Awww, that is a cute little baby, Mellie.
Hi, Mrs. Ed. You will get hooked if you start watching them. And running around the yard with a camera like a crazy woman. I know some of my neighbors think I am a complete lunatic. Not that I worry..LOL
Here is Pipevine again, I think..
Elaine
Lovely butterfly, and beautiful Native Azaleas too Elaine, nice shot!
Kim
Thank you Kim.. And these azaleas smell so wonderful. They are beginning to fade.. boohoo. I need to try rooting some more and spreading them around my woods.
Elaine
They're slow to get established, I purchased some, even the one that was flowering while I acquired it, it's still looking squirmish in its new home. I love them, wondering why not many available in the general circulation. Only specialized nurseries carry them.
Kim
One big question; is there books available that will tell different plants as hostplants for butterflies? Please help me out? I've this newly I.D.ed coral honeysuckles vines, it's said to be attractive to butterflies and bees, birds. But is it a hostplant for any butterfy?
I like "Florida Butterfly Caterpillars and Their Host Plants" by Marc Minno, Jerry Butler, and Donald Hall. Also a lot of fun is "Caterpillars of Eastern North America" by David Wagner. I don't think honeysuckle is a host for anything, but I won't swear to it. I drive by a big clump on my way to the preserve but I never see any butterflies near it. And it's growing next to a bunch of lantana! Dad says the deer like it because it's sweet.
Melanie
Thanks Melanie, I'll look up the book by the trio-authors.
I wonder if Hummers like Honeysuckle?
I think I remember reading that they do. I know they love Red Buckeye. And Cypress Vine too.
Elaine
now where did my hummer go?? let me try again yawnnn
This message was edited Apr 17, 2008 10:49 PM
Aww, he was there just blending in with flowers. so cute and feisty too. here he is again.
I saw him, lol. My honeysuckle is right below my window. Hummers has been seen trying to get inside my window 'cause I've some house plants and they're not even red. lol.
One has found my little greenhouse, got trapped inside for extended hours, the poor thing got dehydrated, once I had successfully chased it out of the garrage, the thing just perched on a tree branch and didn't have the energy to fly off for some time. It was okay after all.
I have a question about the Pipevine (A. fimbriata) I got from Becky's swap and this thread gets a lot of traffic, so I'm hoping somebody can answer it.
I have the pipevine seedlings and they are cute as the dickens, but they are so small! Do I need to barricade them from the butterflies so they don't lay eggs on them until they get bigger? One cat would strip them all to the stems.
I guess my question is: Will they grow big enough this year to allow them to be a host?
Suzy
Good morning...
It's still too chilly here for visitors but I thought I'd share a picture from last year. I have to work on photographing butterflies and hummers but this big guy sat nice and still forever...so i got a nice shot, actually I took tons, lol.
Too bad no one got me on tape yesterday...I was squatting over my new garden planting away when something buzzed by head fast...I got so excited thinking it just might be a hummer scout that I lost my balance and fell right in the dirt, I got a good laugh at of it!
Good morning to you Mish, beautiful luna moth! I wish I could see those beauties more often in my garden, I saw it once too several years ago.
LOL with you about the incidence with the 'buzzing' mysterious visitor. A camcorder was needed there badly to capture the moment. lol.
Mish, I'm hoping to see one of those beauties one day. LOL on the falling in the dirt! I'm glad someone else does that! I'm usually gardening in high heels when I fall over. One day, I will learn to take a moment and change my shoes!
Suzy, I can't really respond to your question about the pipevine b/c I've never grown one from seed. I will say that in the early years, my vine took a beating. Then when the vine got older, I used to move the cats to parts of the vine that needed to be pruned. Now, pipevine swallowtails and polydamas butterflies lay eggs on it every day and yet I hardly ever see a caterpillar. I believe that something is eating the eggs, but I don't know what. If I were you, I would protect the vines for right now if you can.
Here's a pic that I took this morning of a Polydamas laying eggs on my Dutchman's Pipevine.
Now, I'm obsessed with getting butterfly pictures! I really must stop and get some work done.
This is probably a Common Checkered Skipper, but I'm imagining that I can see three dark blotches on the leading edge of the hindwing which would make it a Tropical Checkered Skipper.
A snout butterfly taken from far away and then cropped like crazy. Can't believe it's this clear.
Will my alata pipevine attract the same butterfly as yours? I've had this vine last year, and I didn't see any cats. on in, and it's now outside, I'm anxiously waiting for the sign of the Polydamas b.f.
I've seen a similiar skipper/moth on a Virginia creeper vine, it has white poker dots pattern on a dark wing, smaller than that of a sulpher, could that be a a checkered skipper? They are so fast flying about and my Kodak Easy share isn't going to be able to capture those.
Kim
Kim, my butterfly book of Houston and Southeast Texas says that the polydamas is so rare in our area that you shouldn't even look for it and it doesn't provide any other info. The book must be old because I see them more than any other butterfly. The book does say that Pipevine Swallowtails will use any pipe-vine of the genus Aristolochia.
Hope that helps, and guess what! We're using the same camera! I think it's a good camera for the money, but it does have it's limits. It has a sports mode for moving targets, but I haven't seen much of an advantage there.
Hello everyone! I have lots to share so let's jump right in. On Friday, I took my Orange-Barred Sulphur to work since it was clear it would be eclosing. I thought I could see the detail the day before, but check out what it looked like that morning.
Look at its face!
He emerged just before 9:00 am. The liquid below is all the waste product from the chrysalis. Butterflies look all wrinkly until they "dry" their wings.
Sulphurs really don't like to show off their top side, so this is about all you get to see. The orange bars that give the butterfly its name indicate that this is a boy butterfly.
How awesome is that! Millie did you get some boiling water when the "water broke" lol,lol.
There's another lady at work that's into butterfly gardening, so I took the butterfly over to show her. She didn't get to see my Giant ST earlier in the week because she was in training. Of course, walking through the office with a butterfly dangling from your finger garners you much attention. I ended up being persuaded to bring my caterpillars on Thursday to give a talk to the kids that will be there for "Bring Your Child to Work" Day. Apparently, I will be playing the role of science teacher that day.
The only boiling water is used to make my tea!
So today I headed out to hike and hopefully find some more caterpillars to share with the kids. I work for the county, and I saw on our website they would be doing a controlled burn the other day. Sure enough, much of the land was charred. This was great for me though because I had access to many areas where before there was too much vegetation to walk through. Most of the pawpaws seemed unphased, but I saw a few that were a little charred from the heat. I felt sad when I thought about the caterpillars that may have been barbecued. I stopped to look at one of the singed pawpaws, and lo and behold - there was a caterpillar! A big one, too! I circled him in blue in the picture; I hope you can see him.
This is what the other side of the trail looked like!
But further down the trail it was nice and green. Usually, this is overgrown with those darn wild strawberries that have those thorns that stick in my jeans. The short, green shrubs in the background are pawpaws. It was much easier today to walk up to them and search for caterpillars.
I've said before that the butterflies don't always go for the large shrubs like you think they would. Instead, they often prefer little patches of pawpaw like this one here. I found three caterpillars in this area!
The butterflies lay eggs on the new growth like you see here. I also tend to pick the tops off for food as the cats much prefer it. I recently read that the cats also tend to grow faster if you feed them the tender new growth like this. I also figure it's like pinching your plants - hopefully it will just make them bushier! The first instar cats will usually hide in the curve of those new leaves. When I'm looking for cats, that new growth is the first place I look.
I usually don't see Buckeyes in this area, but maybe the fire opened it up for some of their host plants.
Why is this butterfly sideways? Because she's laying eggs! I picked up three just following her around.
Once I reach the fence there's a huge patch of lantana which is generally a good place to catch the butterflies in action. I saw a couple Palamedes besides this one, but they are fast! The first one I saw was nectaring on thistle.
Come back Palamedes! FYI, I have been known to jump this fence. There's some large building on the other side and there was a guy with a tractor out there today clearing land. It looks like they're adding something. I think it's a church, but I really need to pay attention when I drive by next time.
This is why I don't recommend planting lantana. One plant becomes a massive bunch. And this is just one of the bunches; there's more outside the frame of this photo. That being said, the butterflies do like it.
Proof that even if you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, the Outback Blimp will find you. They were having their annual golf tournament this weekend. : )
It's a hard-knock life. This Zebra Swallowtail is missing one of its tails; I suppose that's preferable to being eaten.
Mystery caterpillar on a maple tree. This guy was way above my head and I don't climb trees so you'll all just have to use your imaginations.
A Gulf Frit making my point about the lantana.
I think someone posted something like this before and we agreed it was some kind of spider incubator? Maybe? Anyway, I thought it was cool so I took a picture.
And a little crescent was flying around on my way out. While hiking, I also saw another kind of swallowtail, possibly a Spicebush. I also saw a Zebra Longwing, a little skipper, and a Hairstreak that didn't seem to have any red on it like most of the ones I see. Oh, and in my dream last night I saw a Variegated Fritillary, lol!
