From Today:
Lots O' Cats
Now I noticed some new ones (well I should say my DW noticed and is pretty pissed) on some flowers. They seemed to have had a field day today and there doesn't seem to be many flowers left to mack on.
This guy seems to be a little impatient... LOL
Check out his camo.
another....
Ooh! I can see why she is upset. Leaves are one thing but when they are picking on buds, that is just mean!
and another all on the same plant.
Yeah, I guess I'm a little torn on the subject. We've only got two of these plants and at this rate they'll have them finished off by the end of the weekend. Here is a pic of the whole plant. If you look close, you can find all of the ones that I posted, eating away.
This is the plant just a couple of feet down which they haven't found yet. Does anyone have any idea what it is? We found them in a flat but they didn't have a tag so we don't know what they are and we want to get more. Thanks in advance!
-Duke
lol they are eating everything
Check it out, I found the first guy. That first pic was taken this morning and this one is now. Any Idea what kind he is?
This message was edited Jul 14, 2006 6:56 PM
I'm not familiar with what Fritillary's you have in your area, but it looks just like our Gulf Fritillary. Do you grown a passionvine?
The flowers look like cosmos to me. I don't know what the cats are but I'm going with some sort of moths. I've never had any cats eating my cosmos, just grasshoppers. But, I could be wrong so don't rush to squish them.
"Do you grown a passionvine?"
My neighbor has and it finally made it over to our fence, just outside of that picture. In fact, we just found four more cats of that type, on and near the vine tonight. Boy, this gardening thing is gettin fun!
There ya go! Now if you are so daring, try touching one. lol They look like they hurt but they are really soft little spikes.
Your other cats could be some sort of Skipper butterflies. There are so many different kinds of those tho.
Gardening for butterflies IS fun, and addictive!
Oops, forgot to show you what the mama looks like. When you see her flittering around that vine she's normally laying eggs. She's not very good at aiming tho so she will even lay eggs on the fence.
Very cool! great pic and info, thanks!
That one Gulf Fritillary is pupating, so if you keep an eye on it, you might even be lucky enough to see it emerge later on! If it's a female, there will probably be a male butterfly waiting for it. They're not much on courtship in that species and don't even wait until the female is dry and ready to fly sometimes. The cads!
Really! I've watched male Giant Swallowtail's just chasing the female for hours. He doesn't just attack her, like some, but he is very persistant and even starts to annoy ME! lol
LindaTX8, unfortunately, I missed that one hatching while I was at work but......look what I found yesterday morning...... talk about robbing the cradle...lol
another
oh how funny. Wonder why they were in such a rush???
There was one course in college where reproductive strategies in wildlife was covered. Believe me, you would not believe what males of some species will do to make sure THEIR offspring makes it into the world instead of the offspring of other males. By mating with the newly eclosed female, they are assured their genes will be passed along. And while it seems really unfair to us, that's what happens. Not all butterfly species go to that extreme, thank goodness. BTW, excellent photos, Redlines!
Duke,
Now that's what I call "Butterfly Porno" the only kind worth watching! Great camera action. I've seen Monarch's hookin up and that's really a show.Like a 4 step process and real rough at times,it looked to me like he was trying to kill the poor gal.But,after the third time I witnessed it ,guess it's normal.
Don
I had three like the one shown in Redline's first pic. I took a pic of them yesterday, but it was fuzzy. Today when I went to re-photograph they were gone! what happened?
They ate my a. fimbriata in 2 days, max.
If the cats were big when you saw them they probably wandered off to make their chrysalis. If they were small they might be hiding and molting, going thru an "instar". Or, last but least popular is that they could have been lunch for something.