Woohoo!!! Variegated Frits - guess there'll be cats soon enough :o)
Had gone to the ranch today and was puttering along the back roads in the golf cart when I spotted these two at it. WOW!!! Hadn't seen this species mating so I quickly grabbed my camera and took several photos.
~ Cat
This message was edited Aug 25, 2007 8:30 PM
...and another
~ Cat
Gosh Cat, you see more butterfly sex than anyone I know. LOL. You just seem to be there at the right time all the time. I know you will get some eggs from these two. Lucky you and let us know when you get them. Great timing and great pics by the way.
Leslie
Yeah, I think I've got the market on photographing butterfly sex. It's either that or butterflies in the clutches of spiders, praying mantis or other predators.
I raised VFs last year and fell in love with their chrysalids. Love all that iridescent and metallic coloring on them! I made up my mind to grow their larval host plants.
So now, I have a big tub of native green violet (hybanthus verticillatus) that is doing quite well at my house. I get a few VFs during the fall season but since there are so many at the ranch am thinking I should take it to the ranch and leave it out in the yard there so the VFs will lay eggs on it.
Had originally transplanted three tiny plants earlier this year into a large tub. Have been fertilizing and watering them and they are doing extremely well!!! It has multiplied and filled up the tub.
The stuff grows wild out at the ranch but because it is such a tiny non-descript plant it is sooooo hard to find. I got lucky and found the plant by watching a VF lay eggs on it last year. So scoured the yard looking for plants with no eggs or cats on them and transplanted those.
~ Cat
