Staying on Milk Thistle , I do not know .
This should be easy , but it's not
perhaps.Spilosoma virginica,, Virginia Tiger Moth
This message was edited Jun 17, 2014 1:59 PM
DAILY PICTURES #107
Even if I am the only one here for few minutes (days ) As it is the busy season ,
Mourning cloak ; on Milkweed , today , This is one of the largest Mourning cloaks I have ever seen.
I was hoping for an open wing pic , only I will just have to be glad for the visit .
Oops, just posted on wrong thread.
Love those Mourning cloaks J7.
Mt. Magazine Butterfly Festival is this weekend. Last Friday I delivered my entries for the photography contest and on the way I noticed a male Diana fritillary nectaring a butterfly weed. Oh joy!!! Didn't wreck but I sure scared the water out of my passenger. Got lots of nice pictures.
Yesterday I visited the MG'ers Learning Fields wildflower area which is about 2 miles away. Second surprise. two lady Dianas were busy nectaring bee balm. Lucky me to see both male and female Diana fritillaries. Such lovely butterflies. Just plant violets on my final real estate.
WOW...a SUPER CONGRATS to all of you with Cats and Butterflies!! Love the pics - juhur, BCH521 and Ivy!
Nothing much here yet and the butterflies I do see are flying at Warp Speed.
I saw an unusual (to me) moth a couple days ago. I'm about to post pics on the Insect ID forum in case anyone is interested.
Thank you ! nutsaboutnature . ^_^
This is A Bird missed Lunch ; Today ;
Their eating four huge leaves every 30 hours
C_A_Ivy Really nice !!! What is #3 The same ?
We do not have those here , so I'm wondering ?
J7, I should have explained my pics. A dimorphic butterfly. In other words the male and female don't look alike above. Pics 1 & 2 are the male Diana and Pics 3 & 4 are the female. Their host plants are violets and they occur mainly in southern Appalachians and southern Ozark regions. The female is considered a Pipevine Swallowtail mimic.
Well that is interesting info C_A_Ivy. maybe some day I will get to see some live ,,
My monarch cat is Hanging in a J as of about sundown ,, So about the 29 or just after maybe ?
Born on the 4th of July , or about .. he he ,.
Hopefully I won't have to cut the screen to feed the other ,, Rubber band technology cage and all ...
J7...you have 3 Monarch caterpillars now, is that right? Is this the first to pupate? do we know if it is "oh yuk" or "green worm"? 9 days in the chrysalis is about right...depends on how warm the days and nights are so i would say generally 9 to 11 days in the chrysalis...could be 7 or 8 days if days and nights are particularly toasty. "oh yuk" means "blessed little caterpillar" in Chinese ....well, no it doesn't really, i just made that up :-)
vitrsna There only two in my cage , Named them "a bird missed lunch" being the one that is in pupate the other "a toad missed breakfast" is not far behind I have been seeing where a third one still outside has been chewing on a plant
I will get a pic when they E-close? into butterflies .
I have not seen any more Monarch butterflies anywhere around here . Zinnia getting started ,blooms might help .
Granny and the gals the gals oh yuk , and granny a green worm , "the garage outside is a good place for them" Something like that .. lol
it was about they would not live outside , these two would sit on the leaves in the Daytime , not as smart as some ,, Some seem to learn to stay camoflaged , only thought a couple more would not hurt anything , besides I want to see more of them
Here we go finished chrysalis early this afternoon .. the other cat is interested ,
Fuzzy pics , I know
Update ,, first one gave the second one (the cats) an idea , #2 Chrysalis has begun ,,
Bad joke ,, Caterpillar see ,, Caterpillar do .. ? he , he ..
How about a new thread when they become butterflies .. ? or before if any of you would like ?
Millie left for All Things Plants ,,, it's free over there ,, but I like the news and articles here ,, ^_^
This message was edited Jun 20, 2014 6:09 PM
Okay pics of the mourning Cloak , it seems to be staying Red Admirals old and new today also .
And we found 4 fresh eggs this morning! Things are starting to look up.
Here are some spicebush swallowtails. This is the first time in 8 yrs of having a spice bush that they utilized it. The first three photos are on the spice bush. Sorry about the quality. I have to hold the leaf open with one hand and operate the camera with the other. Not so steady. The last shot is on the camphor laurel. Number two is a really early instar.
Wow !!! More to see ... BCH Way to Go !!! Nice to see !!! Really nice after the past few seasons ! Nice clear pics too !!!^_^
Steady We have had that in common about waiting for BF's to happen ,,
I except any and all pics , You will hear no complaints from me ! lol
First is a good pic of that Larvae !!! Ain't it nice when your efforts gift you like that !!!
Great stuff this evening !!!^_^
I brought in a cat that was on a hackberry seedling this morning along with a couple of Pipevine ST cats. No pics yet.
Question Mark , Still could not get the wings open ,
Mourning cloak and a Smaller one still here and a Red Admiral flying about this afternoon .
I find it interesting that sap feeders seem to enjoy my milkweed blooms ,( that is , most info says Mourning Cloak or Question Mark are sap feeders and rarely feed on blooms ,,
Sheila ,, Be sure and get those pics when you can !
This message was edited Jun 21, 2014 6:26 PM
This gorgeous TST visited Sunday in my back yard.
What a beauty memays! I have never seen one of those in person. Maybe one day!
Russell
I've had a few tiger swallowtails too this year. Good to see them!
Was happy to see this little lady today. She was just hungry though, no ovipositing that I saw.
Mrs. Ed, your butterfly weed (right?) looks so good! I planted one poor plant last year and it valiantly came back this year, but no blossoms whatsoever. I also have some swamp milkweed that looks very healthy, but no blossoms, and then I saved all my tropical milkweed seeds and scattered them and they are coming up en mass - but no blooms yet! I am so hopeful that some of the milkweed will bloom so that the monarchs will know they are welcome.
Thanks Russell - I love the TSTs - they are absolutely gorgeous.
Thanks. Yes, my milkweed is looking good this year. I have several varieties of a. tuberose, plus some a. incarnata, a. verticillata and good old a. syriaca.
The tuberose plants have been there for a number of years and like it. I had to move my swamp milkweed a couple years back and then it got terrible milk weed aphid in the drought years. It looked awful. But now it is looking good again. Have faith in yours.
Well, after she ate, she came back and laid some eggs!
Mrs _ Ed your pics are still more than I have seen !!! Nice Milkweeds ,,, I know you did not see a lot of Monarchs last year either , isn't it nice ,,,?
memays . Great Tiger Swallowtail .. Big old Yellow Swallowtails had been my favorite as a youngster ,, That bright yellow flying around , gliding past was always cheery ...
It is VERY nice to see them Juhur. If I see a Giant Swallowtail in the garden this year, I might just die. lol.
I'm still waiting to find some BST cats on the parsley and dill. AND, I saw a summer azure land on the holly, I thought maybe I might find something there. But I haven't seen anything yet. Need to get out the magnifying glass too. haha.
BTW, this is the butterfly that started it all for me. Came home one day to find it freshly eclosed along the garage door in the spring. It must have hosted on the ash trees out front the prior year. I'm not sure if it tucked itself away in that rotting wood or what. This was 2008.
That is an amazing looking BF .. !!! I could see how that got you interested !!! lol ^_^ the effect is instant ...
I remember when you first posted that Marna! It was awesome! I have Tigers fly through and nectar but haven't gotten to raise those.
I have the bf cats and my real cats in the shop and every time I go down there I forget my phone. We are getting wonderful rain storms this afternoon.
BTW the QM caterpillar is already in it's chrysalis. But the pipevines were still gorging!
I was out in the flower garden yesterday and lifting up some purple coneflowers when I saw how nibbled looking my Turk's Cap was looking, and so early too. More investigation and I starting killing, they were everywhere I looked. The tiny green grasshoppers were everywhere then I got to looking at other things and even up on my double deck 8 ft off the ground a hibiscus that is potted, I killed 18 of the vegetation eating critters! Sorry if you folks like grasshoppers. Send me your address and I will mail the rest I find. I don't spray my plants only if ants are bedding up in a pot I pick up or stone I turn over when pulling weeds. And I do use the stream wasp spray because they are the paper wasp here and will take first & second instar and sting them and poke them in the cells of the nest for the young to eat. ///OK I am calm again now. LOL!
Someone that has a picture handy please start a new thread, we have over 225 posts on this one. The new one should be:
DAILY PICTURES #108
We will all be thankful!
Consider it done, Sheila. New thread started here:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1366183/
Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com
BCH I like how neatly your Monarch chrysalis are pinned up. I hope you find many more cats.
I have probably around 8 or nine, from really tiny to chrysalis stage.
steady, the spicebush swallowtails are really cute cats. I hope to raise some one day, when
I get the host plants. Good luck, I hope you get a whole bunch of them.
Today I had a Zebra Swallowtail emerge. It's interesting how they are not a very big cat when
they turn into a chrysalis, but when they emerge, they are quite bit.
Oops, sorry I should have posted this on new thread!
Zinnia, that chrysalis is so interesting. It looks like it was fashioned out of a leaf and rolled as perfectly as a cigar! Ive never seen one here. Really would like to however. I have host plants but I guess the weather here does not suit them.
Xinhua, love the zebra. I need to plant some pawpaw trees!