Four O'Clocks a Host plant?

The Great Southern White chrysalids turned more white today. (They were green color when they were morphing.) The cats do attach themselves to the side of the cage. But it is with a very flimsy silk thread. In heavy rains or winds, it would not hold up. I think they will be able to pupate just fine laying on the bottom of the cage on a paper towel. The reason I believe this .... is because of the Sulpher that pupated in my kitchen window. It was laying on a paper towel as well. I had not had the chance to hang it in the cage and it just pupated and pumped the fluid into it's wings just fine with out hanging. Though with the Monarchs and Swallowtails, I don't think their wings would expand like they should if they were NOT hanging. They are much heavier butterflies and their wings seem to be thicker. Just my observation.

This is some of the GSW cats morphing on the side of the cage. Notice that they too look "plump". They are normally long and kind of skinny cats.

Oh! That one is not a good photo of the color. Here's another one of 2 of the chrysalids.

Suzy - I agree with Deb about the birds and caterpillars. They co-exist. I wonder if yards with bird feeders have less problems or more with the wild birds eating the caterpillars or any other bugs in the yard? The biggest threat to cats in my yard are the wasps. They pretty much erradicate any cats in my yard. If I didn't hand raise the cats, I'd have none and probably a LOT less butterflies in my yard.

The local library is the best place to go to "try" out books that you may want to purchase for your own collection.

Deb - The Purple Thistle plant seems to be a nectar plant for quite a few butterflies as well. I am thinking about purchasing either seeds or plants. I think that is definitely a plant I need in the back of my garden.

Yeah Becky some cultivars are really nice too.. Check the plant files for purple thistle to see which one you would choose. Maybe see if someone has seeds to trade if you do find one.

:-D Way to go on those GSWs! I am moved, and very impressed. You have given us a great morphing reference for them here.. what a gal!!

Bless you!!!

Well, Didn't I luck out all around? I found this great forum which I didn't realize existed, got a bunch of Asclepias seed coming from Margaran, and I got the Jeff Glassberg book from the library! Read the whole thing toight and of course, the species are melding together. Heck, even the 6 or 7 broad categories are meling together. I'll have to re read it tomorrow.

Now I want to make puddles & salt licks. And he lists sort of a generic "nectar" for the food of some adults. Is this the mashed bananas/Stout beer you were describing? Or is it "flowers" in general? Hmm, or maybe it's hummingbird liquid -sugar water? He also lists 7 different species of butterfly milkweed. I only thought there were two!

I was suprised to read that there is a kind of Dutchman's pipe vine hardy here in Indiana...Deb you were waaaay ahead of me. (I was thinking any variety you had in Texas would be a tender one.) Here's my question: If I start a couple dozen seeds and get a couple full-fledged plants out of the seeds, and if it's true that some of these butterflies can be here in Indiana in April & May, don't I run the risk of getting too many catepillars on too small a plant and they eat it all in the first 2 days and then starve to death? How many Aristolochia tomentosa would I need to grow?

That's the end of the questions. (Not really; think of it as the first installment! hahaha.)

Thanks for all the help!

Suzy

Haha Suzy...If you start them in the next couple weeks you will probably have enough foliage by the time they get there. Also I think the blooms attract them (more unusual, than attractive blooms), so by the time the plants have blooms there is plenty of foliage. It is a very fast frowing vine, kinda like Passionvine in that respect. The Gulf Fritillaries devoured mine, then I kept the BFs from ovipositing on them for a few weeks.. Then they were back again.

I'm thinking A. tomentosa will work about the same way for Pipevine STs... We will all see!
I will get the recipe of the :Nectar:

Excellent -- I'll D-mail you to get your addy. I just saw a post on the Vines forum that they may take several months to germinate, so I'd better get cracking. I had some A. elegans seeds I sowed tonight, but they will croak next October-Dec sometime.

There is a nice fence I can tie it to or train it to, or well, I'll figure it out when I get something green and taller than 6". LOL!

Don't the bees eat the banana mash? Don't the ants eat it? I can't believe you can put that out and not get everything in the world EXCEPT butterflies! Oh, yeah, I'm gonna try it, but I wanted to ask the question. :) I have the cutest wire hurricane lamp that I want to put on a post with some mash on it ala puddyprints (Cat's) pic above. It's designed for a candle, but ..... I also have a wire birdcage I could probably put a plant in. I could maybe screen it with net for cats... I am so excited about all this. I really, really want some of those cool cats!

Here's a Silver Spotted Skipper -- I didn't shoot many butterflies last year because they were all so common.

Nice pic Suzy!
We like common butterflies over here, lol I have lots of shots of that sort of thing.. and never hesitate to share here in BF&H forum.

Real important note on the mash...
Be sure to vent, go out and open the lid for a few minutes every day. I have heard some *horror* stories that we now have the knowledge to prevent any deja vu...lol. Vent vent vent, lol and close up. It has to ferment together.
Evedently when BFs are out and about they will draw to it like a magnet. Some BFs, such as Red Admiral, only eat rotting fruit,... they like nectars from pretty flowers second. That's why you see so many Lepidopterists making it in BF season.

Does it HAVE to be Guinness Stout? Can I use any beer?

Guinness Stout is a rich beer, one of few that actally are nutritious. The yeast in it is better etc.. Yup Karen has to be that beer.

o/

Yes, Suzy - Be warned .... vent, vent, vent the container or you will have a major explosion of butterfly mash everywhere! Store it somewhere "outside" your house. We've already had a mishap here in someone's kitchen (?)! Not funny if it happens to you! And I can't even imagine the clean-up that you'd have to do to get it all cleaned up. Oyee!

OMG, that is a horrible story. And it's a terrible thing, but I am also half-laughing. LOL! I can't imagine what a mess that would make and where that sugar solution could get in this house -- between everything, I imagine. Places only the ants could get to.

As soon as I read the answer to whether the beer *had* to be Guiness Stout or not, Mr. Clean and I went out to the liquor store and bought it. Then I came back to read about the daily venting, and decided to put it off a month or so. No 50° temps here for a while, and since I can use it "fresh", I figured there was no hurry. I need to find some cork and an aquarium tube ala moonshiners for my venting. I could make butterfly mash and banana moonshine in the same batch. LOL!

Okay, what about rocks for my puddlers to get their minerals? What kind of rocks do I get and how do I set up that puddle? Or do I need more than one? The chips in the picture I saw looked like granite. Not that I can tell rocks from a picture, but they were igneous rocks not the sedimentary rocks we mostly have here.
It looked like the rocks were in somehting like an old aluminum pie plate that had beenburied inthe gardenup to its rim. What I don't know is if there were any kind of drip holes at the bottom...the water would turn rancid here if it just sat day after day.

Suzy

The Great Southern White Butterflies are starting to eclose. Here's another photo of the chrysalids.

Here's a photo of the first Great Southern White to emerge.

It flew onto my bathroom vanity. Here you can see the wing color patterns.

Here's another photo. It looks yellow, but that's because of the lighting in the room. It's got a slight yellow color but not a deep yellow as is showing in the photo. If I tried to color-correct the photo, the butterfly comes out totally wrong colored.

And as with all species of butterflies, some come out deformed like this one. Probably a cat virus. It's part of the odds of survival. This is the chrysalis before it eclosed. It actually was a reddish color like it was bleeding. Obviously a sick butterfly about to emerge. Or maybe the females have more of a reddish fluid upon enclosing?

This message was edited Jan 28, 2007 10:29 PM

Here's the sick deformed Great Southern White butterfly after it eclosed. The wings were more grey color than white. Sad.

Illoquin - As far as the water dish with rocks for the butterflies..... I just use a shallow pot dish and put large flat rocks in it so that the butterflies have something to stand on. Though I can honestly say that I have never seen a butterfly use mine. I do clean mine out with the hose every few days because you are right, the water turns foul.

"Puddling" is more about moist dirt - mud. Apparently some of the male Swallowtails like to gather in mud to sip certain nutrients from puddles which promotes their breeding capacity somehow.

Love the GSW BF Becky... How many more are going to eclose?

I have about 30 more to go. Oddly the next one has a lot of gray in it's wings, too. Though it seems perfect and is not deformed in any way that I can tell. Okay ..... I looked them up in my Florida Butterfly Gardening book and it shows photos of the male and the female Great Southern Whites. The male is white with pale yellow. The female is more grayish colored. So...... it looks like I have a male and a female so far. Not including the deformed female butterfly.

Here is a photo of the female GSW.

Here is another view of the top of the wings of the female.

And finally, here is a photo of both the male and the female for comparison. The colors in this photo are pretty close to accurate of both butterflies.

There's so cute!

Beautiful!!

Love that last shot! They are very pretty!

oh Becky wonderful shots

Aren't they gorgeous!!!!!!!!

Yaay Becky!!

They're beautiful!

Congrats on the GSWs!!!! They look great!!! I wish our weather would clear up so I can start looking for cats at the ranch!!!

I see the brushfoot butterfly bait is still makings the rounds :o) Can't reiterate it too many times...VENT :o)

...and yes, Guinness Stout seems to be the beer of taste. I've tried a variety of cheaper beers (ya know that GS is expensive!) but the butterflies really don't come to it as quickly as they do the batch made with GS.

Yes, you will get bees and ants on the bait...but if you put out a shallow tray of sugar water or hummingbird nectar out in the corners of your yard bees will go for what is sweeter. Although after they've had their fill of the butterfly bait they won't fly very far :o) HA! HA!

To keep 'most' ants away...use bait logs and hang them from trees or from a shepherd's hook.

~ Cat

Thanks y'all! They are cute little butterflies for sure! :-)

Cat - I'm gonna try that butterfly brew this Spring! But I will be keeping it outside. LOL! With my luck it WILL explode. You will see butterflies all over the side of my house sipping up the remains of the explosion! lol

Cat, the ants seem to be able to get into anything here. Are you sure that hanging them will work?

More of the GSW butterflies have eclosed today. Half males and half females. Unfortunately, some of them died during their final stage. And the ones laying on the bottom of my cage are coming out with deformed wings. So if anyone raises them in cages, let them be wherever they hang. I have been letting them go each day. I sit them each on my Porterweed blooms and they seem to enjoy that. I had about 6 of them perched on the plant this morning right before going to work. They just sat their as I added each one of their siblings. The plant kind of lit up with little butterfly wings!!!! Made me chuckle as I headed off to work.

I've enjoyed the saga! Great job, Becky!

Really nice pictures too!

Arlan

Nice Becky!!

Becky,

I figured that since this was your 4-O'clock thread
I'd post a photo.

This was my first year with them -- and you can see my poor Peony trying to peek out from underneath.
I had to make an adjustment the following season.... but i do believe that was 2) 4-O'clocks.

I had one last year, that actually grew back from the tubular (unbelievable in my zone) that survived the winter
and the stem of the plant was about 1.5 in diameter. It was HUGE.

anyways.... enjoy.

Terese

Very pretty Terese!

Terese - Your magenta Four O'Clocks are gorgeous! I can't wait to grow some, too! I love my yellow Four O'Clocks, but your flowers with that magenta color really pop out! Thanks for posting! Quite lovely!

I found a cultivar of 4 O'Clocks this year called Custard and Cream (@Lowe's)... Very light yellow and white. I have about a dozen sprouts up already. ☺ Yaaay! We got snow yesterday...and I am loving it. Nothing like the slow soak of snow. We have needed this for so many years.
I received my Hops and Flying Dragon yesterday.. I will be heeling them in later on today.

Hard to sit still here!!

Deb