8-10 feet to pupate on some grass (yeah, I need to weed, BADLY).

Also raising Eastern Black Swallowtails. Two of them just gut purged and I had this nice conversation on Facebook with my brother:

Melanie Long
The caterpillars (Black Swallowtails) have started gut purging. Too bad Adrian's not around to enjoy it. Don't worry, I won't post pictures, LOL!

Adrian Long It's not a gut purge. It's X-treme vomiting. Let's call it what it really is.

Melanie Long But it comes out the back end so it's more like extreme diarrhea.

Adrian Long Ew. Just eewwwwwww. It's hard to tell one end from the other, except for the horns.

Melanie Long That's to trick you into attacking the wrong end. They're sneaky caterpillars.


You see, last year I had a Giant Swallowtail gut purge just as my brother was walking by the couch. He's always pranking me and the parents so when he totally flipped out at my caterpillar we all died laughing. He thought it was just sooo disgusting. That was my favorite caterpillar EVER!!

I also brought in a couple of Orange-Barred Sulphur cats today but Mom says I missed the really big one. I said it was too hot to hunt for him right then. Maybe tomorrow. Saw flying in the yard a Gulf Frit, Monarch, and Cloudless Sulphur. Oh, and the Horace's Duskywings are around because I haven't weeded and have Bidens spp. coming out my ears. Cassius Blues continue to live on the plumbagos. Frits have completely eaten my passiflora "Lavender Lady". I keep moving them to the p. caerulea and so does Mom. They seem to have a taste for the pricier plant. Found a couple of empty chrysalises, too so they must be doing well.

Here's a pic of the Eastern Black ST cat from a couple of days ago. How quickly they grow!

Melanie

Oh, forgot to mention the hummingbird is back so we put out the feeder. But it keeps being spotted near my combination of Salvia "Black and Blue" and Firebush so I think it's feeding on those.

Enjoyed looking at all the pics! I rescued a buckeye that got caught in the little ant moat on the hummingbird feeder Friday. I hoped it survived! Seeing lots of butterflies now as I drive thru by the farm fields everyday, so that is nice! Saw this one as I watered the plants a little Friday evening so I ran in and got the camera...just so few have been around!

I'm still lurking, and learning the names of the butterflies. Some I've never seen here.
The Polyphemus Moth cats are making cocoons now. I'm wondering if they will overwinter in their cocoons, or emerges for another generation.
I have read, they can have two cycles a year. I'm wondering if, they might eclose a second time in my zone?

So far, I have eleven cocoons, and 25 more to go. This one is my first cocoon .

I found 3 Skipper cats, One has wrap himself in paper towel, to pupate, one died, and the other, I found a few days ago. It looks ready for the pupate stage. I also found a large caterpillar, turn out to be a Sawfly. All were found in my Birch tree.

This is the Sawfly worm. I didn't save that one, after I found out what it was. I think it became lunch, to a bird.
So now it must be obvious, that I'm a newbie to butterflies :)

finally found a BST cat in our parsley

BCH, 4th or even 5th instar on yours? Bernadette, the Sawfly worm is interesting looking. But most of all, I'm at awe with that Polyphemus cocoon. Good job! Muhuaaahahahaha, with you Melanie about your 'conversation' with Adrian your brother. lol.

A few happy BST cats (5th instars and smallers) awaiting for supper. lol

It's Black Swallowtails all around! These two decided to cohabitate in their slings.

And I found another Orange Barred Sulphur on the cassia.

I took this picture last year. This year we have a major shortage of butterflies here :(