Last Question. LOL
Any idea what this was going to grow up to be before it disappeared?
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 15
ok. First picture, on the left is a female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, and I THINK on the right is a female Eastern Black Swallowtail. That one's hard, because the wings are not closed, and as I've learned here, it's hard to tell Swallowtails apart sometimes!! Looks like your chrysalis could be the Eastern Black Swallowtail. Again, I could be completely off base!!
I have a lot of Pipevines (the plant) and they are always covered with eggs and cats. Don't know if that makes a difference. Here is a pic with the wings closed
Sorry, I just realized there is a forum to ID bugs and butterflies. Didn't mean to hijack.
Betty
Picabo! Way up in your first couple of posts it looks like a Giant Swallowtail from this angle.And of course the male Monarch as Rod said. ~confirmed~
You have 2 female Tiger Swallowtails in your pic> http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=3929609
In this post>
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=3929632
The butterfly is a Pipevine ST.. Very beautiful!!
Nice to meet you! Please, make yourself at home!
Sheba I think Rod might have it I will keep browsing for the right name of your cats as I can get to it.
The people over at Bug Identification forum are really good. We'd be happy to tell if we knew for sure. :-)
:-D
Sheba - I was thinking something like tent cats, too, but didn't want to say because I don't know for sure.
Welcome Betty! At the top of the forum is a sticky thread and in the thread are many helpful links. One link IDs many of the more common butterflies:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/749144/
If you can't ID your butterflies by this link, then absolutely post your photos here. Some very knowledgeable folks here can probably ID them for you! :-)
Hey Sheba,
I might have found something.. Look here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anitagould/35646911/
Says the ones in anita's flickr pic in this url are Datana..
:-)
Good call, Deb!!!
Sheba - Several more links about the Yellownecked Caterpillar - Datana ministra:
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/dp_hfrr/extensn/problems/YellowneckedCaterpillar.htm
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/dp_hfrr/extensn/pow/2001/september_5.htm
http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/foresthealth/idotis/insects/yellncat.html
If they are on a plant that you don't want stripped, then I would move them. I am not one to kill any kind of cats. But that is just me.
Thanks for the ID and the welcome. One more pic. to share
This is a Pipe Vine Cat (I think) the garden is usually full of Pipevine Swallowtails and the P V plant is usually covered with eggs and these pretty cats.
Betty
Great close-up of the PV cat, Betty! :-)
I had started some PVs from seed and they were doing great, but I looked about a week ago and something completely ate ALL the leaves!! I didn't see any cats around, but I suspect that's what happened. I wonder if it was a PV cat. I guess I'll never know. I hope the roots continue to grow and that it pops back up in my garden. Or maybe I should plant some more seeds? I don't know how long the seeds stay viable. Anyone know?
Thank you Becky
I'll look tomorrow and see if I have seed. Be happy to send you a plant.
The Cats strip a plant real quick. I love to stand under the vine and listen to the cats "Chomping" on the leaves. DH couldn't believe they could make that much noise. LOL
If you kept them in the fridge, they will still be great Becky. I'm going to plant a load of them in the corner when it cools down some. I still have some of the A. tomentosa seeds, and also a lot of A. elegans.
Which pipevine do you have Betty? (great mug shot)
My seeds aren't in the fridge, but my house has a/c and pretty cool all the time, so I am thinking that they are still good. Cat sent me a bunch of seeds about 3 months ago. The starter vines were A. tomentosa that were eaten. Do you think the roots will survive and put out more vines?
The darn Trumpet Creeper keeps popping up under my bird feeder. I have dug up sprouts 5 times now. If I don't get ALL the roots, it comes back. Grrrr........... Dumb mistake on my part!!! The vine is growing nicely in a large container after being dug up and replanted. No blooms though. I expect it to grow legs and get up and walk right out of my yard to spread all over our neighborhood. lol
Hahaha Becky... I hear that!
More often than not, the pipevines come back up from the roots fairly well.
..
Betty, I love how the PVSTs crawl and feel with their antennae, yes they are quite noisy! Must be something to have so much and sit underneath it! Wowie~
Becky, maybe if you dig down as low as you can on the roots of the trumpet, cut it and pour vinegar there it will die back.
Thank You :~) Those are some ridiculous looking characters. LOL
I have 3 different Pipevines. I don't know the name of the one that the cats love so much. It has the small flowers Maybe an inch long.
Also have the Aristolochia elegans and the Aristolochia gigantea. Fun blooms on the gigantea, no blooms yet on the elegans. The one marked elegans has splotched foliage. I haven't seen any information showing the splotched foliage so the name may be wrong.
This is the flower on the a g
When you guys and gals plant these pipevines, how much sun will they take, or how much shade? Where do you have yours?
I have a A. gigantea in a pot I need to set out, and I have a few seeds that someone sent me of A. giberti, A. Ringers, and A. Fimbriata.
~Lucy
I have a Gigantea and in my area, can't set it out. I have it in a large pot in front of a lattice wall. When it dies back, I will move the pot in my shed for the winter. I am rather dissappointed in it's proformance. This was my first year and only had three blooms and no butterflies or caterpillars (only a few web worms, they eat everything!). I have more hopes for it next year.
Lucy,
I think PV will do best in the ground with full to dappled sunlight. It will grow good under a light tree canopy with some morning sun.
Sheila I expect yours should do better next year too. The cold won't kill it with good mulching. I am going to put all my potted ones in the ground as soon as it gets a ittle cooler.
:-)
Morning, The Old P V that I have is in the ground in dappled noon until late afternoon sun. It has been in the ground for 8 to 10 years and has endured temps in the low teens many times.
The gigantea that bloomed so well this summer is in full afternoon sun I am not going to overwinter it outside this year.
The AE is in dappled afternoon sun and no blooms. It started Summer in a 4" pot and is thick and over 6' tall. LOL I am not going to try to over winter it outside.
This is a picture of my old unknown PV. The arbor is about 8' high and 4' wide.
Fall is getting close, I have seen Hawks at the bird feeders. Also the familiar sound of alarmed birds chirping like mad! Just now a hawk tried to land on the flat hanging feeder, about 5' from my window here. Looked me right in the eye. (He forgot he couldn't do that trick.)
:-D
Thanks for helping me to decide where to put my vines. I need to work on another fence, I guess. Can never have enuff trellises, fences, arbors and such. Huh? lol : )
~Lucy
Betty, does your unknown PV make a lot of seed? I wouldn't mind having that one. So much foliage...mine have patheticly little in comparison. And the cats love it, huh?
Picabo,
On 2 Sept you posted a picture of two ST's. Didn't see that you got a full, correct answer.
They are, to the best of my knowledge, both Eastern Tiger
ST females. One is a standard but slightly orange variation somewhat typical to Florida. The other is a dark form female mimicing the Pipevine for protection. These are found just about anywhere there are PVST's. There is also a brown form. When you can get a good dorsal or ventral shot with light coming through, you can see the tiger stripes in any form. However, the real clincher is in the HW color patterns. If you can get your hands on Kaufman's, with the Tiger on the cover, look at page 21.
Not a complete showing of all the color forms, but gives you a good indication.
I have photographed both the standard Eastern form and the dark form on the same flowers on the same day, but never both at the same time. Great shot!!
Rod
Can anyone help me idenify this frog? It's mosly white with a tad bit of green and black along it's eyes. It's cute but I've never seen anything like it before.
Here's another view. You can see the green on this one.
Sheeba - I don't know for sure, but it kinda looks like a Cuban Tree Frog. Though I don't remember if they get that stripe across their eyes like that. Does it have big round finger pads that help them stick to anything?
Oh my gosh, they're in OK now!? Kill it, smash it! Cuban tree frogs are very invasive and eat all the native frogs. It'll grow to be quite a bit larger than that. I kill everyone I find in my yard. Over in the Florida Gardening forum we've had many discussion on the best way to humanely kill the things. I can't believe you found one up there - I had no idea!
Melanie
Melanie - I am not sure if it is a Cuban Tree frog.
I heard the most humane way to kill them is to put them in a container and pop them in the freezer. (Not that I have done that yet.) I have them everywhere in my yard. I have the swamp lands all around my property in the vacant lots. You should hear the croaking at night! Thank goodness I have double glass windows or we'd have to get used to the that noise while trying to sleep at night! I'm glad they are pretty quiet during the day.
And if it is a CTF, it probably was transported to OK via a nursery container. Many plants sold up North come from southern nurseries.
I don't remember seeing any green like that on my cuban tree frogs. Mine are mostly light grey or tan all over. It sorta looks like one tho, I'd have to see it's feet. I'll see if mine comes to the window tonight, and take a better look at him. He jumps and hides when he sees me coming. lol : )
~Lucy
The pattern on the CTF can vary quite a bit. I see some that are almost pure white, some with black spots and such, and a lot that are somewhere in between. I can always tell them because of their eyes and their enormous toe pads. I imagine it would get cold enough in OK to kill them all, so that's a plus. I smash the little ones, but the big ones freak me out, so I have done the freezer thing to them. I think the only thing I hate more is lubber grasshoppers - got Dad to kill one of those today. Ewww!
Sheba if you post a thread in the Wildlife Forum, I bet you get a bite really quick. If not you can dmail kennedyd, and show him the pic. Those are things I would do if it were mine to ID. Best to get a good name on him before doing anything.
I think he's really cool!
:-D
Linda, I looked today for seed and couldn't find any. There are several young plants that I will be happy to send you when the weather cools off in a week or so. Still toasty here. I'll get some potted up tomorrow and if anyone wants them I will be ready to ship. I saw a lady laying eggs again today. and found several empty chrysalis on my Hoya vines. I guess more are on their way. I never saw that giant again though . I would love to build a cat cage. so Gkids can grand mom lol can watch them start their life.
I did find a tiger trying out the other morning. got to follow her/him around until he could fly. Fun shots.
I do have shots of the three phases together. Got them today but so tattered that I just deleted the photos, The brown looked dusty like he had been rolling in dirt, all three had badley tattered wings.
Now that little frog, I found one in the garden too, Say he is a bad guy?? He was sure giving me the evil eye while I made him famous, To cute to live in a camera so I have to share. LOL
.
Well I forgot to add the Frog Photo
Here is Mr "Evil Eye"
picabo - Your froggie is NOT the Cuban Tree frog! What a neat looking frog! Not something I've ever seen this far south. Thanks for sharing the photo of him with all of us ..... evil eye or not! lol
Betty & Sheba!
I looked through several sites and was not able to nail an ID on either one of your frogs. However, here is something you can do>
Click this site>
http://www.enature.com/home/
Check all the particulars of your frogs and have a look, or have the site show all frogs and go through them. If you have heard the song of these frogs it might be the best way of all to tell, because of all the variations. The song is probably their most constant attribute. This site has the songs of all the frogs.
:-D
Thanks debnes_dfw_tx. It hasn't made a sound. It only moves if I accidently spray it with water while I'm watering my flowers. If I found out more about it I'll let you know.
Now that's a good pic and definitely not one of the bad guys. Thank goodness! He's a keeper; guard him well and encourage him to eat mosquitoes!
If that frog were more brown than green, I'd say he looks like the coqui frogs of Puerto Rico. at night they sound just like chripping birds.