DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 22

What a lot of great butterflies all have shared! We have practically written a book here since spring with about 2500 posts to this thread. Thank you all so much for joining in, as you have butterfly pics and tales to tell, please continue on with me.

It's sort of slowing down here with the cooler weather blowing in.... And I do mean bloooowwwing!! Lots of wind and sunshine! Today I am buiding beds in th back by the fence for all the new Cannas Sheila gave me last Sunday.

Sheila, Anna, and her friend Canta all went to Josephine's for the day. Josephine took us on a tour of the Molly Holler Wildlife Park, and several other related areas of interest. We sure had a great time! I finally got a chance to light and share some of that, so I figured I'd start the new page with some of the pics. Sheila got some that I couldn't get focussed on, and I hope she shares those too. In particular, I know she got the open wing pic of the Dogface Sulphur we saw in Josephine's yard.. I wasn't fast enough.. :-)

Chime in you guys!! Let's see whats happening in your neck of the woods!

Congrats Kim on the Tersa, Fine job!!

Hugs all!

debnes

Dogface Sulphur profile.. Drinking from one of the gazillion Turk's Cap Hibiscus in Josephine's yard.

Josephine was kind enough to hold one of the hundreds of Sleepy Orange Sulphurs that were covering the native Purple Asters at the Molly Hollar Wildscape Park..
Here is the link to the park... What a great place!!!

http://www.thewildscape.org/index.php

Zebra Longwing visited the porterweed briefly today. I only got one shot and then he was off - too busy to wait around for me!

Went out to pick some more food for the zebra STs and saw a bunch of Buckeyes frollicking.

Not a butterfly...but these guys were hanging out on a pawpaw with some ZST babies.

I couldn't get a good pic of this grasshopper, but I have a question about it. Do grasshoppers eat or prey on cats? I pulled a ZST cat off a leaf right in front of this grasshopper. The cat was curling up and generally looking uncomfortable and then it got me thinking about the above grasshoppers being on a pawpaw. Anyone know if grasshoppers are bad news?

And to answer a question I was wondering about...yes, swallowtails do have those "stink horns" (I forgot the scientific name) even in their smaller instars. I thought maybe it was something they developed later because I hadn't seen any of the little guys use them. But then I went to pick this one off the plant and he would not put them away for several minutes. He must be a feisty one because they usually don't care when I pluck them off the plant. By the way, they're the little yellow things sticking out of the front of his head. I did notice that they tend to look more like one horn than two; I guess they haven't developed that "V" shape yet.

Hello Deb, thank you for posting those pictures, that is the first Dogface I have seen, and they sure are pretty. I hope Sheila has one with the wings open. It was a great day. I posted some picture on the Texas forum.
Josephine.

Cool Josephine,
Had a lot of fun! Just now getting to this, lol. I will check out the TX Forum and see what you were able to get. I have more, but I needed to get that Canna bed all done.. Whew! They are all tucked away and trimmed. Some of the leaves were still crisp even til today. So this has been Canna week here. I have been immersing myself in everything about them. What an amazing plant!

Yep Melanie! All Swallowtails and even Birdwings have the 'horns' (osmeterium). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmeterium

Thanks for sharing your pics!

debnes

Bordered Patch on Tropical Milkweed at Josephine's house.

Ooooh. I love that bordered patch! Must have been a wonderful day out...

Mellie-- love your pics, too. Intereseting about the grass hopper...

So, do the butterflies like the cannas? Just wondering...hadn't seen much reference to them around here in butterfly circles but we can grow cannas. (have to bring in the tubers in the winter)...I know hummingbirds like them, too...

Brazilian Skippers are more sparse up toward Ohio, but they do go along the Mississippi during summer where the Cannas grow. Check the BF&MofNA site for the map, and you'll see.


People up north can grow gorgeous Cannas but they have to bring them inside for winter too.
debnes

Great photos!!!! The Bordered Patch is a beauty, I've got to look him up in my book. I'm interested too, about the grasshoppers, Mellie; the ones we have around here in SC seem SO much bigger than the little guys we had back in CT, I wonder if they are a threat to the cats and hope someone will let us know.
I got a kick out of my BST cats trying to look threatening with their little orange osmeterium; they might look ferocious to some of their enemies but to me, they just looked cute! Except I was always sorry that I'd stressed them enough for them to use their little weapons. I would always apologize for scaring them, and tell them I wouldn't hurt them for the world....

Geez, Thea, since grasshoppers eat vegetations, I don't think they're any harm to the cats. Any correction out there?

Grasshoppers pose no threat to cats at all, unless there are more GH than cats, and they eat the host first and leave the cats none. One is not a problem.. I think they are pretty cool.

Bordered Patch are not found in the eastern US.. they are a southwestern butterfly. They only go as far as the MS River.
http://www.dallasbutterflies.com/Butterflies/html/lacinia.html
http://butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=1712

debnes :-S

This guy was over 4 inches long.. Hiding in the Senna.

I found this on my caryopteris. Any ideas who this belongs to?

We did have a wonderful day, it was quite warm and a bit windy, but the next day the cold air, rain and wind showed up, in retrospect the day was perfect!
Frostweed has a wonderful wildflower slope full of all sorts of natives for the butterflies. Here is the open wing Dogface that I managed to get a picture of as Josephine held it.

Loved your pics Deb, wasn't it a great day!
Don't know about the chrysalis Kim, but bet we can find it.

This message was edited Oct 25, 2007 11:35 PM

Here is a shot I got of the DF when it was backlit. They love the Turk's Cap!

Deb, I didn't get a good shot of the unidentified butterfly at the Wildscape. This is as good as it gets, did you get a clear one? ID it yet?
It was a quick little dickens, flit'in about the Blackfoot daisies.

The Asters were drawing a crowd at the Wildscape too.

We visited another garden that Frostweed (Josephine) tends at a place called Fielder House. It has a lot of small beds that allow you to walk between them and always be able to reach a plant or in our case take a picture.

The Monarch and Queens were going for the West TX Mist Flower despite the windy conditions.

I noticed a butterfly on my Turks cap the other day. They go in through the side of the flower to get the nectar, since it doesn't open. Or at least this one did.
~Lucy

Yes, that is the way the hummers take nectar too.

We came across this little fellow on the Petunias and the Fielder House Garden.

This was on the fence, nice Gulf Frit chrysalis.

And last one for now. This is a shot of a small area of Josephine's slope in bloom. She was saying it was so pretty a few weeks before, but we thought it was georgeous now, and the butterflies agreed!
Thanks for a great day and lunch too Josephine! Anna, Canta, and Debnes, I enjoyed your company as well.

Thank you Sheila, Those are great pictures, we finally go to see the dogface, that is so cute, I will have to look for them more.
You are all so sweet,
Josephine.

Great pics Sheila!! Love the DF!!! Thx for holding it Josephine!!

The pretty little butterfly is a Common Mestra Sheila! Good enough to ID, thats the main thing. Awesome job!

They use the host : Noseburn (Tragia neptifolia) From the Spurge family (Euphorbiaceae).

http://www.dallasbutterflies.com/Butterflies/html/amymone.html

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=1805

debnes

The pic from my book is better:
Kaufman Focus Guide

Butterflies of North America

Common Mestra

debnes

I've had mestras all over my property for a few weeks now. The orange is quite a bit lighter on them. They won't hold still long enough for a photo, unfortunately. But today I finally chased the Julia around long enough to get photos of it. It's on the White Mistflower, which is so popular this time of year.

The Common Mestra sure is pretty Deb, it is nice when you can see the full design and color.
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Linda, I love the white mist flower, they come in after the Frostweed and fill the gap for white flowers, they are looking gorgeous at the Fielder house, and that Julia sure is pretty too.
Josephine.

They have white mist flowers, too? Oh my, another thing to add to my evergrowing list. : )
~Lucy

All my little guys are molting. Here's a zebra ST hanging out on the lid. That's his head to the right and his skin to the left. They eat their skin after which makes it nice for the human who has to clean the cage.

Then the Gulf Frit decided to do it too. They're so big now - it seems like they were just little eggs and now they're growing up.

And in case you missed my zebra ST thread, here's my newest beauty who I released yesterday. I should have another one eclose tomorrow.

Gorgeous!

Nice Mellie~
I am glad you posted the pic in here too. That's what this thread has been about. A chronology of our butterflies through the year, TY! I love the ZST! Who knows a wind could blow some up this way... I have a Pawpaw (A. trilobata) that is about 18" tall, not too bad for just one season's growth. Until then I really enjoy you sharing. :-)

Yes Linda~ The variation in colors is really remarkable.. That's why I posted the 2 links and then took the pic of the page in my book, bc they were all so different. The Julias are so pretty, I love the pic!

Lucy~ I'm with you.. The White TX Mist is amazing. DH just saw Linda's pic and gasped at how snowy it looks.. Now you and I both need to get some.. LOL!

debnes

Oh Josephine the White Mist at the Fielder House was so so pretty. Maybe the seeds will be ready soon and we can snag some when they turn brown, Ya think?


debnes

I would love to have the white mist. If it's anything like the purple, it's a sure-fire BF attractor. : )
~Lucy

I could collect some seed later if you want some. But this plant can get a little bit large, so keep that in mind. It can be pruned back, but the blooms will be less.

Went out to the NABA park today. Glassberg was out there looking at butterflies too.

Got to photograph an Evan's Skipper (Panoquina fusina). The photograph doesn't do justice to the coloring on this big guy.

~ Cat