Deb....ps...love that little hummie on the zinnia!!! The petals don't even bend under her/his weight!!! Little bugger must be light as a feather!!! Absolutely wonderful photo!!! Loved it!!!
~ Cat
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 12
Mellie,
Look at this link toward the bottom.. http://www.giffbeaton.com/caterpillars.htm
Without seeing the face I can't be certain whether it's a Tussock, The Laugher, or a Webworm.
Yep Chris Roxanne is right, You might get prepared to split them up
3cats-3cats & 4cats in 3-2qt containers. 10 in the 2qt will get crowded.
As far as where to keep them, its your choice. They will grow faster if kept in natural outside temp. Inside they will be cooler, but they will grow slower, and they could possibly pupate earlier too. I keep mine outside normally.
Cages look great.. My new baby Monarchs hatched yesterday. I have them all in the same cage now too. I will split them up in a couple days.
Love the shot of the HBMoth Rod, Phlox are an excellent nectar plant. That's one I haven't grown yet.
I hear ya Carla, The cats are something else when it comes to finding places to pupate. Now Frits are ones to match what they are on, (camoflague) when they pupate, wereas not all butterflies happen to do.
Ha Becky.. With the plastic the chrysalis silk will peel in tact, so you can move that bad boy, to where you want it, lol. Ha Ha. I just removes almost 20 chrysalids into the mesh zipper hamper. I sewed them on ribbon with clear thread, and pinned them down the sides. Gave me a chance to inspect them for any Chalcid wasp emergent holes.. and I found one with the black spot. It is in quarantine. More on these Chalcids>
http://butterfliesetc.com/chalcid1.php
:-D
I'm pretty sure it's not a tussock - at least, not the tussocks I know. I have declared war on them. Next year will be tough since I'll have to stop using my BT spray, but hopefully I've interrupted enough generations to make a difference. I suppose I could still spray the oak trees far away from where my cats are...hmmm. I'll see if I can't control them by the squish method first, though. I hate those things. Actually, the whole neighborhood does. They eat absolutely anything and everything. I almost lost my gernera daisies one year. Then they build their cocoons all over the house and my pots and the fence and pretty much everything. I'm actually not sure what I hate more - tussocks or lubber grasshoppers. I'm feeling vengeful today - on the tree next to my passion vine I found a lubber munching away on one of my bromeliads - and nobody messes with my bromeliads! Grrrr!
If I see it again I might have to squish it. If it's not a bf, it's not a friend of Melanie.
Thx Cat :-D Typing above same time as you, lol. Hummer's been expanding to more flowers, at first it was just a few main ones.. Found just about everything now, and she sits in the taller trees all around the backyard to watch her territory... She comes up close to me now, more and more too. The other day the wind blew an empty cup over while she was nectaring and she swooped right up to me to check out the racket.. She is facinated with some of the kissy squeaky noises I make at her. GST came through checking her out real close too. I just sit there and chuckle.
She's something alright!
Deb....believe it or not they will get used to those kissy squeaky noises.
I got into the habit of making noises each time I'd go outside to collect the feeders for washing. When I'd take them back out and start up again with the 'hummie calls' they'd already be perched in nearby trees ready to swoop in. The best times is when you can hear them squeaking back...almost as if to say, "Yippee, fresh nectar!!!" It's those times I wish there was someone around to take photos when my hands are occupied.
...and yes, the hummies even started chirping and squeaking before sunrise. I could hear them through my bedroom window at some ungodly hour of the morning!!! They were waiting for me to get my butt up and feed them.
~ Cat
ps...found that brown carpenter bee on the bug files. It's called a Valley Carpenter Bee, Xylocopa varipuncta. The males are brown and the females are black like the one in your photo.
I found 3 more cats to bring in this morning, that makes 13 and I am getting very nervous. What did I start.
I have a huge number of baby toads and chameleons outside, are either one of these preditors of the butterfly cats?
Here is this mornings butterfly. Eastern tiger swallowtail?
chris
Mellie, could it be this one...the Yellow Bear, they are sometimes whitish:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://k43.pbase.com/o4/48/95248/1/64082395.s4oUwc6j.YellowBear.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.pbase.com/rcm1840/image/64082395%26gcmd%3Dadd_comment&h=490&w=630&sz=98&hl=en&start=34&um=1&tbnid=WCEfJq1hSV6gOM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dyellow%2Bbear%2Bcaterpillar%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
Any idea what this cat is? Found on Butterfly pea vine. There are way too many to bring these in. I was wondering why all the leaves looked like something took a bite out of it, but left it there just folded over. These little guys are inside all the folds.
chris
oops.
Chris - It looks like a skipper cat. See Deb's link: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/754389/
Deb - I think the Chalcid wasp is what I have seen in some of my cages. (Grrr...) I wonder if I have an infestation of them in my yard. Maybe that is why the butterflies are staying away? I added that link and the caterpillar link to the sticky thread. Thanks for posting those. :-)
My Sulphur butterfly died after eclosing yesterday. I was not surprised since I lost all the other cats. Whether it was a virus or a predator/parasite .... I don't know. I suspect virus. Since this is my second year of growing so many butterfly plants, I am wondering if it took that long for the other bad bugs to find my yard and wait patiently for the butterflies to come. Now my dilemma is how to handle that situation as I don't do pesticides. Any suggestions?
I wonder how many of you may find that to be an increasing problem in your yards next year? Should be interesting. My first year of butterfly gardening and raising was very successful, but each year since, I've had more die in the wild in my yard and also many more of those being hand-raised. Very discouraging.
Your right Becky, skipper.
Checking the files, I cant believe how many different kinds there are. Elevendy Billion(as my daughter would say)
Becky, sorry about your Sulphur. I would be horrified if after hand raising these from infants they die after eclosing. I thought that if we brought them in when they were this tiny that they would be safe? They can have a virus now....and still grow, pupate, eclose and then die? YIKES!!
Any hints on what a "bad" bug looks like, so I can look for them?
The main things that I can see on my butterfly weeds are wasps, wasps, and more, all different colors and shapes. Some bees and a few chameleons.
I do have a few of these, on a pumpkin tree plant in the area, I am still looking it up.
Chris, that looks like a Leaf-footed bug, they have a proboscis that sucks juice out of plants not bugs, but the assassin bugs have a proboscis that sticks into cats and other bugs and kills them. And see how big his back legs are.....they look kind of leaf like.
This thread of Deb's shows a stink bug....they have different colorations, but I often find these on my mw.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/754604/
The best way to learn about them is to Google predatory and parasitoid bugs and then print it off so when you see them in the garden you can learn them.
It can indeed be discouraging to see the cats grow and then die...or even get to the point of pupating and then die. But in nature they die in large percentages so we can't expect them all to make it all the time. Especially if we find them after the cats were outside in nature for a while. I have lost 4 Queen cats (earlier found outside as cats) in the last few days. 2 died while still cats, 2 tried to pupate and just as they were forming the chrysalis, something went wrong...they died. It happens. Nothing I could do. I have one remaining Queen cat I found as an egg and 2 eggs just found yesterday...I can only try to help..maybe they will survive, who knows? This area is having a lot of butterfly problems...maybe because of excessive rainfall for a month and a half. I just don't know..but suspect a certain viral disease that kills 100% of infected cats. The GST have disappeared entirely in this area. This is a highly unusual situation that I've never seen before. I'll just have to wait it out and won't give up on my butterfly friends. It cheered me up when this lovely perfect butterfly eclosed today...this after the RSP eclosed the other day (I already posted a pic):
I had so many butterflies this morning that I started my own thread. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/756393/ I didn't want to post them all here and be a thread hog.
I brought in some more gulf frit cats today, and lo and behold, a gulf frit came and laid more eggs on my passiflora (see my thread). Fatty, my cat in chrysallis, has been doing some odd things today. Mom came and told me and we both went to observe. I know GFs will move around in their chrysallis, but Fatty went from left to right a few times like someone was flipping a switch! Is that normal, and does it mean he's going to come out soon?
Melanie - That is normal for GF in their chrysalis. It's a defense mechanism. They will try to move away from the direction of something touching it in case it is being attacked by a parasitic bug, etc. My students got the biggest kick out of watching them do that! I'd deliberately touch the chrysalis just to make it move! lol
Linda - I would have to say that my area has been getting lots of rain for weeks, maybe a month now. We are in the rainy season so to speak. I am wondering if the cat health issues might very well be viral. I have always noticed when the climate is wet, wild chrysalises never eclose. They just seem to rot right where they are hanging. When the weather is cooler and drier, more butterflies emerge healthy. Maybe it's my imagination, but that's been my experience over the past 2-3 years that I have been hand-raising cats/butterflies. I still have my 2 GST cats. One looks like it's getting ready to pupate. The other is still eating away! Boy! Do they get BIG! Hopefully, they remain healthy and will emerge intact and be able to fly away. I watched 2 Sulphur females all over my cassia bushes yesterday. I know they were laying eggs galore. But I don't know how many will survive. I almost feel like the leaves/small branches I was bringing in to feed the last batch of cats was infected with something and no matter how good I cleaned them under running facet water, they were doomed. So I don't know if I will collect anymore of the Sulphur cats until Fall. Of course, I may change my mind once I see the helpless little things.
That makes sense. One time when he moved a little gf cat had just wandered by. It was still so startling to see it move all of a sudden. Mom and I were like, "Whoa!". Mom's getting really into it too. She had the giant flashlight out there last night looking at them (she had to work late). I can't wait until it becomes a gorgeous butterfly. I had two GFs flying around today and as you saw in my other thread, one of them left babies! I think the other was a male as it never landed on the passion vine. It landed on the gerbera daisies, the buttonbush, and even the pipevine, but ignored the passiflora.
Ooh...Monarchs are here! I tried to get a pic of one but it flew off! I found one egg that I think it left. I'll just have to keep looking. Oh, yeah, I've been that "nut" out there with a flashlight at night looking for cats. Don't tell anybody...it's a sign I'm a certifiable butterfly nut.
That's all right, when I was a Girl Scout we learned how to go spider-hunting at night with our flashlights. Their eyes gleam like jewels and it's really beautiful. You can find all different color ones, too. And besides, I think people who sit around watching TV when they could be living life are crazy, but that's just me. : )
Tah-dah! I FINALLY saw a caterpillar, but this isn't wuite what I was expecting. It hd better be a Monarch, just in the first instar? Somehting like that. I found it on milkweed, and since I have Deb's porta-cage all ready to roll, I was all set. I just clipped the milkweed he was on, brought it inside and washed it, then put him in him porta cage with a piece of paper toweling.
I don't really have any oasis, and I'm thinking about how to keep the milkweed good, but I have a lot of it, so I should be ok. UNLESS I FIND MORE!
Suzy
Ut-oh, He's not a Monarch, is he? :((
Suzy
It was a good dry run Suzy! You are ready, thats the main thing. I think that really is a Tussock, A Milkweed Tussock..
http://www.giffbeaton.com/Caterpillars/Milkweed%20Tussock%20Caterpillar_2005-09-19-0027.jpg
Oh I feel what your all experiencing folks! I nearly gave up too when the wasps descended upon my BSTs and My ONLY TSTs this year. Right before my eyes a bug was sucking the life out of the 1 3 day old cat. This was another predator that I couldn't ID back then. (I have a little more info on them now, that I will show ya in next paragraph with pic.) At the time all I had was a bad blurry pic of the bug. It had befell an untimely accident with my finger emmediatly after it killed the wee TST cat.. I was so depressed.. so many predators!! Becky, it serves that when we attract all of our wonderful butterflies, we create an environment for all the other kinds of cats that are not so host particular as the ones we raise. It would follow that there would be more of their enemies, and more species of them. They sniff your butterfly garden out to eat/syphon out the cats, just like butterflies do when finding a mate. The only thing that I could do is make those small gadware containers, and it brought my joy back. I wish I had done that with the Tigers, :-
Now for this bug I observed killing the lil Tiger ST.. After it's accident, it was slightly deformed.. All I could get on an ID was that it was some 3rd instar soldier bug larvae. So it remained unsolved.
The other day I spotted something bizzare on my Milkweed.. It was like some half inch blob of a moving trashpile. I scooped it up into a container to bring it to a good look through the magnifying glass. What I saw was a bunch of collected insect carcasses stuck to the back of the bug. It has pinshers which it uses to attach the carcasses on its back. It appears that the bug siphons a small bug/cat/or egg, then glues it to it's back as a trophy, and a cammoflague.
Here is the blob>
Hi! Everybody!! The GF's are out in numbers in the garden now...both as cats and adults (I can never see the chrysallises {sp?}...LOL) I wish that I could send photos but I am still not able to get close enough with my camera. However, the butterflies are a welcome sight. They are so beautiful.
Have a good weekend!!!
Thanks,
Chuck
Deb, Your bug is disgusting! The back pincher thing makes it look like it is in the earwig family, but beyond that I'm pretty hopeless.
Bummer on my milkweed moth. I was soooo sure he was something good... I guess I'll remove him from the Ritz and put him back outside.
I still have no eggs or cats, and now I'm embarrassed I posted. Maybe I should delete the whole post.
Suzy
When I began using the plastic tweezers to remove all the rubble, I had some trouble. Something on it's back made it very sticky, coupled with it not staying still. When I got to its body it kept sticking to the tweezers. Finally getting it off, it began crawling around again, and when coming to a piece of seed or the rubble I removed, it pinched it up, inspected it, then swiveled it's pinchers to glue it back..
What a funny little bug! It looks like garbage, and cleans up after itself, but it is a predator. Here again, some may call them benificial.
Here without the garbage> Ventral view>
Dorsal view>
Deb,
Sorry for posting my new message in between your posts! It was an accident. I would like to see the results on the interesting bug that you have, too. Half the fun of a garden (after the butterflies and hummers,of course) is the insects that it attracts.
Thanks for sharing with us,
Chuck
Suzy - I don't know anything about your Milkweed Tussock cat, but it sure is cool looking! I've never seen one like that around here! I'd certainly raise that baby in a cage just to watch it! Very cute cat and I love the punk-striped hairstyle! He'd be a keeper for me! I'd raise him if I were you! And post photos for all of us to see ..... cause he's unusual! :-)
Deb - What an interesting predator bug. Keeps his trophies on his back like shrunken heads! He looks creepy and efficient! =:-O
I still think what might be killing many of my cats is some sort of a cat virus. I see the cats thrashing around and throwing up their digested food or having runny frass. They are very sick and eventually die. I am half tempted to order some of the Professional Sanitizing Solution from this site:
http://www.livemonarch.com/store_care_tools.php
I would be curious to see if it helps at all. It's not that expensive and would be worth it if it kills any viruses on any of the plants/leaves I feed the cats.
Suzy, dont delete your post. I would have brought that in also. Now I can look back on it and say, sorry no room at the Inn for you.
chris
Booo tussock moths. I'm new to the milkweed tussock but we get tussock moths here every spring and they eat everything in sight and then they build their cocoons on everything in sight. They're evil - they drop out of the oak trees. It's so bad I have my family do a caterpillar check on me when I come in from outside. Kick it to the curb I say!
LOL, Melanie! I've never seen one around here. Here's more info on them:
http://davesgarden.com/bf/go/2059/
http://bugguide.net/node/view/64607
I still think it's cute! :-) And I'd still raise it! :-)
I think this is the one that left me all those cats on the butterfly pea vine.
Cute little skipper.
NIce Skipper Chris, it surely could be the one. Do you know it's name?
It's worth a try Becky. When/if you get it make a thread on how it's applied etc. We need to get the problem in check before the fall rush!
Don't be embarassed Suzy! Hey you could still raise it, as a a guinea pig', a practice cat. Don't feel bad, all of this comes with the territory. That cat site I posted is pretty good for IDing common cats your apt to get. http://www.giffbeaton.com/caterpillars.htm.
Suzy, at first I thought the pinchers were on the tail end of the garbage back bug. Now that I've seen it moving, I know they are on the front. At least that part of the mystery is solved.
Chuck, I'm thrilled about your Gulf Frits returning!! Now there goes the Passionvine, lol. Mine has finally grown back and generating more new babies again.
Glad for you! Hope they keep a comin'!
:-Deb
Linda I was looking all over for the RSP pic you mentioned posting, where is it?
Lovely BST! A success does help amid all the losses! He is purdy!
:-D
Deb, it's on this thread:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/750954/
Awww...look at the little skipper. I just want to pet them. I love their big eyes - they look just like anime characters.
If I only had one tussock moth I would probably never notice, but each spring we get literally thousands of them raining down on us. They will cocoon on anything - my pots, the pump for the well, the fence, our house, our boat - basically anything under the oak trees, which is about most of my yard. It is such a nuisance to clean up after them, not to mention all the damage they do to my plants.
By the way, I think my mystery caterpillar looked most like the fall webworm, but there were several that I thought it looked like. As long as I know it was a moth and not a butterfly, I'm satisfied. I just wish my eggs would hatch and Fatty, my gulf frit, would eclose. Patience is sooo not one of my virtues!
Melanie
Was out at the ranch today looking for butterflies I haven't seen...and this bugger popped up out of the tall grass along the fenceline!!!
Needless to say, I forgot about butterflies and started photographing and taking videos. Cute little tyke!!! The pasture it was in is fenced with hogwire to keep the boer goats in...I think it must have squeezed under the fence and couldn't figure out how to get back to the other side.
I drove the golf cart back out around 6pm and it was still there but bleating for mama. Am thinking she was across the fence in the other pasture that is wooded and overgrown with native shrubs and grass...so I opened the gate that leads to that pasture and drove slowly behind this cutie gently urging it towards the open gate. It only had to walk about twenty yards and it cooperated quite well. Quickly ran into the tall grass there and hunkered down under a tree. Am sure mama will find it as I saw tracks along the dirt road when I was looking around for butterflies.
~ Cat
This message was edited Aug 4, 2007 10:50 PM
Oh...and I did see a Texas Powdered Skipper. Hadn't seen one since last year.
~ Cat
ps...are those skippers in the blue pea vine Longtail Skippers..urbanus proteus? I've read posts saying that's what they use as a larval host. I hope so because I have a couple growing in my yard and hope to attract those LTS to lay eggs this year.
This message was edited Aug 4, 2007 10:54 PM
Ooooooh Cat, that baby fawn is so precious. : )
So glad you thought to escort it out of the fenced area. What a cute little deer! I've only seen them at zoos. Though I know deer do live in some of the wooded areas around Florida, just not here. The Florida Keys get a miniature deer: http://thefloridakeys.com/parks/deer.htm
I wish I had a reserve to have those mini deers! They are sooooo cute, too!
They hatched! They hatched! My polydamus babies hatched! I have two bunches of eggs, and the first cluster has all emerged - I counted eleven. This picture is so good you can count them too. Apparently, I'm improving my ability to hold the camera still. : ) I kept wondering how long they would take to hatch so here are my unofficial results. I found them July 30 and I'm pretty sure they were laid on that date as I had been out the previous day and had seen nothing. They hatched this morning on August 5, so it looks like they take just about a week to hatch.
Melanie
