Wow, thanks everyone! Those pictures are all mine - Mom is still taking her camera classes though. She was sitting next to me on the couch watching it change, too. The sulphur that was in his sling is now also a chrysalis so it took him about twelve hours. His chrysalis is also smaller than the one from last night, even though he's had time to dry out. I guess they vary a little bit. As for the point on the chrysalis, I have no idea. All my books agree that sulphurs have very bizarre chrysalids, but they don't seem to explain why. The leaves on the senna are rounded, so it wouldn't help them to blend in. Hmmm...I'll have to observe and think about this.
I'll add all my pics to the Bug Files once the butterfly emerges. I'mm 99% sure these are Cloudless Sulphurs, but I don't think I'll believe it until I see the butterfly pop out.
Cathy and Lucy, have fun at Selby! I'm about to head outside and sow the seeds for my first vegetable garden!
Melanie
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 31
I haven't been looking at DG very much because we don't have any butterflies here right now. I started volunteering at our animal shelter a couple of weeks ago, and I'm in a tizzy about fitting that in this summer with my butterflies and my gardens and my rubberstamping!! Husband says I have to prioritize......right......
Anyway, the only butterflies I've been seeing are the black swallowtails that are miraculously eclosing out of the old chyrsalides in the crate from last fall! Everytime a new one comes out of one of those old dried up things, I'm in awe all over again!!! I'm so glad I didn't clean out the crate and remove the old chrysalides when the last one eclosed back in October. BUT one eclosed last night and I didn't put him outside because he was still drying out his wings at nightfall. But today it's horribly windy, I mean gale force winds, and tonight it's going to get down to 28 degrees. I'm sick about imprisoning him, but he'll get dashed to bits in these winds, and/or freeze tonight. I've put some grape hyacinths in the crate with him. Am I doing the right thing keeping him in the crate until tomorrow, when hopefully the winds will have died down?
Oh yeah, I don't think keeping him for one day is going to be a big deal. I agree with you about the winds. Today and yesterday have been horrible here. As long as he has enough room and isn't banging against the sides he should be fine. Mmm...grape hyacinths!
Melanie
What I usually do when I have to keep a butterfly longer than I planned ... I use a very small dish or lid and add gatorade to it, then soak a kleenex in it so that the butterfly has something to stand on. If they are dehydrated, they WILL drink the Gatorade. I have raised butterflies on gatorade indoors in a cage for weeks during an unusually cold winter when they eclosed unexpectedly. Usually the fruity gatorade works the best.
Fantabulous photos!!! It's so glad to see others getting into butterfly raise and release and documenting the life cycles :o)
~ Cat
It sure was windy and cold at Selby's today. The wind was blowing right off the water. Still had fun, tho. : ) I wanted some of the orchids, but finally decided on a lipstick sage, and a Barbados cherry.
Then I stopped at the new Lowes on Fruitville Rd, and got 3 different coleus, a lavender lantana, a red and yellow lantana, 2 dark Red pentas, and a Soprano Osteospernam. Pretty good haul for today. : )
~Lucy
Nice haul Lucy! The wind was whipping, wasn't it?! I restrained myself and bought 0 orchids. Did get a native Phlox for the bf garden and another thing that I have already forgotten the name of. Fell into the amaryllis vortex and got two of those, the bulbs were so big and beautiful!
I had two surprises this morning, the windiest day of the year I think! As I was walking around the back of the house, I noticed something stuck to the frame of the screen door, wouldn't you know it was a female monarch that just eclosed and was hanging onto its chrysalis for dear life, right in the wind's path. This was at 8:30 as I was getting ready to leave. Transferred her to a rosemary bush in a protected spot and left.
When I got home this afternoon, I put some snackies out for the kitties and darned if there wasn't another monarch, this time a male, that was hanging off a pile of stepping stones. Rescued him and put him in the same spot I had the female earlier. He kept on wanting to get back on my hand, was still pumping up his wings. I finally got him on the phlox and grabbed the camera to take a pic.
These guys must have had their cloaking devices on, I never even saw them as cats! I must be getting old.
Cathy
Oh Cathy, he is beautiful. Fresh crisp color. Lucky you. I wanted to get an amaryllis for Rene (Elaine's mom), but DH was rushing me along. I barely got the 2 plants I did, as we were walking out. When we got to Lowes, I was throwing plants in the buggie faster than he could get away from me. lol
Cathy and Lucy,,,, I am green with envy. I have never been to Selby. YET. Have ya'll been up to the butterfly place in Gainesville?
Manning, SC that is sure nice of you to save that butterfly from all these strong winds we are having. And this COLD weather... brrrr We have friends in Manning (they are crazy SC football fans)
Elaine
Lucy,,, rule #1 NEVER take your DH with you to a plant place. Unless they are like Jeremy...
Elaine
No Elaine, I haven't been to the BF place in Gainesville. I would like to, tho. My DH takes me to these places, but he walks so fast that I kinda have to scan everything real fast. He likes to walk through the gardens, but doesn't have alot of patients at the sale booths.
I didn't even know about it Elaine. Adding that to my long list of places to visit. I've never been to Butterfly World near Ft. Lauderdale either.
Some day.
Elaine, when we moved down here from CT in 2006, we couldn't believe all the football fanatics down here!!! A neighbor and her husband go to all the USC games; they bring their RV and make full weekends out of every game!
I have to remember to get some Gatorade to have on hand for these butterfly bad weather scenarios. My beautiful butterfly eclosed the night before last, so he was in the crate for two nights due to the high winds yesterday, and I let him go this morning. It's still cool, but sunny and the winds died down. He hunkered down on a sprig of grape hyacinth and seemed to be conserving his energies while he was in the crate. This morning, after it warmed up, I put him on the deck table, on the hyacinth, and he was in no hurry to fly away. He soaked up the sun for quite a while, and then he took off. He was my tenth beauty to eclose from the old chrysalides from last fall!
I can't wait to have the flowers that some of you already have! I can't wait for butterfly season!!!
thea, that is an absolutely stunning picture, WOW! Congrats on the tenth one!
Been out playing in the garden, seen a couple monarchs, but nobody's feeling photogenic today.
Cathy
Got this little beauty today.
Great shots everyone!!
Such pretty flying flowers.. I can't wait for butterfly season either. My buckeyes are getting ready to bloom, so it can't be long....
Manning: those neighbors wouldn't be Charlie and Sandy James would they?? LOL
Cathy, we went right by the exit for that butterfly place in Ft. Lauderdale. Men don't stop for those either Lucy..grrrrrr
Elaine
Yea, I know Elaine.
Elaine- so close! Drat it! My DH would much rather that I drive, which is so very convenient!
We try to even it out- we stop at a Best Buy/Circuit City for his techie fix, then a garden center to green us back up!
gardenpom, that is a wonderful shot! I love orange anything and that is perfect!
Cathy
Love all the photos. Wish we had some BFs right now but it won't be so long for us! (I hope!)
BTW, Did you all see the DG article published today (I think) about Milkweeds:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/751/?utm_source=nl_2008-03-10&utm_medium=email
Elaine, how very funny, YES, we live just a couple of houses down from Charlie and Sandy!!!!!!!!! When they go to their games, I feed their fish and their two adopted dogs (Sandy takes care of these two dogs that have homes in our area but get no attention from their owners. She's a wonderful person isn't she?!). She's recovering from knee surgery right now. Maybe between us we can get her interested in butterflies too!!!
Well, I finally got out to my favorite preserve yesterday. I was hunting Zebra Swallowtails, and while there were plenty flying around, I only found one egg. I only found that one because I saw the butterfly lay it. I'll check back in a week or two and hopefully nature will have "taken its course". Here's one of the flying ZST - they were everywhere! I kept yelling, "Aren't any of you female?" because they were all more interested in nectaring than laying eggs or getting some loving.
Not my greatest shot, but these guys are quick!
There were lots of Buckeyes. I always see them in that part of the preserve. I know they use a lot of different things as host plants, so I'm going to have to figure out what it is in that area that they like so much.
The sulphurs looked really orange when they were flying around. I guess it's probably a seasonal difference.
And then I found a crescent! Saw one in my yard a few weeks ago; it's nice to know they're back in the preserve as well.
I saw a couple of these skippers.
I kept chasing these duskywings, but they were super fast. I don't remember being that fast last year! I noticed they had more of a blue sheen on the underside than the ones I've seen previously. It was hard to really capture them on camera.
I saw this moth so I figured I'd take a picture.
And for those of you who wonder where the heck I am and where do those pawpaws grow anyway...here's a pic. I think these are mostly pine flatwoods - lots of gopher tortoise burrows in this area. Not that I ever see the little guys (at least not in this part of the preserve). That little shrub in the middle with the white flowers is a pawpaw. As you can see, they grow in full sun in pure Florida sand. They're tough little plants, and right now they're flowering!
Here's a closer view of the pawpaws we have here in FL. This is about as big as they get; I've never seen one much above five feet or so.
And finally, here's a flower. Usually, I find the eggs on the new growth, but yesterday the butterfly I saw laid one on a flower bud! I thought that was so neat. This is my first spring collecting ZSTs so I'm trying to learn their seasonal habits. I did notice that they are smaller and have shorter tails in the spring.
In other news, Mom and I went to Borders and they had "Stokes Butterfly Book" on the bargain shelf for $4.99. I also picked up "Florida Butterfly Gardening" by Marc and Maria Minno. It looks really good!
Melanie
Forgot to add that when we were driving to Borders a bird started to fly toward my car, then stopped in mid-air and flew in reverse. I asked Mom what she thought it was and she said, "Hummingbird" which was exactly what I was thinking. I've never seen another bird fly like that. It was mostly brown, and a little bigger than I would have thought, but I think we saw one. Exciting!
Mellie,
Lucky you! It's been so dratted windy out here there are no signs of butterflies at all!.
Great photos...you love showing off those Zebra Swallowtails to us poor southerners from Texas who don't get any :o)
Good going on the Florida butterfly book by Minno - I have that and it is an excellent book!!!
~ Cat
Now, now - you Texans have plenty to show off as well! That's the thing I love about this forum; we all get to share our butterflies. It was very windy here on Saturday, but Sunday wasn't as bad so I decided to take a chance.
The book was a little pricey but it looked very informative and I had a 25% off coupon. Can't wait to dig into it!
Melanie
Melanie - Loved the photos of the Pawpaws! I always wondered how they grew. Thanks for posting those photos. My two baby Pawpaws didn't make it, so I may be heading to the Maple Street Native Nursery again very soon. I wonder just how big they will get? I'm thinking right in my front garden bed might be the perfect location! HA!
Both books you got are wonderful reference books. Great reading and I constantly use mine! Enjoy!
That's really neat that you may have seen a hummer! Aren't they amazing little birds?!!! Mine is still here. In fact, I just looked out my french doors and yep! there it is again tanking up for the night at the feeder. Gotta love em! I am sure hoping mine stays year round. It is a female for sure. I have seen a male too, but only twice. Perhaps this little female will build a nest and raise her family here. Got my fingers crossed!
Cat - I think some of the storms and wind blew over our way from Texas last Friday and Saturday. It was really bad weather here. We sure needed the rain!
I've thought about attracting hummingbirds, but I have a family of red-shouldered hawks in my yard and I would feel bad if if they caught a hummingbird. I actually hadn't seen the hawks for most of the winter, and this evening when I went to water my vegetable seeds, I scared one out of the oak tree. They come every year like clockwork and I like having them around. It's funny how they seem to get used to me. As long as I don't look them directly in the eye they'll let me get pretty close.
Melanie
Here's an update on my sulphurs. These are all the same caterpillars but for some reason their chrysalids are very different sizes. The smallest one in the pic is actually the oldest. It was as big as the others at first but it shrank down. I don't know if the others will do that or not. I'll keep you posted, and I'll be sure to share when the butterflies come out.
Melanie
Melanie,
Thanks for the Pawpaw pictures, I've never seen one.
Those sulfurs are so cool looking, I would so easily just pass them by as being some yellowed leaves.
Cathy
Wow, what a great collection of photos Melanie!!! I am SO jealous of the beautiful butterflies you're seeing. I wish we had those gorgeous Zebra Swallowtails around here. Last summer was the first time I ever saw Buckeyes, I think they're so pretty!! I'll have to look to see what host plants they use too, I'd love to raise some.
Another DG'er sent me Passionflower seeds a while back; I put some in the ground in early winter, and some in pots inside, but only got one seedling so far, outside. I was watching it every day, and over the weekend, it disappeared. I finally figured out that it was probably birds scratching around looking for worms, and they got the seedling. I was hoping to have passionflower for the Gulf Fritillaries, so I'm disappointed.
Mellie,
Great chrysalis photos!!! Wow!!! You can see all the color variances. It truly amazes me at how different the chrysalids of the different species are. Quite fascinating indeed!!!
Psssst...I always check amazon, abebooks, alibris, ebay and other book sites before buying a butterfly or moth book. You can get some really good deals instead of paying market price.
...and on a good but funny note...Becky or Deb...can't remember who it was - sent me senna seedlings. I decided to take one that was already about 18" tall to the ranch. Went and planted it by the pond on Saturday morning. When my brother and sister in law got to the ranch about two hours later my sister in law wanted to go drive out to the pond in the golf cart so away we went. As we drove around the pond we saw a sulphur flying away from the area where I'd planted the senna.
I had not seen a single butterfly when I was out there in the morning nor none around the house...but there was that lone sulphur checking out the newly planted senna!!! Dang! They find 'em fast!!! I didn't stop to see if it had actually laid an egg...but will have to check in on that plant next weekend.
Am going to be in deep trouble if there are eggs on it. That's the only senna there!!! Will have to research what othe native plants they feed on if they've already made use of that plant.
~ Cat