Well, I went out this morning and collected eggs from milkweeds...and collected more eggs, more eggs, etc. Okay, there is bound to be more than one butterfly laying those eggs! I'm so tired from all the stuff I've been trying to get done the last couple of days. But I'll be busy with getting things set up properly for a lot more Monarchs (and probably some Queens also) until I get ready to leave for my appointment this afternoon and a meeting I'm attending tonight.
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 15
Well, I've been lurking like mad, watching everybody's incredible achievements and feeling my BST experiences are a little too ho-hum to write about. Not that I'm bored with them, I've been having the best time this summer with my butterflies!!!!!! But once I started with my BST cats, I wanted to concentrate just on them, having never raised butterflies before, and not get myself too involved with other species. As of right now, nine of mine have eclosed, and every release has been emotional! I love/hate saying goodbye to them as they lift off from my hand, and fly away!
I'm a little nervous about my first batch, which I brought inside the last week of July. One eclosed on August 3rd. The remainder (23, I think) are still in chrysallis. I later brought in a batch of 17, and then 6 (or 8, not sure, gets a little confusing!), and the later ones are the ones eclosing. Why would the first batch not be?
Yesterday, bless timing, I finally got to see one actually coming out of the chrysallis!!! Very thrilling! But now that I see the difficulty of exiting the chrysallis, I understand the importance of it being adequately secured to the surface. This is making me worry about the one chrysallis that fell to the bottom of the crate a few weeks ago. Deb, I think it was you who used glue to affix some of your chrysalides to a ribbon? I'll have to try to find your posts about it; I'm so afraid of using glue, is there any chance of it sinking thru, and hurting the developing wings? Have your guys been able to get out of their chrysalides all right?
Here's a pic of three of the five that eclosed yesterday. The last one eclosed mid-afternoon. Boy, what a great day, I loved it!!!!
This Gulf Frillitary was hanging around the pentas about noon today.
This is my favorite one of the photos that I took, really highlights the proboscus.
Lovely pics of the Gfritillary B!
Thea, you sound like me.. I focussed on BSTs for the longest (years) time. Connecting here at DG has given me more access to larval hosts that I wouldn't have found otherwise. Last fall I went hog wild and planted everything I possibly could.. Yes it gets even more confussing, but it's so worth it! lol!
Linda, Your right about the Monarchs hitting their time of year there. I think there will be more than ever this year, so it's a good thing your gearing up for them. I hear you about busy, this week school started. whew!
It's been fun already! Tiring,, YES!!
Nice shots Lucy... Those moths are so huge!
Cat! Yaaay ZLW!! And what do you mean blurry? That's the wings flapping.. It is an excellent picture! A lot of detail on the still parts. I still haven't seen one here at all.
Melsalz~ Last year, about this time I was still getting lots of Black STs. They were laying eggs up to October and I kept the parsley and other herbs out there available for them, (mostly parsley). The last of them morphed the end of Oct., and stayed in diapause (hibernation) until April.
~I had some small parsley planted in my newly created host beds, and all the BSTs had hibernated. The parsley really got a chance to get thick and hardy before frost. I covered them when it got cold, and uncovered them when it was sunny. By spring I had an enormous thick dark green hedge of parsley. I would encourage anyone as far as zone 7 to try this in the fall. The scrauny little parsley plants planted in spring do not last like this monster hedge did. There is nothing like having plenty!~
Monarchs will be busy this next month, so there's a good chance you could find some cats to raise. So, though the season is coming to a close in a couple months, this is probably the heaviest time of thier activity across the whole usa....
:-D
Saw the male Ruby Throat today... not so clear from 30 feet, lol. He was so sweet coming real close to me here on the deck, then he flew right back to his perch in the corner tree!
Not a whole lot happening here. I have three main Polydamas cats I'm watching - we named them small, medium, and large. I keep waiting for large to become a butterfly, but I don't think he wants to. Today him and medium (who is almost as big as large) were curled next to each other eating the same leaf. I told Dad he must be like me - he's never moving out! In sad news, my second batch of zebra lonwings lived about as long as the other ones (two days tops). In good news, I have two native passifloras on the way so we'll see how those work.
The big yellow butterflies have been stopping by more and not just flying around like crazy. I feel bad because I never see them until I'm close enough to scare them and they start flying. This one landed on my bromeliad and it made me wonder if he chose it because it was yellow.
Then I chased him into my neighbor's yard and onto the firecracker plant. I always expect to see more bfs on this plant, but I never really do
Another skipper enjoying the plumbago...
Mom liked this one so I figured I'd share. I keep wondering if every fritillary I see is the one I released.
Melanie
Great photos everyone. Lucky Lucy!!! Gotta love that huge moth!!!
Deb...I can see the red on that ruby throated HB a mile away!!! That sure stands out!!!
Thea...BSTs are fun to raise. Pretty healthy for the majority of the time...although they can get into fights with smaller cats. I started off raising Queens (as we get those by the thousands). Once I got my feet wet as far as cat raising went I graduated to Giant Swallowtails, Black Swallowtails, Pipevine Swallowtails and a couple of other big cats. Then I got brave and raised some Ceraunus Blues - ooh those were wee buggers!!! The chrysalids were no bigger than a grain of rice!!!
Like Deb, I too went crazy planting every conceivable larval host for butterflies I wanted to attract to my yard. It gets nuts at times and have been letting Mother Nature take her course for the most part with the species of butterflies I have already raised and documented. I still raise some if I feel they are in peril but they do quite well on their own. I do kill off spiders and assassin bugs when I find them...as well as grab lizards and throw them over into the neighbor's yard :o)
Keep up the good work and feel free to share photos, questions and comment. That goes for everyone else. I know I get tied up with my own yard critters that I neglect to send kudos to everyone on here who raises butterflies and moths.
Sometimes with work and travel I lose track of the threads as well.
But alas, I finally got home earlier - like when it's still daylight!!! So I decided to take a stroll around the yard with my magnifying glass. I remembered seeing a Brazilian Skipper flitting around a few days when I'd leave to work - it was hanging around the cannas in the front yard so I scouted for skipper nests. Found several. Must say those are the UGLIEST caterpillars! Ugh!!! That see-through skin creeps me out. When you zoom in on them it looks like some alien slug out of the Star Trek!!!
~ Cat
This message was edited Aug 28, 2007 8:29 PM
Criminy...this wireless mouse drives me nuts. Batteries don't seem to last long...or is it that I leave it on too much? Sorry for the double post...I removed the text but couldn't wipe out the photo :o)
ps...got smart and bought lots of rechargeable batteries!
~ Cat
This message was edited Aug 28, 2007 8:08 PM
..and here's what I think is a female Brazilian Skipper - I say female because she was perched on the cannas in the back yard. When I got closer for a better look she flew off.
~ Cat
...and I reiterate female as this is what I found on the canna leaf.
~ Cat
...I counted 22 eggs on one canna plant in the backyard. :o) Least I think and hope they are Brazilian Skipper eggs.
Seems one was left earlier today as it is brownish in color...and the fresh ones are light greenish white in color. Must be like the Guava Skipper eggs that turn dark as they age.
~ Cat
Wow, that is a creepy little cat!!!
Now I have to go look up your Ceraunus Blues; I just CANNOT imagine dealing with chrysalids the size of rice!
Okay so where should I go look for eggs? On my milkweed, cannas, dill weed?
All of the above melsalz, lol..
What a beautiful Red Spotted Purple in your pic! Are those Cherries? Look for those cats too bc they use Cherry as larval host.
They have really good camo like Giant ST, but they have antlers.
:-)
Hi Deb:
I wondered what that butterfly was. This one is eating a rotten crab apple. I counted 13 of them on the ground under our tree yesterday. Normally we have several but this year we have tons. We do have 3 wild cherry trees on our property. Thanks for identifying because I hadn't taken the time to research what they were. I have really taken notice of all our butterflies this year because there are sooooo many. I really haven't planted anything extra except for a butterfly bush. So I'm not sure why the "bumper crop." I'm going out right now to see what I can find.
BTW: mellielong, I'm a Melanie too!
Grabbed a picture of this guy today. I am having so much fun with this.
Ah a lovely Cloudless Sulphur (female). The males are very bright yellow. Those have been visiting and laying eggs on my cassia alata. That plant grows good in SC, but as an annual just like here. How close are you to the coast?
Here is a really blurry pic of Cloudless Sulphur laying eggs on the Cassia today. I have 5 chrysalids and over a dozen cats and eggs now.
:-S
I'm glad you mentioned cassia alata, Deb. Hey, Melanie (s). I'm hoping to attract Cloudless Sulphers too. Is Christmas Senna a host plant too? Senna bicapsularis. It's not the same plant as the cassia y'all are talking about is it? I have one I got at our RU (Chris gave it to me). I'm hoping to train it into a tree like the one showing in plantfiles.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/92517/
Oh Deb! I want some seeds from that or a plant if you ever have one you can send me. Read the 4th comment down on this page about butterflies.. It isn't specific which kind of sulphur. I sure would love to have a cassia that wouldn't die in cold weather. I will continue planting the C alata tho, because it is so dear to me.
:-)
Will do! The seedling is now about 8" tall. I planted it in front of some milkweed plants near my pond hoping it will sheild the wind for the butterflies. I haven't read the comments, I'll go back and do that!
Here's my new baby that was born this morning. It was a really bright darker yellow than the last one I raised.
Also, this one mainly ate the yellow flowers of the cassia alata. I changed it's food from leaves to flowers, and watched it change from a green cat to a yellow one. One day it was half green and half yellow. : )
~Lucy
My next batch will be black swallowtails. I have about 10 of these. : )
Beautiful Lucy!!!
It is a male, that's why it's so bright as a butterfly.. Females are very pale in comparison. Seems the best time to get a good pic of the male is when we raise them. I hope to get some males when these I have eclose. The yellow is so brilliant!
He's gorgeous Lucy! Great job!!
Yaay!
Thanks Deb, when the female hatched, I was cleaning out the cage and almost threw him away. I just did happen to see him on an old leaf. : )
Yea, there's another Melanie! Welcome, welcome. : )
Lucy, it's nice to get a good look at that sulphur since they never seem to stop for more than two seconds.
Well, all my plants arrived today. Yea! Two spicebush, three pawpaws (asimina parviflora), two native passifloras (incarnata and lutea), and a native pipevine (a. tomentosa). I was rearranging things a bit to accomodate everyone. As I was transplanting my passiflora caerulea I noticed that it had layered itself and multiplied. I kind of laughed, and pulled it up - and noticed what I'm pretty sure is a zebra longwing egg! I can tell them now because they are way yellower than the Gulf Frit eggs which are more orange. Since I keep killing the ZLWs with that passiflora, I cut the stem into a piece as small as I could without touching the egg. Then, I picked a leaf off the p. incarnata and placed both in my critter keeper. It's sitting next to me on the side table so I can keep constant vigil. At least I've got some safe native passifloras.
Speaking of that, I go hiking in a lot of preserves, and there's a small one about a mile south of me. I don't go there too often because it is so small, and it's very shady so I don't often see much. On the north side of the preserve, the fence runs along the backyards of peoples' homes, and there's one lady that's growing a red passion vine. I always heard our native bfs couldn't live on those. Last time I was there I checked for cats but didn't see anything. Now that I know what the eggs look like I'll have to check more often. The flower is gorgeous, but I want to ask the lady why she couldn't plant a native one, too. Especially when she lives next to a preserve!!
In the meantime, my polydamas cat still doesn't want to be a butterfly despite my chanting of "butterfly, butterfly" whenever I see him. I have my new pipevine on the patio so it can grow for a while without anything laying eggs on it. Let's hope the polydamas cats decide to pupate before I get desparate.
Melanie
I love this thread!!! I have learned so much!! Melanie, I planted a red pasion vine this year thinking that it would attract frits. Ooops. Next year I will plant the purple variety. I did have one lonely Great Spangled Fritillary, but I haven't seen anymore. Meanwhile, my 'rescued' milkweed is growing well, no blooms yet. According to the migration table, monarch should come through mid to late September. So far I have only seen one. I hope I have blooms on my milkweed soon.
My little butterfly weed finally has pods. I plan to harvest the seeds and start the plants earlier next year. I purchased a few from our local nursery but they didn't make it.
BTW, what is the silver spotted skippers host plant? I have so many of them and I am wondering if their host plant is nearby, like maybe right under my nose?? I was trying to photograph TSTs and this little guy insisted on landing right in from of my lens. LOL!!
I think I had a skipper party on my deck a few weeks ago. Can anyone identify these cute little guys on my zinnia?
Crystal,
Here is a host plant link that was on the "raising butterflies...sticky" at the top of the forum.
http://www.dallasbutterflies.com/Butterfly%20Gardening/Host%20Plants%20by%20Butterfly%20Species.htm
Crystal~ silver spotted skippers use plants from the locust family. Here in my backyard they use Amorpha fruiticosa. That is a really good pic of yours on the Buddleia. As for IDing those on your zinnias... you might go through the list for PA on the Butterflies and Moths of North America site and see which they are. Skippers are some of the most difficult leps to ID, because there are so so many. Some look very close to others, and we can't always get the telling angle we need to tell them apart.
Yaay Mellie! You got your plants, how fun! Hey, about the orange egg on P. caerulea.. it still could be a GF. S'times they are orange too. It's alright to keep it with the plant it was laid on until the second instar. Then you can tell a bit easier. Its good you have the P. lutea now in case it is a ZLW! Good job Mel!
:-D
Ok, the Sunday lightning knocked out my internet, finally got it back last night.
Update: About 45 Monarchs in chrysallis. Lost only 3 during the process.
9 Sulphurs in chrysallis, they pupated at different sizes which scares me a little. Some looked way to small to be doing that already. Mostly a light greenish color.
This one is the odd one of the bunch. A beautiful pink, Anyone seen this before with their sulphurs?
chris
My Gulf frits are dying! :(
I cant figure out why.
They eat for a while then just slow down and give up. I have 6 in the cage and can only see 1 small live one and 2 small dead ones. where did the 3 bigger ones go? The cage is not that big, but I will probably pull the foam and vine and paper towel out to try and find the missing ones.
picture of the greenish chrysallis sulphurs.
Update on cherry tree cat: growing very slow, still eating, still not a great picture but here he is...
chris
p.s. Deb, I am sending you a few seeds for the christmas bush.
Chris, my Monarch cats pupate on the sides of the containers with their silk and cremaster stuck to the plastic while there is a perfectly good spot at the top like yours. What do you say to your cats to get them to pupate where you want them too? LOL
got some butterfly pics today
here
another
