DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 30

Continued from: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/813906/

I believe you all solved Elaine's mystery on her Hollyhocks, thanks to Lucy (Blue Glancer) for recognizing the rust. ;-). It should be early enough for the leaves to grow back in time to support all the blooms, Elaine. What kind of Hollyhock is it?

Then there is Becky with the mystery cats... Cat's right, the Pansy Soldier flies in Asia, I think a long shot too. Maybe they will find their own host if you leave a few out to search. Hopefully they can find it in time to grow up and morph.. Meanwhile I will join the search for what they could be.
Deborah~ I hope it's butterflies too.

Was busy the last few days tying up all the details of the new truck DH just bought me..:-). Looks like I missed a lot!

2 days ago I found a 3rd-4th instar Gulf Fritillary out on the passionvines. Since the weather is so unstable, I decided to cage it and bring it inside~ Good thing I did, bc it was freezing cold outside this morning.

This message was edited Feb 22, 2008 1:09 PM

Once again, here is the post with the picture of Becky's cats:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4571288

Their heads remind me of some kinds of tent caterpillars. The only one that makes sense to me now is tent because they are on milkweed and tents will lay eggs anywhere. We have already ruled out all the Monarch family, and after looking around I am leaning toward them being some kind of moth. Still they will change with their instars and look different each time, and maybe easier to ID then.

I added some young fresh milkweed leaves to the container and when I came home this afternoon, I could see where all the teeny cats had been eating holes in the leaves. I just added some more leaves. Monarch, Queen, and Soldier butterflies lay single eggs on leaves. I believe all these babies were layed by mama in a cluster on a single leaf. I have been trying to determine what else uses Milkweed as a host plant. I am now leaning towards the possibility of a moth. But what moth? I don't know.

Ooh...a mystery! I have no idea what those are. They kind of look like the Polydamas cats I had when they first emerged except they're not dark enough. I hope you can raise them until they're adults so we can find out.

I found a couple more sulphurs on the cassia. They're still small so I circled them in red so you guys wouldn't have to strain to find them. There's three in this picture!

Melanie

Becky....On the previous thread, TPP said of your mystery cats...

Good thing you have them contained Becky, just in case they do turn out to be tent cats.

Great going with the Sulphurs Mel!!

By the way everyone~ I still have lots of candletree seeds if anyone wants any.. Still time to sow them and get a great big tree by late summer. Just send me a stamp, yes that's all. Just a 41c stamp, and I will send pack a packet as soon as I get it. :-).

My frit is walking around on the ceiling of the cage now.....

debnes

This message was edited Feb 23, 2008 8:55 AM

Don't Tent cats make like a large silk web or something when they are in the cat stage? No webs here yet. These cats I have are actually eating the Milkweed! I put other leaves in there, but they are going for the MW leaves only. I wonder if Tent cats would eat a plant that is mildly poisonous? I'm so stumped on this one! Obviously, I am missing some information somewhere about MW plants as hosts for certain butterflies. I remember I had this same problem with the White butterfly cats eating my Nasturtium leaves a year ago. :-/

The Eastern Tent Cats do not feed inside the nest like the Fall Webworm does, from what I've read so far. Hatchlings would not have built a nest right away, it seems they would need to begin eating and then build after that. The other thing I do know for sure is Tents and Webworms are not host specific. Only thing I can come up with for now.

I really do hope I'm wrong about them being tents, and very well could be. :-).

What kind of harm do tent cats do, (or is it the adults that cause problems)/

I hear ya, Deb! If they are tent cats, over the fence they go! LOL! Maybe they can slow down the growth of all the Brazilian Pepper Trees behind my property! LOL!

Deborah - The cats will defoliate a plant in quick order. They are a nasty pest! You don't want them in your garden ... that's for sure!!! But I don't have a problem with them eating invasive tree leaves! LOL!

AND the birds like to eat them! :-)

This message was edited Feb 23, 2008 11:11 AM

They do sound like a good bird snack!

Found something else that makes sense:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/28118

Look at the smaller instars of these Milkweed Tussock cats...

Hmmm ... Deb - You may be on to something. The least "hairy" of those cats do look somewhat like my cats. Hopefully in a few more days, I will see more definite patterns on the babies and we can tell what they might be! Great link! Thanks for finding that one! I looked and looked and couldn't find any first instar photos of the MT cats. :-)

Those cats look like Punk Rockers to me! LOL!

This message was edited Feb 23, 2008 12:26 PM

I read this about those.

'The tussock moth caterpillars are covered in rows of black, orange, and white hairs. These striking caterpillars present a special challenge. They feed in groups on leaves, and will out-devour even the most voracious monarch caterpillars. Fortunately, the beetles and bugs cause little harm to milkweed, and the tussock moth caterpillars can be selectively removed by hand, sparing the beloved monarchs. After all, monarchs are called monarchs for a reason! '
~Lucy

Hi everyone! Now that I've had my nap I'm ready to tell you all about my butterflies. Today Mom and I went down to Ruskin, FL (where all the good tomatoes come from). We were volunteering with the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. The county recently did a controlled burn at this site and they needed people to pick up the trash that had been exposed as well as to document gopher tortoise burrows. Mom and I had the unglamorous (yet important) job of picking up trash. Some of the things we found: a helium tank, two tires, dozens of beer bottles, and the tailgate to a truck! I took a picture just to prove it. And that would be the Little Manatee River in the back.

Despite it being windy and thunderstorms moving in, the butterflies were out and about. I actually saw a lot of swallowtails today! There were also plenty of sulphurs, including this one.

A blurry duskywing (not his official name, LOL!) Haven't seen these little guys in a while. Glad to see they're back.

When we had first pulled in, we parked under an orange tree. I thought I saw a caterpillar, but it turned out to be bird poo. : ( However, once we were leaving I saw a butterfly flying around and it turned out to be - a Giant Swallowtail that started laying eggs right in front of me!

Here's another shot! How exciting!

Of course I had to inspect the tree and grab some eggs. It started raining just after that pic so I only found two eggs before I had to run to the van. Here's a pic of one. I hope they both make it; I really want to raise another kind of swallowtail until it becomes a beautiful butterfly.

Melanie

Wow Melanie, that is fantastic! Great pictures too, you must be floating on air!

Becky, I hope you get a final ID on those little babies and they are something you want to raise!

Cathy

Mellie...congrats on the cats and eggs. You're starting the butterfly season early!!!

Becky...am still waiting and watching to see whether those are tussock cats :o)

Went out to the ranch today....everything is soooooo dry! On a good note the citrus trees started blooming. Lots of butterfly activity on two trees so I spent a few hours waiting and watching for something different.

Saw about two dozen Pipevine Swallowtails, gobs of Gray Hairstreaks, Snouts, Fatal Metalmarks, Funereal Duskywings, miscellaneus skippers, Sulphurs a couple of Duskyblue Groundstreaks, Rearkirt's Blues and Nysa Roadside Skippers. Also saw one lone Giant Swallowtail, one Sickle-winged Skipper, one Turk's Cap Skipper and this Cloudywing.

Am not sure if it is a Coyote Cloudywing or Jalapus Cloudywing. The wings were very iridescent - not like the usual run of Coyote Cloudywings I've seen. Am waiting on an ID from a couple of local leps.

~ Cat

Thought this was an irresistible photo :o)

~ Cat

Guess this Funereal Duskywing liked my tennis shoe :o)

~ Cat

Since nothing much was blooming but a couple of citrus trees oftentimes there were two to three butterflies or bugs on the same bloom. Was able to catch a Snout, Rearkirt's Blue and Gray Hairstreak having a threesome :o)

~ Cat

Red Admiral and Gray Hairstreak having a twosome.

~ Cat

I tell you there were gobs of Gray Hairstreaks...here's one in my photo of a Gulf Fritillary.

~ Cat

Fatal Metalmark with a bee of sorts :o)

~ Cat

One last one of the first photo of the Cloudywing :o) Love the rainbowy look.

~ Cat

Melllie,,, what a good person you are to help clean up.. and you were rewarded with a butterfly moment. I cannot understand how anyone can dump trash.. how lazy can you be??? not to find a dump site.
Cat,,, such beautiful pictures. I want a new camera.. hmm tax refund,, yep.
Becky, any luck on id yet??

Elaine

Thanks Elaine! The really sad part is that most of the trash we found was close to the canoe launch entrance where there were two 55 gallon trash cans. Over lunch we discussed the crazy things we found, like a bunch of ceramic tile I found, and a toilet another lady found! We do have twice a week pickup here in Hillsborough County - there's no excuse not to dispose of trash properly. Next month we're going to be doing the same thing at a park in one of the older neighborhoods of Tampa. Dad thought I should show you guys the other critter I found - and luckily I saw it first because Mom is deadly afraid of snakes. This is a cottonmouth. It's funny, as much as I go hiking I rarely see snakes.

In funny news, I was looking for all my teeny tiny sulphur cats; I had the lid open and was literally turning over each leaf. I was about to close up the critter keeper when I noticed one of the cats had crawled onto my thumb. I never even felt it! They're so small; it's crazy!

Melanie

ooooo, I am not really afraid of 'regular' snakes, but I don't care for this one.
And yes, thanks to my friend, Lucy, I know I had rust on hollyhocks. I spent afternoon cutting them all back to the ground and burning them. Will clean up all leaves and mulch around them tomorrow. They will come back even better..

Elaine

Melanie and Cat - Some great photos and some beautiful butterflies!!! WOWEE!!!

Melanie - Cottonmouth! Eeeeeeekkkkkk! I don't mind snakes. I just don't like the poisonous ones ... at all!!!! (shiver~~~~)

Elaine - So sorry about your hollyhocks! I have rust something horrible in my yard even after trying to get it under control. I've been told it is seasonal here in humid Florida. Hopefully, it will die out. I've seen it on plants in previous years too, but this year was particularly bad because I grew so many more plants that are prone to rust.

Yes, Becky. And I have some daylilies growing in the same bed with the hollyhocks. I haven't seen any sign on them yet. I will probably spray with a very light bleach spray around them. I don't have any butterflies around, yet. sighhhhh.
Elaine

Elaine, when I start releasing some of my butterflies, I'll tell them to head your way. : )

Melanie

Elaine - I have a feeling you'll be getting butterflies VERY soon!!! :-)

Me too Elaine!
Good job Mellie and Mom! It is amusing to see what you find, and maddening that peeps wouldn't dispose of those things correctly!! Congrats on the GSTs! Cool Snake!!

I actually have about 3 GST chrysalids and one BST Chrysalis that over-wintered. I have been checking them more lately.

Great day for you Cat! Love all your pics!

The finish looks black but it is Black Cherry... Here is a really close-up swatch when the sunlight shines on it..

Nice decorations Debnes!