painted lady--the 1st I've seen this year.
Daily pictures #97
We've had several flights of Painted Ladies, American Ladies, and the occasional Red Admiral since May this year. Right now there are squads of Painted Ladies on buddleias all around; in the spring I think the American Ladies were predominant.
In a meadow on the North Shore of Long Island, from too far away, I saw this butterfly. Is it a Variegated Fritillary, Euptoieta claudia? Please pardon the fuzz.
I love the butterflies of Georgia, Florida, and Texas, but I don't think Gulf Frits come this far north.
Hey, a New Yorker! We welcome those from all around the world! Sometimes the forum gets a little dominated by us Southern folk. That does indeed look like a Variegated Fritillary to me. They supposedly live in my area, but I have yet to see one in the wild down here. But I'm inundated with the Gulf Fritillaries so I suppose I should be grateful.
No worries about the tropical storm; we just had a nice rainy day here. I napped through most of it. : )
Melanie
testing, testing.....Whooooooooo! I did it, I did it. I can load photos once again.
First Monarch sighting on the 22nd of the month. Next is an American Lady?
Pearl Crescent/Buckeye/Silver Spotted Skipper and a Hummer
Beautiful pictures, jmorth. Please tell me what the plant is in pic.#4, with the Hummer…I know I've seen something I think is similar, but I'm not positive. It's gorgeous!
Gloriosa
Thank you! It's beautiful! I'm going to have to see if I can track one of these down!
I had hoped for some Monarchs but the owners of the empty lot that usually has lots of milkweed decided to keep it mowed this year. :(
Here's a Giant ST cat I'm raising. He's one of two. I've also got a Black ST and since they all eat rue I've got them living together in the critter keeper. I saw an adult Giant ST flying around today so maybe I'll get some more eggs!
I've also included a picture of some of my Polydamas chrysalises. They've all gone into their chrysalis so give it about two weeks before we see adults. Meanwhile, I'm raising Polydamas generation 2. I might have to take them to the botanical garden as I don't have enough pipevine for when they get larger. I suppose that's fair since I've taken my fair share of caterpillars from the botanical garden, LOL!
Oh, and the Gulf Frit chrysalis on my orchid house emerged; it must be one of the many flying around my yard.
Melanie
Hey everyone, for more pictures of Giant ST cats, check out this thread. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1277549/
I saw a few Queens and GFs today. Never could catch the GFs, but the Queens hung around for a while. We had a North wind today from Isaac and it seemed to be stirring up the BFs and Dragonflies. I wish we would get some rain, but it doesn't look like we will have much this time around. Come on El Nino!
Russell
Jmorth, is the Gloriosa from a bulb??? It is very beautiful.
Hello all,...what great pics and info as always. I am puzzled by the complete lack of monarchs this year. I have not seen even 1. I have milkweed in my yard and the horse pasture behind our yard is studded with it. Last year i saw quite a few and saw a couple caterpillars too. Is it something I said??? I am certainly enjoying the others...pipevine st's, frits,buckeyes admirals, zebra st's in both yellow and the white/pale blue colors.,red spotted purples,and skippers of many varieties... some nice moths,even a few lovely hummingbird clearwings.
On a slightly unrelated topic, I have a passion floewr vine given to me by a friend that has really done well..I HAD 5 fruit on it and went out 2 days ago to water and realized 3 on the lower part had been STOLEN!!! who would do it? squirrells? possums? raccoon?Bunnies? I do garden for wildlife, so i am happy that it is working, but darn it, I was looking forward to trying those passionfruit!
Actually Gloriosa is a tuber. If so inclined, next spring I'll have some to sell or trade.
Pic is what I started w/ this spring. It all started out w/ 2 tubers purchased from Missouri Botanical Gardens (Mobot) in St Louis about a dozen years ago.
Caught the GF this evening...sipping on the Pride of Barbados.
Happy Birthday ... Again- Mel !!!
I see no shortage of leps your way... They've been scarce here in NCentral TX. Maybe we'll get one more burst before fall.
Dale~ we have some BST chrysalids that are taking taking their sweet time to eclose, they've been in for at least a month now. No sign of parasites, just aren't wanting to come out. Any tips on this situation?
Great shots everyone!!
Thanks for the birthday wishes! I had a good one. Dad is going to take me to St. Pete Orchid Farm next week to pick out some birthday gifts!
Melanie
love my butterfly bush and these black swallowtails,
I had a few visitors this morning before the wind kicked up....AND it is now RAINING! Wow...haven't seen that in a while.
1. Pipevine in flight over pride of barbados
2. Large Orange Sulphur on senna - thanks Dale!
3. Pipevine on pride of barbados
We will see what happens after the rain.
Russell
This message was edited Sep 2, 2012 7:47 PM
Great pics. Russell. Happy belated Birthday Mellie. Guys, I saw my rist Gulf Frit. yesterday. Today it returned to the garden. Hopefully I'll have some eggs soon. Speaking of eggs. I saw my 1st Monarch a week ago. Last several days there were a pair in the garden. And this morning I found eggs. Whooohoooo!!! I'm looking forward to raising some G.Frits and Monarch in the near future.
Russell -- Great pick of the Pipevine in flight, proboscis uncurled and ready for a drink. The second picture is actually a female Large Orange Sulphur (Phoebis agarithe), a close relative of the Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae); sometimes the females are whitish like that. You can tell them from Cloudless Sulphur females because of that solid straight line coming from the corner of the forewing. Cloudless Sulphurs have a broken line instead of a solid one.
Debnes -- Sometimes swallowtail pupae can take months (and even years) to emerge. While most emerge within two or three weeks, a small percentage will have a more "staggered" emergence rate. This ensures that during severe weather conditions (extreme heat, drought, etc.) that there are always some in reserve to carry on the species.
Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com
Lovely butterflies, you all have. Not much activity here. I saw a black Swallowtail for the first time in my yard, this week. One did come secretly last year, and left me a single cat on my parsley. It went through all the stages. I overwintered it in the garage but It must of been to humid in there in spring. Some mildew form on the skewer stick, i had provided for it and so on the chrysalis. I`ll know better next time.
I plucked 2 monarch caterpillars this morning from a swamp milkweed. We have released almost 30 butterflies, so it's interesting to me that we will see another generation.
It's that time of year for me to start wondering if I will have enough MW to FEED a second generation. Keep you posted. :)
This morning I was watching the Zebra Longwing flying around the Flowering Maple (Abutilon spp.) when out came the Giant ST for a visit to the lemon tree. I thought it might be laying eggs but it didn't. I did find one very tiny Giant ST cat on the tree, though (more on him later).
Here's the Giant ST fluttering up against the lemon tree and then taking a basking break up in the oak tree.
So I found one cat on the lemon tree. It's really hard to take pictures of first instar cats but I tried. Notice the little guy is brown and cream colored. Oh, and that's his frass behind him. You can see how small he is compared to my finger.
I figured if the Giant was flying I'd better go check the rue. And boy am I glad I did! I found a total of eighteen Black Swallowtail cats and eggs. Since both Giant STs and Black STs use rue, it's important to know the difference. As you can see, Black ST cats are well, black. With a little white saddle, of course. Their eggs are cream colored whereas Giant eggs are orange/gold.
I tried to take a picture that showed several stages - the eggs are cream colored to begin with, then they turn gray/silver as the caterpillar is about to come out, and then the little cats are black and white.
The one Black ST cat I had died a few days ago so let's hope this is a nice, healthy batch - and that my rue plant is big enough for all of them!
Melanie
Great pics. everyone. Congrats Amanda and Mellie on your various cats.
Tigerswallowtail. What's beauty!
Loved all the posts. I think I had a giant swallowtail earlier. Going back to download pictures.
Have been so busy in the (my) butterfly garden all summer,,,, if only volunteers would really volunteer..lol.
I tried to pic the BS cat's on the fennel a couple of days ago, just not good with the cam though. First I have seen all year ,really unusual. Pretty when they hatch though! have also seen a couple of monarchs a week for the past two or three weeks, nice to see they are still around.
One of them laid eggs eggs on the red milkweed ,only it appears none hatched..The monarchs that visit seem to really like the blooms on that red milkweed! First thing they go for and stay at a while.
Hummer at rest.
It's a good day in Melanie's garden! I found a Silver Spotted Skipper cat on my false indigo! This is only the second time I've ever had cats on it. I've never seen a SS Skipper in my garden, but obviously there must be two of them flying around somewhere. I didn't want to pull apart his little home so the picture is him in his shelter. The orange spot is on his head so you know which end is which.
Speaking of skippers, then I had a Long-Tailed Skipper laying eggs on my butterfly pea.
The Zebra Longwing was out enjoying the jatropha (and the firebush and porterweed).
I found a Monarch cat in the butterfly garden. I didn't actually plant any milkweed in my butterfly garden; it volunteered itself.
Melanie
Oh, and I found two more Black ST cats on the rue. One of them was on my smaller rue plant. I have four; three are still small while one is huge. I just like to see that the butterflies use all that's available.
Melanie
Indeed it's a good day in Melanie's garden! Geez, look at all that's going on. Good on you Melanie. A week ago I saw my first Monarch in the garden. A few days ago I saw a pair. By lunch today, collectively, I found at least 40 Monarch 1st-3rd instars. I'd better start planting more MW to support all these little ones that are coming along.
There's never just one Monarch, is there, LOL?
I was sitting here and heard a kerplunk so I started looking at the caterpillar tanks. I forgot that the skippers can shoot their poo really far away and it thunked against the side of the tupperware with such force I heard it. This is another defense mechanism since oftentimes cats can be found by looking for their frass. Some caterpillars can shoot their frass like a projectile as far as thirty times their body length. That way the predators look elsewhere and the cat remains safe.
Melanie
Last year I smooshed this ugly caterpillar..... Now I find out that it was to have become a swallowtail something-or-other... So when I found a whole bunch on my parsley in the herb spiral, I transferred two of them to a huge plastic popcorn globe with a few bare branches and quite a bit of parsley. Auspicious timing, because later in the day all the others had disappeared. Now we have the opportunity to watch a) what productive frass machines they are and b) that they have stopped eating altogether.and c) we-don't-know-yet.
Hanny
Sounds like you've got Eastern Black Swallowtails, also known as the "parsley worm". They are indeed celebrated poopers. If they've stopped eating they're either getting ready to molt or getting ready to pupate. If they are getting ready to pupate they will gut purge first, which is kind of like caterpillar diarrhea. Feel free to ask any questions you may have - everyone on this forum loves raising butterflies and I hope you will, too!
Melanie