CLOSED: butterfly? black shiny wings with white tips on both wings

I am having problems identifying a butterfly that I have never seen before. It has shiny solid black wings with white tips. The tips occupy about a tenth of the wings. It also has a red thorax and black head and abdomen, and black legs. The antenna are thin (not feathery). It was a medium size insect. Its wing span would be about 2 american quarters across. Thanks for any help. Photo is being scanned later.

Is it this White tipped Black Moth?:


http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/1305/

Is this the missing fly?

I am raising a bunch of caterpillars of this species (White-tipped Black Moth (Melanchroia chephise)) right now. They love eating my Snow on the Mountain shrubs.

I have them all in a pile in a container until the larger container is finished being washed in the dishwasher. They are hungry little cats!

Here is a photo of the cats on the bush.

This message was edited Jun 14, 2008 9:44 AM

They crawl like an inch worm. This is a photo showing them all piled in the small container. Constant movement in the container. I must have collected about 30-40 of them! Mama was busy laying eggs for sure!

I have been busy on many other forums learning about plants here on DG as well as working on my garden beds and employed doing summer school. I am soooo glad to see some of you that I helped last year learn about raising and releasing butterflies and now ... YOU are teaching others! Y'all are really helping to pass it on! Keep those butterfly habitats going and keep passing along the word to more and more gardeners! :-)

I will jump on this forum ocassionally if I have something new to add here. Most of you have very beautifully covered so much already that I don't bother to repeat it. I just lurk now! Some great photographers here on this forum as well. Don't forget to add good photos to the bugfiles.

Save those seeds! I had such success with all the seeds from last year's first annual swap. I thank you all again who shared your seed harvest. Butterflies are not as abundant here in this area during the summer months. I will see much more come Fall and Winter. Too hot here for the butterflies, many of their host plants, and even me sometimes! LOL!

Haha Cj!

Good to hear from you Becky! I miss seeing your posts!

That is quite a group there!

I need to send you a pic of those Max sunflowers that you sent me...they are about 6' tall!!! Hope they bloom this year.

Hiya, Rox! You haven't seen nothin' yet! Look at mine on the left in this photo I took this morning! LOL! They make a great shade bush or garden room divider or screen from your neighbors! I have to prune this one this weekend because it is 8' tall and touching the roof of my house again. I prune this bush 4-6 times a year. It didn't bloom for me last year because I pruned it too late in the Fall. It is a Fall bloomer. Cut it short in late summer and then just let it go. It will produce buds and bloom like crazy! And the bees and butterflies will love you for the flowers.

Wow, that's pretty.

Here's mine, see how tall it is? They have lost all the lower leaves, it's a dry bed here, right by the ac units, and the sprinkler system doesn't do the side. Is it too late to cut them short?

Rox - You can cut them back. They will sprout more stems from the sides of the main trunk and become more bushy. The bottom leaves always die on mine too. They look good! :-) :-)

Thanks Becky!!!

Hope you have a great summer!

You too, Roxanne! :-)