I noticed a couple of butterflies over on the PV and when I got there one was a GFthat was laying it's orangish colored eggs and the other was a Hackberry. It was just sitting but then I noticed several other white eggs on the leaves, not in the usual places for GF eggs. Any ideas??
(edited to correct that the new GF eggs are yellow)
This message was edited Oct 3, 2006 2:52 PM
What uses Passionvines besides GF's??
Maybe the zebra heliconia and the checkered frit, have you seen those on it?
Oh fly, I hope you are right!! I totally forgot about the Zebra's because I have never seen any here. I did a couple a few years ago tho that I got from someone who just lives a few miles from me so I KNOW they are here. I'm going to Google and see what color their eggs are! :))
Well, it seems that their eggs are yellow too. I'm not going to get all excited because they'll probably end up being just pale eggs of GF's. The difference tho is that there are several together instead of one. That's what caught my attention. Hmmm...I guess I'll know in a few days.
This message was edited Oct 3, 2006 3:52 PM
you will know when they hatch, the zebras are white w/black hairs instead of orange w/black hairs....
I would love to see a zebra, I've never seen one..... they are so pretty. Are you putting them in your cage?
I've got at least 20 eggs in a bowl on my cabinet. I've got a few GF eggs in there but most are the smaller, whiter ones. I'm going to separate them in case they turn out to be something I don't want. (eeekkk) There were 4 eggs on the first leaf I found and after that just one or two and in the same places I normally find GF eggs, even on right on the very tip of new growth. I hope they don't take forever!
I've raised one Zebra Longwing cat. When it eclosed I had to keep it inside for a day or so. It must have been cold or raining (in Nov) and I fed it Gatorade. I remember it was so sweet and smart and loved the Gatorade.
This message was edited Oct 6, 2006 11:36 PM
When I collected the unknown eggs I also collected about 13 GF eggs. One hatched either last night or this morning. It was too small to get excited earlier but after several hours I know I'm not imagining it has stripes on it! Woohoo!! That has to mean that one and maybe more of those GF eggs are Zebra Longwings!
One of the other eggs recently hatched and it's way too small for me to tell anything about it yet. It doesn't look like a GF tho. It looks like a black head and a body with no color yet. Hopefully by this evening I will be able to see it better.
When I raised the painted lady cats for the Daycare I used to work for the brochure said to put some sugar water in a saucer and place a sponge in it to soak it up and this is what will keep the butterflies happy until you can release them. We had several rainy days and I had to do this for a while until we had a sunny day for their release. Never heard of Gatorade. LOL
I decided to raise 8 Monarchs in a cage over the winter last year. I figured they would die outside as it was so cold and very few nectar and host plants. They survived on Gatorade, too! I couldn't change the Gatorade flavor because they got used to just that certain flavor.
Interestingly, they lived 4 weeks! Which I believe is longer than if they were in the wild. And they even bred and laid eggs inside the cage. I had some potted milkweed that didn't die back from the freeze that they laid their eggs on. So I actually got a second generation from the original 8 butterflies. Unfortunately, they weren't as healthy as their parents.
The original 8 would get excited when I would feed them every morning! They would try to land on my hand and would be flying all around in the cage when they saw me coming with the gatorade. It was really neat!
Family and friends got a kick out of my butterfly pets and it drove my kitty cat about crazy. He'd sit and watch them flying around in the cage for hours! LOL!
You'll have to keep us posted KKB - I've never had a GF cat or a Zebra around these parts. Took me over a month to snap this GF - I looked like an idiot I'm sure running around trying to get a picture of this one!
~Sunny
KKB, I had Zebra Longwing cats a couple of years back...I think it was 2004. I also had a few Julia cats that same year. Talk about HAPPY! I had been seeing the Zebra Longwing butterflies for years before that, with none of its cats on my passiflora vines. Then boom, that one year I had tons of ZL eggs and cats. Since that year, I haven't seen even a Zebra Longwing butterfly here. I live in Medina Co., NE corner. I've heard that the Variegated Fritillary uses Maypop, but haven't had any on mine yet. I'm going to put a link to one of my ZL cat pics, hope it works:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1212232970041712789SpiHaH
This message was edited Oct 6, 2006 7:54 PM
Cool photo Linda! I've never seen the cats or the b'flies of that type.
~Sunny
And if anyone wants to see a Julia cat...well, they're just really cute also. Not such a good pic, but it gives you some idea. Don't know if I'll ever get a chance to raise the cats again, but I can hope!
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1212206396041712789UbWdMX
I still have no idea what I'm raising! I'm going to feel silly (and sad) if they end up to be just 'ole GF cats, but they do NOT look like it. I've seen many GF cats and these don't look the same to me. Rather than a smooth body with spikes it looks like little tiny balls all stuck together, like rolls, with spikes. I swear I can see tiny dots forming, which would mean it could be a Tiger but they have black heads and not yellow heads like I'm reading. They're too small to get a pic of too. I'm impatiently waiting...tick, tock, tick, tock....
Oh, I forgot. ZL's lay their eggs usually in clusters of a few on new growth of the vines. The itty-bitty ZL's are golden in color and they like to stay together (communal cats) if possible. But many times I convince myself some itty-bitty newly-hatched cats aren't GF's, then they turn out to be just that. Ah, I just miss those little cats I had in 2004! They were so amazing!
Yeah, these weren't in clusters but there were small groups with some. I think I've got "short-haired" GF's. lol