Hi everyone, I have a butterfly that's been visiting me for awhile and I can't seem to get a very good picture of it. S/he's black, but just has....they look like little squares along the bottom of the wings. They look to be blueish green. It doesn't stay still long enough for me to get a very good photo of, but I know many you are very good at giving IDs, so I hoping you can tell me what kind this is. Excuse the blurry photo, it was the best I could get.
Much thanks,
Terry
Terry, did she have tails like a swallowtail?
If not it did it look like this Red Spotted Purple?
http://davesgarden.com/bf/go/540/
I at first thought of a swallowtail also, but no, it doesn't have the tails of one. The Red Spotted Purple looks close, but it doesn't have all the colors up above the squares of blueish green. It is possible that it's a juvenile? I'm much better with birds ;o) Is the Red Spotted Purple a butterfly that would be in northern IL?
I'm also really sorry that the picture is so small! I had to crop it, to zoom in and find the dang thing! Trying to make it larger, just makes it blurrier.
A bit difficult to tell from the small photo ..
Along with the Red-Spotted Purple fly_girls' mentioned.
Ya mite can take a look at several of the various images of the different species listed below, and see if one matches what you're seeing ..
Eastern Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) > http://davesgarden.com/bf/go/6/
* There's also a dark form of the Eastern Black Swallowtail, here > http://davesgarden.com/bf/showimage/2292/
Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) > http://davesgarden.com/bf/go/94/
Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) > http://davesgarden.com/bf/go/46/
- Magpye
How about this one:
The female Diana Fritillary:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.carolinanature.com/butterflies/diana2369.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.carolinanature.com/butterflies/diana.html&h=352&w=350&sz=31&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=D1v1fWPOIj641M:&tbnh=120&tbnw=119&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddiana%2Bfritillary%2B%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den
It looks like all the butterflies that Magpye mentioned are in Illinois, and the 2 that I threw in...looks like you guys get a lot of the same bfs that we get.
My eyes are really blurry from looking thru image after image that not only you've given me, but I have been at the Butterflies of North American and I clicked on IL. Going to my county wasn't much help, so I just did the whole state of IL. When I looked at the images they provide for the Spicebush swallowtail, it's not a good image at all. So, I went to google and did another search. The below image is a huge possibility. It was on the Eupatorium purpureum (I believe that's the right species of Eupatorium as I have several), so I'm wondering if possibly the tail just wasn't showing. The above photo was taken thru the window, since it flew away as I walked towards it. I do have 6 Lindera benzoin, so it is possible. I will keep my eyes out for it and make it my mission now to see if I can't get a better photo.
I typed over you fly_girl, sorry! Yes, we do get a lot of butterflies and I garden exclusively for wildlife. I planted a Aristolochia tomentosa this year to add to what all I've already planted.
Well, it will probably come back then and you might get another chance.
My parents live in Springfield and my mom is always talking about how tall her butterfly weed gets.....around 8' tall! It's the one with the purple flowers....not sure what species it is, but I just think how many Monarch mouths that would feed! She says the leaves are really big and long, do you grow any of that? I'm so jealous of that plant, I don't think it grows here...too hot.
Have you gotten any Polydamas or Pipevine STs on your Pipevine?
Gotta love the Swallowtails...they are beauties!
I hope it comes back! It flew by my husband when he was up on the extension ladder painting the other day.
I have Asclepias incarnata, syriaca, purpurascens, verticillata and tuberosa. I've been looking for Asclepias sullivantii, but everyone is always sold out. Purple flowers might be the purpurascens. Although it doesn't typically get that tall. Sure doesn't mean it can't though!
The Aristolochia tomentosa was just planted this spring. I have read that it takes it awhile to get going, but once it gets going, it really goes. I imagine that right now it's busy establishing it's roots. It was just a little bare root thing when I got it. It's put out a couple leaves. Looks rather pathetic!
Terry, I don't think it would be too much to ask your DH to take a camera up there with him, do you? lol That would be a great vantage point for bfs.
Wow, you have a lot of milkweed!
My pipevines started out small and the second year they really get going, so get ready!
LOL!! You know why he wouldn't let me paint? Because I fell off a ladder years ago and broke my ankle! Ever since then, it's an argument to let me climb a ladder. Usually I do it just to make him queasy...lol. I have a really good picture of me up on the back of a dumptruck, one foot on the dumptruck, the other on top of a ladder. I thought the man would have a heart attack...lol. We actually have a small balcony up there, I never thought of going out there and seeing what I can see. Hmmm.......
I wanted to make sure I had enough milkweed, do you think I succeeded? ;o)
I really hope the my pipevine gets going next year. That would be great. The arbor looks a little silly now. From afar, it just looks like it's got nothing on it. I have a Clematis virginiana out front on an obelisk. Last year you could see the obelisk, now you don't see a thing, just clematis. So maybe the pipevine will take off like the clematis did!
Well Terry, consider yourself lucky...except for the falling off part. lol
I do all the painting in this family and have had some close calls with the ladder.
That arbor will fill in next year I'm sure.
Yeah, I think you got the mw covered! A real butterfly buffet!
I really do a lot of the painting around here. And stripping woodwork, then staining, then polying. Fix plaster walls, gutted the kitchen by myself....I'm just a real jill of all trades...lol.
I hope the arbor fills in! My phone quit working for unexplained reason, so I when I walked across the side street to neighbors, I looked down. It's got 3 whole leaves on it! Woohoo!
It's neat watching all the butterflies here in the yard. We've only been in the house for a little more than 2 yrs and everything out there has been planted in that time, with the exception of an Ash tree and an American arborvitae. Year before last, they were in a park that's caddy corner from us, but since last year, they just fly right on thru that park and it's butterfly unfriendly plantings and come visit me ;)
Hi Terri!
Sounds like you are in a great place downwind from the park and all! We are sending all the butterlfies we can save your way.. Get your camera ready. :-) Enjoyed the pics!
:-Deb
Hi Deb, thanks! If I hadn't planted all that I have, I think the butterflies would just do nothing more than fly thru our yard too. Camera ready and waiting.......;o)
S/he came back today and I was able to get closer and get a better photo.
It looks like Magpye had it right....I think you've got a female Black Swallowtail, she's a beauty!
And boy oh boy, she sure didn't like her photo taken! It's definitely a Black Swallowtail, she's got the tails to prove it...or at least one tail. One was missing, but I've read that is very common. Is it safe to say that my Lindera benzoin are doing what I planted them for??
The Spicebush SWT has the host of the Lindera, but I think that is a BST, so its host would be the plants of the Carrot family; Dill, Parsley, Fennel and others. Have you seen a Spicebush ST? I bet they find it soon!
Well, wait a minute and let me look up what one looks like ;) O.k. I give. What's the difference? The images I'm seeing look like the........wait. My image shows yellow whatever they are, and the spicebush has white. Is that the only difference? I planted parsley with my nephew last year to try and attract whatever we could. They reseeded, so I have more out there.
They do look similar but see how this Spicebush has orange spots between the wings and there's some other subtle differences. Have you checked for eggs on that Parsley? You just might have some!
http://davesgarden.com/bf/showimage/184/
I haven't checked the parsley. I'll check it in the morning. Mine has orange down at the bottom. Like this image
http://davesgarden.com/bf/showimage/376/
The blue isn't brushed up though like the image is. The weird thing is, that no two images seem the same! Very very weird.
Maybe you're right Terry, I've looked at them so many times I'm dizzy LOL
They are very similar.
LOL! Me too! I've been told I was dizzy, but I sure don't feel that way ;o)
I saw a small, really orange butterfly out the kitchen window earlier, but the thing wouldn't land on anything for me to get a photo of. I need a butterfly book!
The photo, here > http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=3794003 looks like s/he's minus the white spots on the main part of its body, to be the Spicebush Swallowtail. So, that should narrow the possibilities a bit ..
Not sure at all, but I'm leaning toward ^ that one, being the the dark form of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)
You've been shooting some mitey fine shots of the flutterbyes & the caterpillars.
- Magpye
Wow Magpye! What a nice compliment. I look at some of these photos I've been snapping and can't believe I took it. But then I try to take a shot of all my beds, and reality sets in, yep I can still shoot really really badly....lol. I guess I just need to do everything with the macro lens!
That was what I was wondering. The Spicebush Swallowtail has white spots, and mine has yellow. Thank you so much for taking the time to try and ID my butterfly for me. I've got 5 Lindera benzoin, so hopefully I do get the Spicebush Swallowtail. And hopefully, my Aristolochia grows fast and I get the Pipevine Swallowtail.
Ya know Magpye, that one is a better fit! Here's the one from Bug Files and it doesn't have strong 'tiger' markings like the yellow form, and Terry's doesn't either, so I think that's it!!!
http://davesgarden.com/bf/showimage/2292/
Now, I can sleep tonight lol
After reading this thread I had to share this photo of a Spicebush Swallowtail. The first one I've seen in my yard. It really did not want to be still but, my patience paid off when it landed on my Pinapple Sage.
Oh Sandy! Now you're just bragging...LOL! That is a beautiful shot.
Thanks terryr! Nah, I just got lucky! Every now and then you get a butterfly that just seems like it's posing for the camera. Maybe it could also be that I run around my yard like a fool until they hold still for that perfect shot!
-Kim
Boy do I ever hear you on that one!! Then I try and stand very very still, but they land clear over there and I'm standing here, so yep, the running like a fool starts....lol. As you could see, the one I have didn't want to pose like yours did!
I hear ya! I follow them around to get a photo, all the while talking to them. I know my neighbors probably think I'm over the edge. LOL!
I talk to the birds and the squirrels too. I think the bluejays and the squirrels actually listen to me. Ha, ha!
I know at least the squirrels listen to me! I have one (of about a hundred), he's only got part of his tail and his name is Bucky, and he comes when I make this noise. I don't know how to type out the noise I make, but it sounds a lot the noise they make. I try to keep peanuts in my pocket. The other day we came home and he was up on the back deck, like he was guarding it! It was really funny. And of course I had changed my pants, so no peanut in my pocket. He just sat there, looking at me, like hey! where's my peanut lady?? I can get him to come up to me to take the peanut.
Here's a picture of him. I talk to everything too! The birds, the squirrels, the caterpillars, the butterflies, my plants.....I yell at the weeds...I yell at the part of the sidewalk where I always trip and on and on.
And I can't believe I just did that! I have a Geek Squad battery back up UPS and I hit the off button with my toe! Yell at my toe, yell at the GeekSquad UPS....sheesh! Thank goodness Mozilla has that restore your last session!
ROFL, Terry! Your little Bucky is a cutie!
I could probably hand-feed one of my squirrels. She doesn't take off like the rest of them when I go out into the yard. But I think she is safer staying her distance from me. There are folks in my neighborhood who do NOT like squirrels and would probably hurt them. So don't want any of the squirrels to get too trusting of humans. It's better for their survival. :-) At least here in my area. I've been to camp grounds where the squirrels would come sit right on your lap and eat the peanuts! I even saw an albino squirrel one time. White with red eyes! It was the craziest looking thing!
I'm glad to know there are others like me out there. I never cared if every squirrel in the neighborhood was in my yard eating the bird seed-hey, they have to eat too! I moved at the end of last year and I haven't put up feeders and stuff at the new place. I do miss all the activity around them. Well, I guess there is at least one of us crazies in every neighborhood! - Kim
Hi Sandy! I figure that the squirrels were here first...... along with all the other critters! All of us humans kinda pushed them outta their homes. So the least I can do is feed them and open my yard to them. I don't care if they nest in my yard, eat there, and even pooped there. They are free to come and go as they please. I just enjoy having wild critters around. That will probably be a novelty some day when most of those critters are long gone due to progress.
My winter project this year is to add some more garden beds around the house (outside the backyard fence). We have lots of wild rabbits in the vacant lots surrounding us. But with all the flooding, they are finding it hard to nest .... out there in the standing water. My yard is high and dry, so I want to give them some shelter (garden beds) where they can live and raise their young. We have had 2 generations of rabbits born at my school right in the middle of our butterfly garden beds. I think mama rabbit realized it might be the safest place around! :-) And all of us teachers DO protect them! They are the cutest little things! So am going to add a rabbit sanctuary next in my yard! :-)
It seems incredible to have so many wild critters congregating at my house right in the middle of a neighborhood! I just love it!!!! :-) :-) :-)
There's only 1 that I talk to at length...lol....and that's Bucky. The other ones I talk to, but not like I do with Bucky. He lives in our neighbors big oak tree and from what I know, squirrels don't travel far. Since nobody is ever out in this neighborhood, I feel all right hand feeding just the one. I don't hand feed him more than a couple, because he usually starts ignoring me and goes to the squirrel feeder we have on the back deck. He's still skittish, but he does like my husbands voice too. Oh and I don't know that Bucky is really a he, it might be a she!
Becky, I'm not just in the middle of the neighborhood, but I'm 1 block south and 1 block east of being dead center in the middle of town! This is a small town, and by that I mean we've only got about 7000 people here, so being 1 block off Main St. isn't a big thing. We have rabbits here too, and coons and possums. I'd love to have a red fox, but somehow I think even though we are a small town, somebody would kill it. Which reminds me...the guy I use for some of the carpentry here at this old house had screech owl nesting in his back yard tree. Sometime during the day, while he was gone, the guy across the street shot the momma screech owl. I wanted him to call the police, he thought it was a waste of their time. Guns aren't allowed to be shot within city limits, so I don't think it would of been.
Sandy, I sometimes think I'm the only crazy (for what we're talking about anyway!) in this whole town! One of the guys who works for the street department and didn't know I lived here, told me when he found out I lived here that he thought the people must be nuts living here. Why? Because I've removed 95% of the turf and just keep adding more and more plants. I'm all trees, shrubs, forbs and grasses. lol....good thing though is now he wants me to come out and do his yard too! And he's got 5 acres! Think of all the indigenous plants I could plant on 5 acres....lol!
Ooh, Terry that's so sad, why would he kill her? Many of the people in my neighborhood will kill a snake in a second, they won't bother with learning the dangerous ones....as long as it's a snake, it's okay to kill...in their minds. The bad thing is we have roof rats all over he place here and someof those snakes are rat snakes which we need to control those rats. I try to tell them but it goes on deaf ears:>/
I have a squirrel, Rocky, that comes to peanuts too. All I have to do is shake the container and here he comes...he must have good ears too, because I'll see him from several trees over, running to me.
Good for you about removing most of the grass....I'm still working on DH for that one...I would love to have no grass!
Great pic Sandy!
Rox - LOL about the photo of your Rocky and your pet cats! LOL! My kitty used to sit there and watch the squirrels too! So funny!
Terry - Ooooooh ..... I'd be sooooo mad at the idiot shooting my owl. WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE!???? That makes me sick! And I'd have certainly called the police ..... in a heartbeat!!! There really are some whacked people out there. Which is why I wished I had about 5-10 fenced acres for wildlife. Keep people out and critters in! No joke!
Yep ..... NO GRASS and lots and lots of plants, trees, shrubs, water features, and paths! My dream yard! :-)
