I was just sharing this with Art and decided that it's so cute that everyone needs to see it! (pardon the dirt under my nails, you understand)
Queen caterpillar
Definitely a very cute pic......but what I wanna know is how you keep your nails looking so nice if you do actual gardening! :-) Mine break and split at just the notion of any time spent in the garden LOL
-Julie
I'm not sure Julie! lol I think they are actually all the same length because it's not been planting weather here for a while. I have been wearing my gloves because of spiders etc. and that helps. I swear they are much worse other times! Wanna see my heels?! LOL!!
very nice pic!
Those queen cats are gorgeous with that maroon coloring on their filaments and feetsies :o)
Are the cats that have yellow (instead of maroon) also queens?
~ Cat
I sure love butterflies, and I love watching the cats go through their different stages, but I'm not too sure I could let one crawl on my hand. I had to pick up one of my Gulf Fritillary's cats today, and it gave me the heebie jeebies LOL
Oh PiggyPoo, you must hold one! Chose a Monarch cat tho instead of the GF's. The Monarchs' are fatter and just funner in general. :) My 6 yr old holds them, so you can do it!
Cat, I had a bunch of Queen cats last year too, but never noticed them having red like this one. They were very blue tho. When was your pic taken? Maybe it's a seasonal thing? Do you raise BST's? Have you ever noticed that their colors vary depending on the season of their brood?
I've seen the queens with maroon around here all the time...but blue???? WOW!!! I haven't seen those before. Share a photo if you have one.
That photograph of the caterpillar with yellow filaments was taken on 09/17/05. Am assuming it was a queen since it was on milkweed. Or maybe a soldier...I need to look up a photo of a soldier cat...which I haven't done.
This is my first time for raising BSTs. I found four cats on my rue plants last month and didn't want to risk them getting predated. I brought them inside and housed them in a large collapsible clothes hamper I'd bought just for them.
Two have emerged - one on 09/30 and another 10/02. Another looks ready to make it's debut...I expect is shall eclose tomorrow morning or the next.
I've never noticed their colors before...but did figure out the first one was a male and the second a female by their spots and coloring. I'm learning new things every day and frequently reference all the books I've bought :o)
~ Cat
This is the male BST
...and the female BST.
~ Cat
PiggyPoo,
I can understand how picking up a gulf frit cat gives ya the heebie jeebies...they are a bit ugly looking...but like Konkrete said...try a monarch or queen. The BST and GST cats are a bit scary looking too...and they do get big...and they will use their osmeterium (fleshy horns connected to scent glands) if touched - it's quite a pungent odor!
~ Cat
Oh my Cat, you are making this difficult! It's been a long time since I did my reading on butterflies and cats and I had no idea what a Soldier was! I finally found some pics on Bugguide and all are from FL. How would you tell the difference in the cats?! I can barely see a difference in the Queen and the Soldier.
Here is a pic of the Queen cats that I had last fall. It's not clear, but maybe you can get the idea. The darker part on them was blue. They had no red in their antennae either, all black. This is very interesting!
Those are great pics of the swallowtails. I never can remember which one is which, but yes, one has more yellow and one more blue. PiggyPoo, Cat is right, they "stink" you when they are scared or jostled. After a while mine got used to me and wouldn't, but when they did...Peeeee yuuuuu!
I have a few Queens and Monarch cats inside that I'll try to get a good look at today and some pics. I've got to do more research on this Soldier now.
Ummmm ok, if I ever get any other cats in my yard, other than the GF's, i'll "try" holding one. LOL You'd think I could do it, given the fact that I can fish with an earthworm no problem. Something about all those pokey spiney creepy crawly legs!
Oh wow Cat, that female BST is beeeeeeauuutiful!!!! Oh and guess what, guess what???? I found and bought a Duranta yesterday!!! Yippee yippee!!! Now......I just need to figure out where the heck to put it :)