DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 36

Between the RSP and the Tiger ST (coming out of holes in your garage!!) I am so jealous! Two absolutely gorgeous butterflies.

Well, I'm shot full of B12 and taking tablets now (and Vitamin D tablets) and feeling much more like myself. I got in touch with the lady who runs the butterfly garden at MOSI and I'm set up for training Monday afternoon. I stopped by and picked up their handbook and read it today during lunch. Luckily, I already knew the answers to most of their FAQ, I knew about the cats and butterflies, so I concentrated on reading their procedures for cleaning and sterilizing. I recognize most of the plants in their garden so I should be ready to jump right in.

Here's a Monarch I saw when I stopped by to get the handbook.

Kristin, the butterfly lady at MOSI, works Mon-Fri so she says she relies on volunteers to help on the weekend. I told her how when I was there for the Mother's Day tea I felt bad for the Polydamas that had eclosed and were waiting to be set free. She said that it's hard to get volunteers on holiday weekends like that and I told her my mom would happily be right there with me freeing the butterflies and feeding the caterpillars.

Here's a little skipper that was also hanging around outside.

Also yesterday, my Cassius Blue chrysalis started turning very dark. I brought it to work and waited all day but it never came out.

So I took the little guy to work again this morning. As I was getting out of the car at about 7:15 this morning, I looked in my bag and guess who decided to wake up early? I didn't want to free him downtown, so I picked some Spanish Needles (they're a weed here, but an excellent nectar source and host for the Dainty Sulphur).

Ahhhh, he's so cute, Melanie. I love those little fellers. : ) Look at that lil face. : )
~Lucy

I think you can really see the blue shimmer in this picture. My butterfly sat very patiently all day with very little fluttering about. It was rather cool in the office today. When I got home, Mom, Dad, and I all gathered around the plumbago as I let him go. A few minutes later as I was watering nearby, I saw another Cassius Blue flying around the plumbago. Hopefully, love is in the air. And speaking of love, the plumbagos on the other side of the house (where I snapped the picture of the Cassius Blues in the throes of passion the other day) has some eggs on it.

FYI, the pipevine I ordered arrived today so my Polydamas cats now have enough to eat for a little while anyway. I've lost a few, but it's more like one or two at a time, not a massive die-off like usual. Mom was in charge of feeding my large Monarch cat and today she got really excited because he was "picking at the cheesecloth" and made his silk button. I'm just glad I don't have to feed him anymore!

Melanie

Lucy,
I think the blues and the hairstreaks have eyes like the "Gray" aliens. But I think that's cool! I was enjoying watching his antenna move around today. It was nice to be able to see one up close since they're usually just a blur around the plumbago.

Melanie, I just wish they were alittle bit bigger. I hardly notice them, sometimes. I guess I want all butterflies to be big as birds, but still light as a feather. lol : )

Yeah, I try to give the little guys their time in the spotlight. When I'm out spotting the butterflies I try to focus more on movement than anything else. That's how I notice the Satyrs in the leaf litter and the Blues and Hairstreaks. But I'm sure there are a lot that I miss.

Oh Mellie,

All lovely.

Keep in mind that I am a newbie. Actually, I'm not even a newbie. I'm whatever comes before newbies.

Do you think that the cat really climbed into that woodwork? I looked up the host plants for this guy and the only thing I have is the Ash Tree. We have two mature in our yard and the neighbor has a second. DH and I were theorizing on the chances of the cat coming off the tree and down into the hole. Seems pretty strange. Maybe it came off the tree instead and made its way to the garage instead?

Anyway, he was gorgeous. It was a joyful find.

No worries, last year I was a newbie. I'm a quick study, LOL! Cats will wander around an awful lot looking for a nice place to make a chrysalis. Or, when he came out he could have fluttered on over. I've had Zebra Swallowtails run up and down my arms when they're still all wrinkly and even though I turn so they're hanging upside-down they have to find that perfect spot. So he could have easily run down there and decided he felt safe. Either way, that was quite a find! Give your DH a big hug for all of us!

Melanie

Mellie...that is one darling little butterfly!!! They are so cute with that upturned nose look :o) I enjoy raising little blues too but haven't had the honor of Cassius Blues yet. Am hoping to find some Reakirt's Blues later this year.


Have to stand away from the dorm buildings as our cell phones have rotten reception on base so I walked around the wooded areas near my dorm this afternoon. The afternoon was settling in and it was a tad cloudy but I was excited to see several different species of butterflies as I wandered around.

First off...there are gobs and gobs of Sweet Gum trees all around here and I saw lots and lots of chewed up leaves but could not find any caterpillars. There is still hope for tomorrow!!!

A Black Swallowtail made the first appearance :o) Also saw what looked like a crescent, sicklewing skipper, duskywing skipper, checkered skipper and numerous dragonflies. I didn't have my binoculars with me and couldn't really get in close to them. Didn't have my camera either...but it was nice to see them on a cloudy afternoon. Definitely have to thumb through my Kaufman Guide to see what Georgia has to offer.

~ Cat

Later in the day…

And my presence made him open his wings.

Wow! You all have taken some really GREAT photos. Mine aren't that great, but I've been seeing GTs for days and finally got a picture.

And on some plumbago, too! I've seen a Giant ST around lately but boy are they fast! They flutter a lot even when they're nectaring but it makes for nice pictures I think. You get to see all that pretty yellow underneath. Glad to know they're plentiful in TX, too.

I also finally have a Gulf Fritillary. I was worried that what Melanie said about pipevines was true for passion-flowers. I have a traditional white and purple passionflower that I always see GFs on, but I cut it down to have the house painted. My neighbor has a red passion-flower that's only about 4 feet away from the one I cut, and I have a pink passion-flower in the back, but I still wasn't seeing the GFs until yesterday. This lady was laying eggs on my pink one. That's a relief. Here she's resting on a rose vine.

Ummm...usually the red-colored passion vines won't support the caterpillars. Everyone please chime in with your experiences, but I always heard it was best to either use native passifloras or at least the blue or purple varieties. They'll lay eggs on any color, but the caterpillars tend to die on the red ones.

Melanie, the plumbago has finally started blooming and I'm seeing a lot more butterflies. I'm eager for the hummingbird moths to find it. As for the passionflowers, does the pink count as a red? The purple one is coming back. I can move egss around!

This skipper was huge! When I first saw him I thought "what the heck is that!"

Do you have a name for the pink one? There are LOTS of kinds of passifloras!

I think it depends on which red passionvine. I have a Lady Margaret and the GF's always lays eggs on it and the cats are fine eating it. When I take the cats in though I strictly feed them from either the Maypop or the purple one I have. I switch off between them depending on which has more leaves at the time.

Lisa

Great pictures all of you!!!! I have a few pictures lately but have been too busy to download. They aren't going to compare with the ones you have taken. Great job!

Everyone is having great Kodak moments. The Tiger ST coming out from under the garage is priceless! Way to go Mrs. ED!

Mrs ED, look at the top of the garage door for the empty chrysalis. It could be that it was formed there and when it emerged and was hanging the garage door movement cause it to drop to the ground.
We had a Monarch make on over a doorway, thank goodness DH noticed it and it was one we didn't open too often.

Well I'm afraid that the garage TG swallotail mystery will remain unsolved. I went out and looked all around the area for a chrysalis. Nothing. Grrrrrr.

Well, the weatherman said the rainy season has officially started in Miami, so let's hope it gets to Tampa soon. It's hot here and even the native plants are starting to wilt.

I saw some butterflies today but didn't have the camera. Plus, my caterpillars said they were jealous and wanted to show off, too. FYI, the second Monarch cat went into its chrysalis this morning and Mom got to see it. She emailed me at work and took some pics and stuff so I could see how it happened. But just now I was talking about it and Mom got all emotional and started tearing up and saying how it looked like it hurt. (Mom's bipolar and I think she's having a little depressive episode right now.) So I reassured her and talked about what actually happens and how it was good he made it all the way to the chrysalis because some don't get that far and some fail to make it into their chrysalis. Then, I remembered that you could tell the gender of the butterfly while they're in the chrysalis so I looked up how to do it (http://butterflymilkweed.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-can-i-gender-id-pupa-chrysalis.html) and we figured out we have one boy and one girl. I think that distracted her; I also showed her where we could already make out the wing pattern.

Here's a pic of my Queen caterpillar showing off.

The Polydamas cats seem to be doing ok on the a. tomentosa. I was beginning to think my second group of eggs would never hatch but this afternoon they all decided to come out. So now I have about 40 caterpillars (give or take a few). This morning I had them sitting on my desk (in Gladware) and one of my employees saw and asked what critters I had today. I showed them to her and she couldn't believe how tiny they were. She said she thought of caterpillars as "big and furry". I told her moths were the furry ones whereas butterfly cats are mostly smooth. I assured her they would get much, much bigger and I'm going to have to show them to her in a couple of weeks when they're huge!

I forgot to say that you can see the newly hatched ones mixing with the older ones in the picture above. The older ones are starting to really show their color now. Speaking of that, I have four Zebra STs in their second instar, and one still in its first (I found it as an egg whereas the other ones I found as cats). Here you can see that the first instar cat, who is about to molt, is plain gray. He's also got quite a bumpy appearance which I've never noticed before, but I suppose that's an indication that he needs to molt.

In contrast, the second instars are velvety black and they now have the yellow stripe right behind their head. As they grow they gain more stripes, and some will turn green and others will remain a dark brown. Of course, I'll keep everyone updated as the Zebra STs are total show-offs.

Tomorrow, Mom and I are volunteering with the Tampa Bay Estuary Program to plant native plants around a shoreline. This time it will be around salt water; I hope to see different kinds of butterflies closer to the shore. If I get any good pictures you can be sure I'll post them here!
Melanie

Mellie - I think those poly cats would make a good lead photo - it's time for a new thread :o)

~ Cat

ps... I walked around the compound this afternoon and saw several BSTs, Checkered Skippers, Variegated Fritillaries, a Southern Skipperling, what I think is a Horace's Duskywing and numerous dragonflies. Here's the Checkered Skipper...there were gobs of these little buggers all over the native frogfruit.


This message was edited May 30, 2008 9:33 PM

Well, you heard what Cat said - this thread is too long. Come along and join us at a shiny, new thread here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/856029/