Hello everyone,
I found 2 eggs on my Passiflora retipetala (cyanea) this morning. They were relatively large, and each had a gold "fleck" in it. The gold "flecks" don't show up well in the photo. I was thinking they might be variegated fritillary eggs, since the VF chrysalis also has gold flecks. However, I've never seen a variegated fritillary in my yard. These are at least 3 to 4 times the size of a gulf fritillary egg. Can anyone help ID these eggs:
Thanks!
Mark
Wonderful shot Mark. Can't tell you anything about the type though.
They look like bug eggs. Not good guys at all. If you look at the bad bug photos on my community webshots you will see what they hatch out as.
This is a link to the egg photo (there are other photos you can click next on which show the fresh egg and how you can see the bug forming as the egg ages)
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2118737350096214582cuOMVU
and the bug
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2010784990096214582dGjwwy
~ Cat
This message was edited Aug 9, 2007 7:48 PM
Cat I clicked a couple pics further and they look just like the stage of the ones Mark captured. Complete with the gold fleck you described Mark.
Eeeek!
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2766308240096214582LKsmSG
Yeah, they are iridescent and very pretty...but still a dratted bug! UGH!!! I've raised more bug eggs than I'll ever admit to :o) but alas, sometimes you just never know what they are.
By the way, Variegated Frit eggs look like Gulf Frit eggs but are more whitish in color.
I have a lousy photo of an egg...sorry but the larval host VF uses out here is Green Violet which is a very small grass like plant. I'd been out in the field and it had been hot and I was tired...when I saw one laying an egg and went to investigate but didn't have the energy to get a good photo. Wasn't about to lie down in a field of overgrown grass and stick burrs :o)
Have since transplanted some into a large pot and the plants are doing extremely well...just waiting for the VF to come find it and lay eggs on them!!!
~ Cat
Thanks for the help Cat! I took the eggs off the plant and put them in a plastic cup with netting over it, so I can see what they hatch into. I would have been surprised if they really were variegated frits.
Thanks again!
Mark
didn't know you have Web Shots albums Cat. I ID'd your 2 birds for you
Do tell Donna - I'm not into birds but whenever I'm out at the ranch and a pretty one is close by (anything that isn't a crackle is pretty to me) I try to get a photo and identify it by researching the web...or a bird book I recently purchased.
Do let me know if I've mis-id'd a bird or what they unknown one is.
~ Cat
I did both of them. A Yellow-rump Warbler we call butter butts and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Mark...
Did you get photos of what those eggs hatched out?
~ Cat
Hi Cat,
No I didn't, and when I checked the cup, the netting had come off just enough in one spot to allow them to escape. The eggs were broken, so those 2 bugs hatched out and wandered around somewhere in the laundry room. Never did see them. LOL!
Mark
