Puhleez-- Can anyone help me with this ID?
I have been staring at my butterfly book trying to figure out if this is a kind of swallowtail or perhaps a "Limenitis arthemis" Red Spotted Purple...
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you! t.
another pic...
Thank you. t.
It has no tails, so I think it would be a Red-Spotted Purple. We'll have to see if the resident experts maybe drop by and confirm my attempt at ID. Here's a photo of the Red-Spotted Purple we have had here.
Great shots!
~Sunny
Oh, yes, it's a Red-Spotted Purple! Aren't they just gorgeous? Great shots.
Yes! I saw this on the other thread earlier and was wondering why you weren't shouting about it! I'm jealous! It's beautiful! :)
Well, I didn't know what it was! I have been chasing it around the yard thinking it was one of the versions of a black swallowtail which are very common here.
I did have a truckload of manure delivered and maybe that is what lured it out of the woods! LOL
Thanks for the ID.
A truckload?! The things we do to attract butterflies! ;) This is one you should definitely try to get host plants for. How nice does your yard smell now? lol
Seriously tho, is that something you normally do? Maybe that's why your stuff is so healthy and green. I've never used manure, just compost. I think I've always been afraid of burning something. Maybe I'll get some and mix it in with my last layer of compost and mulch that I put out.
Well, it was called 'composted manure/mushroom compost' and it smelled to high heaven! My neighbor had a fit.
I had 8 cubic yards delivered to put around our beds and make a new bed (enlarge my bf garden). Too much really, and I should have had half a load of something else to mix with it.
But just think how good your arms will look after all the shoveling and pushing the wheelbarrow! Really, I got the best workout ever when I was building my beds. I would put half topsoil and half compost in the wheelbarrow and starting from the outside work inwards blending it. Whew!
I used a mix that was topsoil, compost and I think it had some builder's sand. It was awesome. We'd just get a regular size truckbed full at a time but for a couple of years my driveway always had a pile of dirt on it. It always gave my son something to do while I worked.
I was reading that the Red-Spotted Purple uses Wild Cherries, Aspens and Poplars. Do you have any of those? I imagine it would be hard to find eggs on trees tho!
I took lots of pics of this butterfly in August. I think it is absolutely beautiful!!! Here is a closeup.
Marilyn
Here's another pic. First year I saw it. The Butterfly Bush is 'Ellen's Blue'.
Marilyn
This message was edited Oct 3, 2006 3:14 PM
A third pic showing the undersides.
Marilyn
Great shots Marilyn! Here's the best one hubby got of ours...it almost looks fake they are so beautiful!
~Sunny
There ya go ladies RedSpotted is a spectacular butterfly complete with all the oo's and aaah's! Tobasco ~~I was so stunned last night when I saw the pic in the other thread that I failed to type something then, lol. I was going on to DH like "honey! would ya look at that lovely Red-spotted Purple, isn't it lovely?!!" We don't have many of their host plants in our neighborhood, however I am really enjoying all your pictures.
What a sight!
Beautiful shots Marilyn! I was just thinking about you today. Glad to see a post from you! I'm getting a little bored of the BST's I have here and would really love to see a RSP instead. We are a little out of their range tho Debnes unless one gets a little lost.
The Red-spotted purple is lovely and I'm so happy I asked about it, because for a while I thought it was a BST.
I will look for more tomorrow since I think there was another flying around the same day. We have a woodland forest behind our house and I'm sure there are wild cherries and poplars in there somewhere. I am going to ask the park naturalist (ranger) what those trees look like and where they may be. If I find cats I will let you know!
Last year I had a mixed load of mushroom compost topsoil and sphagnum moss delivered and that worked well, but I thought I would use straight mushroom compost for top dressing and making the 'lasagna beds' this year. Yes, more excercise than going to the gym!
The Ohio Lepadopterists "Common Butterflies and Skippers of Ohio" brochure says the RSP likes animal scat and rotted fruit, so I will put out a few rotten bananas tomorrow. Of course, I still have my manure pile. It's not going anywhere!
BTW, anyone from the ORV interested in butterflies would find this little booklet a great source for local BF info. It is full of local BF details and free from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Marilyn, if you have any sand and a shallow container they also like to puddle. If you put it beside the bananas they might come and pose for some more pictures. Right Paige not unless one goes wayyyy out and gets lost will I see any RSP fly bys. We have a lot of oaks and then what people have planted. Poplar and Cherry aren't easy for this kind of soil, and the unberable heat would be too much. I wonder about those overwinter? Suppose they overwinter in the forrest in thier chrysalis? When any one finds out lmk.
It looks like the RSP passes the winter as a caterpillar as opposed to a pupae. Interesting write-up and pics at this link:
http://www.naturalsciences.org/funstuff/notebook/inverts/redspottedpurple_h.html
And another tidbit:
An excerpt from Claire Hagen Dole's article on Admirals (the species 'Limenitis' of which the RSP is a member) which makes some interesting points about overwintering.
"In Your Garden:
Plant milkweed, lilac, buddleia, and composite flowers (aster, zinnia, bidens) to attract nectar-seeking admirals. They're also fond of thistles in the wild. They sip minerals and/or amino acids from rotting fruit, tree sap, decaying wood, wet dirt, animal scat or carrion.
Admirals spend the winter months as a tiny larva inside a rolled-up leaf. After nibbling the leaf edges, the larva secures the stem to the tree with silk and then encloses itself inside its “sleeping bag,” or hibernaculum. In winter, look on host trees, such as wild cherry and poplar, for a curled leaf that hasn’t fallen off. You can clip off the twig and fasten it with a clothespin to a similar tree in your yard. In spring, when new leaves form, the larva will crawl out of its hibernaculum and begin to eat the tender growth. If you use dormant spray on your apple or cherry tree, remove the twig temporarily; the spray will smother the caterpillar. Then, enjoy watching the development of your admirable admiral!"
http://butterflygardeners.com/admiral.htm
I liked the part about the clothespin!
