Daily pictures #96

If you are saying it slipped out of the harness or it broke, then take a narrow strip of paper towel and make a pocket. Put it LOOSELY around it by gluing on either side to hold it at the correct position. If it is bent and lifeless, with the process not complete, it may have be parasitized. I would then put it in a separate cage to trap and kill the wasp or fly.

Thanks you ladies for the info, it had just started to spin it's silk and I bumped the enclosure while cleaning and he dropped, so he is still pretty green.

Monarch on one of my coneflowers. There are several flying around today: hopefully they are leaving eggs!

These two just eclosed this morning.

Wonderful pics. there Bruce. Love to see those Monarchs.

Gorgeous photos! I'm so impressed with all of you that are raising BF.

Sorry about the lack of activity Marna. I can definitely vouch for the drought. You're West of me and we've also been super hot and dry this year. Much, much worse than normal. Of course our water restrictions make it worse. We finally had a decent thunderstorm a few days ago and I think the rainbarrel is full, but that won't last long.

Hope everything works out with the cat, Viceroy.

Got myself a Yellow Tiger ST today. Others are various instars of my BSTs cats. in captivity after I refreshed their munchies.

Let's me try the pics. of the various instars again. The parsley was replacing the worn out dills for their diet.

Bruce....Looking good up there in the north. Hope we have a lot of Monarchs migrating in the fall.
Lily ...Congrats on the TST!! Glad to see the new instars too. You might clip the flower heads and place them on the fresh parsley leaves to make sure they know it is available.

GST flight photos. There were 2 of these beauties on the lantana today.

Hopefully I will see more this afternoon!

Russell

Thanks everyone, and it's always good looking at everyone's photos. here is a chrysallis and three monarchs from this morning.

Hey guys - we just saw a Long Tailed Skipper!

Really cool I 'm not sure I ever saw one of these. Didn't get a picture, but here's a link:

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/wildflower/completebutterflydata.asp?id=46

Wow Bruce! Amazing that you are having Monarch babies. I barely ever see monarchs no, let alone cats.

Congrats Amanda. I saw one of those in Mexico. Love the blue in them.

So, no picture :(, but last night when I was moving a hose, I had a yard and life first for a Horace's Duskywing. In a year with no butterflies, how interesting to get a new one.

Ok everyone, next question: should I be misting chrysalis?

Nan and Russell, please send some Giant STs. butterfly my way. I haven't seen them in person. Bruce may send me some Monarch if he likes, lol. I like Bruce when I keep my BSTs chrysalid indoor I barely mist them. Though, when I do, they do wiggle a great sign that they're alive and well. ~grin.

Thanks Marna for the drought graphic link. Boys I tell you it's rough nation-wide this year compared to most recent years. Thank you Sheila for the tips on clipping the old spent dills. I agreed, those little ones are slow to find the fresh food source, unlike other hogs-like caterpillars such as the Hawk Moth's cats. lol Amanda, I do get those Long Tail Skippers down here. Last year they were abundant, however, this year they're somewhat fewer.

Hah, don't know what have I got here. It's difficult to tell, if it's not a butterfly, I'll try again. Please bear with me.

Nope, that wasn't one! BRB

Ah, here is the mentioned skipper....finally.

It's neat how the skippers have their ranges. Here I get the Long Tailed along with the Dorantes, and only occasionally a Silver Spotted Skipper. But other places it's the complete opposite! Good thing we have the forum to share!

Right now my Monarch babies have eaten all of my plants and wandered off to pupate. I expect to see some flying around in the next week or so. It's been so hot I haven't wanted to go outside to check my host plants. It's every caterpillar for himself! But I'll get out there soon and see if anyone is in need of a rescue.

Melanie

Hot it is Melanie...take care of yourself!
Those skippers are fast ones for sure.

Viceroy.... I mist here if I have them caged where they don't get the normal rain. It is so hot I have had some just turn crispy and they tried to emerge when they didn't have enough moisture. Like Lily said, lightly.

Some of you probably subscribe to Garden Gate Magazine. The August issue had a neat BF article by Rick Mikula, author of "The Family Butterfly Book". Anyway, he listed a recipe he uses to attract and nourish Butterflies.

I just scanned the recipe and am trying to upload it here. Not sure if it's going to work so I'll cross my fingers.

He suggests either pouring it onto a sponge or paper towels in a saucer or sprinkling it over a dish of sand or soil. I haven't yet tried it, but it looks interesting plus he said it keeps for up to three months in the fridge.

I see that it uploaded, but isn't as clear as it could be. Also, some of the words look kind of funny and crooked. If any of you are interested in it, but can't read it very well, let me know and I'll try just taking a photo of it and uploading that. It might come out better than the scan did.

I haven't a picture yet, but my buddliea should be call a "skipper bush", instead of a butterfly bush. They are just the small brown ones. I do not know which kind they are. The butterflies have disappeared for now, though I see an occasional small blue flitting around at a fast pace. I can't seem to get it to pose.

Nutsabout...it came through fine. I may give that one a try around my pond where I have a lot of sandy soil. The ants may get it first though! LOL!

did not completely zip me enclosure and had a few escapes.

Uh oh! Caterpillar escapees, LOL! Love the second picture; that's funny. It makes you wonder what they find attractive about the places they choose to pupate.

Melanie

Watch out for caterpillar escapees!!! LOL. These guys are plotting the same game plan. But they didn't succeed for I zipped mine up after I changed out their munchies today. Here they're exploring the fresh parsley and bronze fennel that I just put in the cage. V.R. Congrats, good luck with catching the future butterflies before they take flight! Which could be fun....

Earlier today, I found 3 Tersa Sphinx caterpillars on my Pentas. Late this evening, I found two more on the same Pentas container....seems like I am on a quest for a new pentas plant for the hungry piglets. lol. It's getting late here for me. Will post the Tersa Sphinx cats. pics. in the morning.

ok thanks to all the help this is what I got.

Here is what I have left for now.

Looking great Lily and Viceroy! I found one GST on my orange today and took it inside. Not much action here due to the extreme heat.

Oh my! V.R. are those GST instars on lemon leaves? The GSTs don't frequent this far down my way, I don't regcon? Please post some pics. as they get bigger and molt. I am learning that it isn't "nice" to pride those little BST instars off of their wandering places, for they were finding a peaceful place where they can molt in peace (as appose to being in the crowd among their siblings during chow times -- LOL). I observed one that is molting at the moment where I left it be when I cleaned out the cage earlier. It's so cool.

No pic. of the BSTs for now, but here are 2 pics. of the mentioned Tersa sphnix moth's late instars. If one looks closely, one will find two cats in brown color, and one in green. To me, I think they're just as currious looking and almost as curious-looking as are Spicebush caterpillars. Enjoy!

Ooops; I've lost track of the thumbnails, will return with the photos as I find them.

Okay, here are the Tersa sphinx cats. These big cats. must mostly be the final 5th instars. I noticed there is a smaller one perhaps 4th instar. Of which they are about to wander off and pupate within the soil below. I thought of bringing them indoor, but they seem to be in a place where predators aren't likely to find 'em. So I'm hoping that that would work out fine. Keeping my fingers crossed for these future pollinators.

I've got a Gray Hairstreak, or Strymon melinus in the garden yesterday.

Such beautiful photos, everybody!
Viceroy, love the escapees! Guess they had a better idea for where they wanted to be.

These pics didn't come out very good, but I was so excited to finally see a Monarch around here that I decided to post them, anyway.

Lily these guys will make it your way, any kind of citrus and they will find you. I have released several already so I'll send them north. These guys will pupate in a few days.

Nice to see your Monarch Nuts. Here are a few of mine from today.I am enjoying some fruit in the second pic.

This message was edited Jul 29, 2012 10:49 PM

Nice picture of the viceroy...Viceroy! LOL! We don't get those this far up that I know of.