Frolicking frits.
~ Cat
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 15
Had been neglecting the Strawberry Guava bush so I decided to look it over. A few months ago the Guava Skippers never touched it...now I counted over 15 eggs, refugiums (nests) and cats on just a couple of branches. The red stars are either eggs or nests and the yellow stars are cats that were on the move - I usually can see them in the early morning hours when they are out and about looking for a new place to make a nest.
They've really been making use of it this month!!!
~ Cat
ps...no fair...we don't get Lunas this far south!! But gotta love that fat boy! I love finding those big fat monarch caterpillars.
~ Cat
good evening everyone....the results of my foraging was very good...i was able to gather teasel seed...and i even located some milkweed...i also gathered other seeds as well and will keep them only as i identify if they are ones i will need or not...
also while i was out and about...i came across a bush that was loaded with these fuzzy dots...obviously laid by something...and of course being so new to this i dont know if i have come upon something worth keeping or not...so i will need to do some research on the eggs...i saw the pic above in this thread...these i found are white fuzzy and bigger in size...if i cant identify them then i will try and post a pic...dont know how close i can get with my cam....
thanks Deb for all your help...ok so i dont get the swallowtails for the spice bush...maybe i will get one just because it smells nice????...lol
Piping in here hummingbird. You are going to love your new hobby. I just started this year and I am raising about 13 gulf frit cats, have released one, have five chrysalid and the rest are still eating. I have gone through two passion vine plants though (planted one this year that was used up pretty quickly and had to go buy another one so the little guys did not starve). My first plant is coming back already and I am not worried about the plants. I know they will be okay. I do get a little nerve racked about these cats. I am a natural worrier so that is just normal. But I tell ya, you give them their food and they do their thing with no help from me. It is so rewarding both from just getting to enjoy nature in such a way and also rewarding in the fact that you are saving these beautiful creatures from an otherwise untimely death. Anyway, you are going to love it and it sounds like you are going about it in a great way. Doing your research and such. I hope you have great success and I am sure we will all be waiting for your success stories when they come. Welcome to the addiction of BF's and have fun.
Leslie
I hear you about the Spiceush ST, I'm supposed to be in their range here, and I haven't seen any yet. Still time though.
I am also on the edge of the map for Zebra ST, but planted Pawpaw for the potential stray.. It would be such a long shot, I laugh at myself.
See this map? I am where the + is.
Deb
Wow! I never checked but just assumed that zebra swallowtails were exotic and that they were not by me. But they are! Yea! Gonna have to get a paw paw.
These eggs were on a milkweed leaf that I was bringing in for the monarchs. Do they look familiar to anyone?
Chris
bigger but a little more blurry.
Not sure Chris, However,I would definatly keep those eggs separate. All the bflies that use MW as host lay eggs singly. I will look into it and if I come up with anything I will let ya know.
Looks like you are in the ZST zone, yes! If you are able to get a Pawpaw that would be great. With the time left you might get some eggs. Also keep in mind that any Swallowtails, Sulphurs, (and a few others you could get).. that lay eggs past about mid Sept will likely hibernate until spring 2008 as chrysalids. It's so cool to save them all winter and have some to release in April when they eclose.
:-D
Have you done that, Deb? (hibernate them, till spring) If so, where did you keep them?
~Lucy
Not too much going on in the garden today. I replanted some iris bulbs and played with my bromeliads (have the scratches up and down my arms to prove it, too). I did see a ZLW by the bougainvillea, a Gulf Frit flying around, and I took a picture of this yellow guy. Right after I took the pic, a big swallowtail flew in for a few seconds. I didn't get a picture but I swear it looked like a Spicebush. I see them a lot when I go hiking, but I hadn't seen one in the yard before. Maybe they know I ordered spicebush on the internet last night?
Melanie
I moved the polydamas cats into the bf house. They're still roaming around eating. I saw an evil tussock moth cat on the patio screen which was odd because you usually only see them in the spring. I took a picture for you guys and then I squished him. They are evil and eat everything they can. It's been so bad in the spring that it sounded like rain with all of them falling out of the oaks.
For those of you have been paying attention to my quest for pawpaws...I checked on my seeds today. I realized I must have planted them too deep so last week I brushed off some dirt and made sure they had direct sunlight. When it didn't rain, I poured some rainwater on them. Well, I kind of thought it was hopeless because most of them looked like they had already germinated and you know once a seed fails it doesn't generally do anything else. But to my surprise I saw some new growth and one even has a tiny leaf, and another on the way! Sorry the pic is so blurry; it was early.
And another one! Seeing them germinate reminded me of when I used to do experiments for the science fair as a kid. I was always growing pinto beans and manipulating them in some way. By the way, I am pretty sure this is asimina reticulata.
And just for fun...here's one of my infamous "potted plant toads". The toads here tend to bury themselves in the dirt during the day, and then at night they like to sit in the gutters or on our concrete driveway. For some reason, they tend to bury themselves in my potted plants, and I can't tell you how many times they have scared the life out of me by jumping out when I was working on the plant. This one jumped out of my pawpaw seedling. I'm glad to see them as they had been MIA for a while. I blame the invasive Cuban frogs; since I've started methodically killing them, my native toads and green anoles have really rebounded. I also found one on the patio this morning, and even though I don't like touching animals and things, I put on my garden glove and gently relocated him to outside the patio. I'm getting better about my fear of amphibians and insects. Still won't touch the caterpillars though.
Melanie
Hi, all. I shot this today. I think it's a common Silver Spotted Skipper.
Andy P
thank you leslie...i am so looking forward to having stories to share...i saw a brown bf today and ran and got my book to see what he was but couldnt find him for sure...because he(or she) had this one spot on the lower part of the wing (you could see it on the underside as his wings were together)...all the pics i found in the book of brown ones had several spots...so i am not sure...will have to check here in the forum for info......oh i'll learn them in time but it was cool to see him in my yard....is there a place to go where you can see pics of eggs in different stages?
so yeah i am loving this new hobby...i have always loved working in my yard so this just goes right along with it...along with my hummingbirds of course!!!!!
This is definitely new to my garden. I know there are lots of varities of Fritillaries, so, I'm just guessing this is a Great Spangled Frit. But, looking at other pictures of the GSF, this one had more yellow than orange....
here's another angle... it was very pretty, and I was very happy to see it flitting about!
This is my only Queen so far this year to make it to become a butterfly after it eclosed a couple of days ago.
And this is her boyfriend...I was seeing them together all over today, but they're shy about posing together.
wow...those are gorgeous!!
what is the wing span on them?
Nice Queens Linda... They are beautiful!
Great pics of the Fritillary Lily.
and the Skipper too, gtsy Andy!
Proud of you getting the Pawpaw to germinate Mellie.. can't wait to see the ZST.
Lucy, Yes I overwintered 4 BSTs last year I sent 1 to Becky and it eclosed a few days after it got to FL.. The remaining 3 eclosed in April, after 5 months of diapause. I kept them in the enclosed patio unheated. If we had dry weather, I sprayed them with a mist of water every few days. This year I expect to have a couple different STs and possibly some Sulphurs, overwinter as chrysalids, we shall see.
Thanks, I was just wondering in case I have to overwinter any.
~Lucy
I thought this morning would be a slow day, but instead I had 1each from 3 different species eclose..
Gulf Fritillary~Which promptly found a mate and coupled. There were at least a dozen GFs fluttering all over the place.. A couple others tried to get in on it, but she was already taken.
A sweetie pie S~S Skipper eclosed, and a pretty friendly one at that...
Kinda crummy pic... but you can also see the Cassia in the background.
Set it down in the patch behind the Milkweed
Then I saw another one drying it's wings nearby> (One I left out in the garden.)
The one Monarch was really special. Not only was I able to watcher her drop forth from her chrysalis, but her markings were the most dramatic I have ever seen! I will make a filmstrip.. (The bit in the middle was taken in a 1 min video)
I set her on the Milkweed, so she could sit some more and remember where to come back and lay her eggs. Do you think I'll recognize her?
I think so,... Here she is>
OMG - she IS beautiful!!
What a beauty!!! She is so dark!!!
This is the coolest forum yet. I just started reading some posts and I'm all ready to start collecting cats. I'm probably too late for this year but you guys have me psyched up for next spring. We have a huge row of dill that comes up every year. I always see the Swallowtail cats on it, but never the chrysalis. Could something be eating them? I also have Milkweed close by too.
Ooh...look at all those Tiger Swallowtails! I'm so jealous. Welcome to the addiction!
Melanie
Thx Karen and Melsalz!
You still have 2 good months to do a lot to contribute to the conservation. Keep planting parsley and have milkweed ready when Monarchs start their migration... I will tell you more in a while.. I had it all down for you and pressed send, and lost it. I promise to recompose it all later.
:-D
Chris...those look like cinch bug eggs. I had a necklace made of that on my passion vine.
~ Cat
Great photos everyone. Love that big skipper Deb!!! I can't wait to see the White-striped Longtail butterfly emerge.
Also...am excited...I saw a Zebra Longwing out at the ranch on Sunday. First time I'd seen one out there!!! There's lots of native passiflora foetida and one passiflora tenuiloba that I've seen. Am going to transplant some of the boomerang passion flower vines and maypop out there. Hopefully there are more and they will use those vines.
Sorry for the blurry photo...this one didn't stay still at all...I think it was looking for passion flower to lay eggs on and mistook this huisache (legume family) - it kept coming back to it testing it with its feet.
~ Cat
I had a few zebras today also. I finally chased one down. lol : )
~Lucy
I also saw this, way up high. I had to zoom in to get this picture, with my hands up as far as I could reach. Sure can't hold the camera steady like that. : )
I think.....it's a Promethea Moth. Not sure tho.
~Lucy
Nice moth, ZL and Monarch! You know, I saw a similar Monarch today in my yard. All my Monarch cats that survived pupated already and I even released a few butterflies in the last few days. So Sunday I find a Monarch cat on milkweed by the subdivision mailboxes and bring it home. Then...guess what the Monarch today was doing? Yep...laying eggs! It wasn't one Iof the ones I released. So...is this the prelude to the real migration? The mamas laying eggs here won't reach Mexico...but some of their offspring will.
Oh, BTW, bad news about the two tiny skippers I found. They didn't make it. Their bodies had started to turn green and then I found them dead. Bummer!