I looked over a neighbor's Hop Tree and found 4 cats. I thought they were GSTs until later after I brought them home I noticed the biggest one looked different than a GST. Then I looked at the others. I'm not sure about all of them, but the larger two are definitely Two-tailed Tiger Swallowtails, maybe all of them are. It isn't always easy to tell the difference when they're in the small bird dropping phases! OMG, I've never raised these in the spring...only in the fall!
Two-tailed Tigers!
photos...photos...us folks way down in the south never get to see those. We need photos to salivate over!!! :o)
~ Cat
Yep Linda, Fork over the pics! lol We don't get them this far east either. I remember yours from last year...Beautiful!!
Deb
Okay, okay! Here's some of them. The biggest cat changed color last night. I also found another cat when I checked the tree again today. It is also green, but it's way too small to have reached that phase. Even the bigger one is a bit small for that. I feel bad. Should have checked that tree LONG before this week. I'm just afraid that the little green one (not in the pic...it wouldn't stay still) has something wrong...maybe it'll die. Okay, enough guilt...anyway, here's the pic.
That's our state butterfly and I've never seen one! Nice pic :o)
Linda - The photo is nice of all the different instar stages! Thanks for posting that photo! Awesome!!!!
azreno - Don't feel bad. I have lived in Florida 40+ years and never saw our state butterfly, Zebra Longwing until last Fall. Two were hanging around my Passion vines! :-) Haven't seen any yet this year. Hopefully ...........
LOL, You'd think they'd pick something common, huh?
Very neat Linda! I can't wait to see them as adults!
One of them is pupating! It turned out I had 3 two-tailed tigers...the others 2 were GSTs. And the little "runt" green TTST cat that I was worried about? Apparently they can catch up quite well in that instar...at least they can in the spring. Now I can't tell the difference between the two that are left that haven't yet started changing to the darker color before pupating. They've been eating up a storm. I took all 3 out of the container for pics today. Here's the one pupating:
Great photos, you need to add them to our bug files forum!
Wonderful to see!
And here's the other two, doing quite well. They eat both Hop Tree leaves and Black Cherry Tree leaves, although I've only found one egg on the Black Cherry Tree so far.
I can't believe how clear those pictures are! Sheila is right; you need to add them to Bug Files!
Great job! And cool cats.
Still no butterflies here -- nights will be cooler -- in the high 40s this week. Is that too cold or somehting? There is definitely something bad going on!
Suzy
This message was edited May 13, 2007 8:20 PM
Great Linda!! They are so darn cute!!
I'll be watchin from over here:-D
Great photos! Wish we got those this far south. Cherry trees just don't handle our temps. I had some growing in pots but they died the first season...phooey. Not that I'd get any TTST...but I can dream.
They eat hops???? Way cool...the hops you sent is doing beautifully!!!!
~ Cat
Well, actually they eat Hop Trees, not hops. It's botanical name is Ptelea trifoliata, small tree/bush). I'm lucky enough to have black cherry trees growing wild all around here (never run out of foliage...except in winter), but had to plant the Hop Trees.
That's the one I have Linda, ptella trifoliata...no action yet. Something cool is bound to find it soon enough tho. I keep checking.
...aw rats...thought I'd have an edge :o) Oh well, am still hoping to attract Question Marks with the hops vines :o) Will have to look into trying cherry trees again. Maybe...
Congrats again on those cats. They are great looking!
~ Cat
I would be flaberghasted if a TTST came here and oviposited... more likely to get GST than those.
:-o