I got home from vacation, but no cats on the milkweeds that I can see. Oh well.
I was in the Michigan UP for a week. I had some good butterfly sightings. Only one to show you now as i have to get through pictures.
This was a group of Northern Pearly-eye butterflies that were hanging out on a tree. They would flutter about when I went close and then regroup on the tree.
Oh my gosh Marna, they are beautiful. Such a good photo. Thanks for that one!
Oh my gosh again, Monarch in the garden! An unusual time of year. Looks like a very healthy female...she is nectaring but haven't noticed any egg laying. Got some pics...now, waiting for the camera battery to charge :-(
Aw Gee, juhur and vitrsna, you're making me blush with your compliments...Thanks! I was so excited about seeing it, I got a little carried away posting too many pics.
Juhur - You're getting sooo many cats and butterflies...it's fantastic! And your garden looks amazing! Any self-respecting BF would be foolish not to stop for a nibble and to lay some eggs. I love your drift of Zinnias! They look like giant lollypops.
Vitrsna - I looked at BugFiles and there were about 75 other pics of Hummingbird Moths! I wonder if they would mind a couple more?
I can't even imagine what it's like with all the BF activity you have in your Zone 11 garden. Incredible!
Those are some cool pics, Marna, especially the one with the group. It would be easy to walk right by without seeing them. They nearly blend with the tree trunk.
Hey Nuts, you aren't kidding. You see I had to use a flash. It was a really dark area. I would never have known they were there if one had not flitted off.
How long should the butterfly be kept before release? Also have a chrysalis that fell down. What should I do?? Photo of my first monarch. Excuse the clothespin, that's how I keep the enclosure closed.
Try to set it out on a plant or open place , let it finish drying it's wings , A few minutes to a few hours it will fly away , or around you , usually about say approx 40 minutes .
I use my hand if it's clean , let it crawl on my hand , then I let it crawl off on to a plant in the sun if possible .
If I am not there in time , I open the cage , it flies away on it's own , it does not take long until they are ready to fly though , and you (at least I) do not want them trying to fly in the cage , (etc , wing damage) ..
You could carefully tape , pin , or thread tie the chrysalis onto a small twig or stick . let it hang like it would naturally , Can't let it lay though , has to be in the natural position , like nature ..
Well, well, well...lots of fun activity going on in the butterfly world! Here is a photo of a male Monarch and i thought it was the first one in the garden this season. They usually show up twice. Once in spring for about 4 egg layings and again in autumn for 3 months or so. So, i was surprised to see this fellow in the garden this morning. For a few months now, i've had Queens, Soldiers, but no Monarchs...or so i thought. The Monarch that arrived this morning was really hungry. When i got into the garden, lo and behold! There were two half grown Monarch caterpillars. I can't believe i haven't seen them until now. They also looked like they had missed a meal or two recently (maybe doing a molt). One, i found on the ground and relocated it to an especially delectable spot and now it is the healthy, chubby one in the 2nd photo...still eating. So clearly the Monarch this morning was not the first one of the season, unless these two little cuties parachuted in. Here is one view of the rainy season jungle garden.
This week has brought a few BFs...FINALLY! One tigerstripe st, 2 red spotted purples, a red admiral and a fritillary. Maybe they are scouts, and will bring others this way. This is such a good year for milkweed in my garden, and no monarchs to enjoy it. Still no caterpillars in the dill and fennel. **sigh**
I lost one of my promethea moth cats, he got out of the container and expired nearby. I fixed the lid and the other one is happily (safely) munching thru tulip poplar leaves.
This hatched this morning , drying it's wings , Not from my cage ,, But I'm seeing these (Monarchs) early morning , Still dark with perfect wings and that behavior , is how I consider they are a new .. !!!
This morning
vitrsna ; Is that a hothouse or only the sun screen over the plants . Those are a HUGE Tuberosa , If we get them a short 2 ft tall here , were doing good .
Monarchs are elusive aren't they ,, The Magician Monarch's guild in full #'s
I will have to find a better cat finder , The ones that purr I have no trouble finding , the Multi legged plant chewers I am not so good at seeing ,, ^_^
J7...Isn't that a beautiful site to greet you in the morning sun?
We sure don't need a hot house here...that little corner of cover you see in the upper left is a shade screen that covers the patio (that you don't see). It is porous and cuts out, they say, about 90% of the
sun's rays. It provides a good place for seedlings because there is still plenty of light and it is airy. The butterflies like it because it is open, light, and airy and i think they feel more secure from predators there. I like it because it is a great place to relax after working in the garden. I have some plants there too. The asclepias that you see is curassavica which grows wild here (it is a weed :) and it did get unusually tall this year. I've tried to grow Tweedia and Tuberosa without success.
Congrats J7
As promised, here are some butterflies from up north.
1. Northern crescent. It's like a Pearl crescent, but with more orange space above the hind wing "dots".
2. Skipper. this was the tiniest skipper i've ever seen. I'm guessing Least Skipper
3. White Admiral. AKA northern version of the Red-spotted Purple.
4. White Admiral.
5. American Lady.
edited for order.
This message was edited Jul 16, 2014 2:05 PM
Part 2:
1. Skipper. I'm thinking Indian Skipper, but really don't know.
2. Bronze Copper
3. Tawny Crescent (i think)
Juhur7, thank you for the advise. Hung the chrysalis as you advised. Hope I was not too late. Released four more monarchs this afternoon. I'm really enjoying watching the monarchs go from egg to full grown butterfly. I'm gonna try and grow milkweed for next year. Hopeful to have a full blown butterfly garden next year. Have fennel and dill for the swallows. Never knew caterpillars could be so interesting.
J7, thanks for sharing all your lovely sightings. The White Admiral is a unique beautiful butterfly. Indeed the very small skipper is a Least which is usually difficult to photograph since it does not sit for very long and weaves in an out of vegetation as a small orange blur.
Your other skipper looks like a Long Dash and the crescent with the creamy spot band is probably a female Pearl crescent.
It's great to see the variety and a positive sign of lots of butterflies this summer.
Thanks for sending down the cool air. We sure needed a heat break.
That was Mrs_ED Those very lovely Northern and types of BF:s I get some Crescents Mrs_ED and the Skippers , Those others are rare here , they do occur , but I do not or have not seen them here , I remember last year we were talking about the ID of many , Gets kind of difficult ..
Thank you all for the encouragement , Let's all give Mrs_ED a BIG Thank you for those Very lovely BF Pic's also .
My Monarch cats are still developing , but nothing is hurrying or doing those huge numbers around here either .
Mrs _ED Whats the Tawny Crescents host plant ?
Jolly good variety of photos Mrs. Ed and much appreciated. Most of these are "exotics" to me.
J7, the Tawny Crescent hosts on Asters.
CAIvy, I thought perhaps it was Tawny because there seems to be more black. Also the Tawny is more prevalent where I was at.
And before I forget, there were MANY monarchs there. In fact, the visitors center has a big patch of milkweed at the door. Inside a couple of caged cats, one making a J.
1 Monarch
2 Another Northern Pearly-eye
Were you at a butterfly/wildlife reserve Marna? Or park of some sort? Love those Northern Pearly-eyes.
Yes very pretty BF;s Thank you all again kind words , good info ,
I found a couple more Monarch cats , so three or four about migration time , One is large and will (or probably happen before ) hoping to see few dozen anyway . Wisconsin and Minnesota and seeing all kind of eggs and cats , looking like a Big River (Mississippi) river to Texas Migration coming from there , Then To Mexico .!!!
oh well a stranger hiding under the leaves , (skipper , no doubt lol )
A few going's on .. Zinnia starting to bloom out too ..
Last week I had a Black swallowtail oviposting on a few fennel plants. I collected a small piece of fennel with an egg and placed it in an aquarium which I use for rearing. I would of had two eggs but one fell and was lost during transfer.
A week later I noticed a small brownish cat and a dark prickly one. Is the prickly one a cat or molted exoskeleton ? The next day I saw only a dark caterpillar (pic 3). Since it was an early instar I didn.t recognize it until I did some image searching. Cats can sure differ from molt to molt.
Since it is on fennel, I wondering if it can be switched to parsley if necessary ?
Released last of first family of monarch chrysalises to hatch. Next family should hatch next week. Also just wanted to let everyone know milkweed does renew itself, when potted. Even the twigs that were chewed if stuck in ground will root and leaf out.
Man, I'm like the only one with no Cats. Tons of rue, parsley and dill, milkweed, pellitory, plantain, sunflower, snap dragons, asters LOL.
Ivy I think you can easily change host plants if early on.
Vit, all of the butterflies but the ones on the tree were at Seney National Wildlife Refuge. Nice big place. http://www.fws.gov/refuge/seney/
CA, i recently had some Giant Swallowtail caterpillars (about half grown) that had been raised on Choisya and had to switch them to Rue because the Choisya was almost exhausted. I carried the 3 pillars to a healthy Rue and they did not hesitate to occupy the Rue and start eating immediately. It wasn't because they were hungry. They had had plenty of food up until the transfer. Generally when changing food sources, i would try transferring one pillar to see how it takes to the new plant. As Mrs. Ed says if they are very young, there should be no problem changing hosts. In my experience of doing this a few times with mature caterpillars, the various types of caterpillars readily accepted the new plant.
Marna, thanks for the information about the Refuge.
Yes refuge is good , enjoyed that , Thank you , not all that far away from here either ,,,
Still seeing a few , Clearwings and Hummingbirds too ,
Here's the Monarch cat . Hanging in the J today ,, Three small ones still in there also ,,
Redundant by now I know , but ,, Always to be enjoyed ,, !!!^_^
Found four monarch eggs on milkweed today. Hopeful to start another family soon.
Welcome this morning, four new monarchs. So happy I've invested my time in this effort.
congratulations.
PS. I like your mud boots! :D
Thank you Mrs_Ed.
All - can someone confirm that this butterfly is perhaps a pipevine?! If so this is very exciting, as so far this summer I have not seen many butterflies, and this would be the first time spotting a pipevine in my very own yard .....
memays, I think it's probably a dark form tiger swallowtail female. I don't the the pipevine swallowtails have that row of white dots. But never having seen a pipevine swallowtail… can't be sure
1 & 2 — Meadow Fritillary
3 — Eastern Tailed-Blue, Summer Azure an Viceroy on scat (so nice of some animal to arrange for placement of that scat on my butterfly route).
4 — Pearl Crescent
memays, A lovely Spicebush Swallowtail.
Mrs. Ed - what is your butterfly route? Is it in your yard or a walk nearby?
CAIvy - I agree! And I'm so excited. I found this interesting article - http://louisiananaturalist.blogspot.com/2009/06/four-dark-swallowtails.html
and carefully scrutinized it. I have a baby spicebush plant, but I see no 'pillars .... one can only hope :)
memays, I am a volunteer monitor for the Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network. There are a few states that do this. It is a long-term monitoring project. My "route" is in Nachusa Grasslands, a Nature Conservancy property. They have one of the few Regal Fritillary populations east of the Mississippi and my route goes through their breeding grounds (arrow head and birds foot violets).
Here's a monarch on the mexican flame vine. Vit, I lost the small one when I went on vacation and forgot to put an drip jug on it. Anyway, I went to pick up a new one at the greenhouse. Nothing was blooming. It was going to be $6. Then I saw some hanging baskets of it and they were half price, $13. Now I have this huge plant with a few blooms already. Hope i can keep it alive indoors in the winter.
What a lovely site Marna...a Monarch on a Mexican flame vine. I notice the Monarch is a female! Got eggs????
I really like that idea of butterfly monitoring by route.
Not finding any eggs, darn it. No black swallowtails either. Very strange.
The monitoring is pretty cool. this is my 5th season and may be my last to to some difficulties with scheduling and stamina. PLUS, I think I've mentioned this, but this fall the site is adding Bison to the grounds and my route is within the grazing area. I'm supposed to get more info and training about being in the field with them, but it might be a recipe for disaster.
Here are some of the states that do monitoring. There are no links that I can find in either of these pages to contact someone if a person wants to participate. I guess one could do a search.
http://mp.butterfliesandmoths.org/pollardbase
http://www.nab-net.org/
Mrs. Ed, don' despair, I am caterpillar-less too! Poo!
I have all kinds of dill, fennel, parsley, milkweed(4 varieties), spicebush,pipevine,pawpaw, and flowers I know the butterflies like, esp zinnias, joe pye and butterfly bush.
Is it something I said?
**sigh**
LOL.
i think perhaps they have not forgiven me for the past few dry years.
PS.
I just saw a silver spotted skipper out back and I haven't seen one of those here in a while!
vitrsna, thanks for the advice on host change for caterpillars. The Black swallowtail cats didn't hesitate in eating parsley rather than their initial fennel host.
Thanks memays for the reference site for dark swallowtail identification. Excellent visual of differences and keys for ID.
Lots of different butterflies in the backyard flowers but yesterday the hummers were very active in the afternoon heat, nectaring and chasing.
