DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 37

The TST is so beautiful, and the Ga sityr is charming. This is the second time I saw this 'lil Red-spot hairstreak (have I got that right?), she's tinie.

Lily...I believe that's a Red-Banded Hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops). We get a similar looking one in south Texas called a Dusky-blue Groundstreak (Calycopis isobean). Sure would be nice to raise and release some but finding larva in leaf debris / rotting leaves is harder than looking for a needle in a haystack! :o)

Loonie - thanks for posting the Horace's Duskywing photo. We get those in Texas but I'd not seen one until I came to Georgia - they seem fairly common where I'm visiting.

~ Cat
(Temporarily in Brunswick, GA)

Photo of Dusky-blue Groundstreak :o)

Thanks Cat, for the correction. Wow, look at the resemblance in the two! I bet their larva is very small, and I can see it would be difficult to spot. Dusky-blue groundstreak, and Redbanded hairstreak. Thanks Cat.

Kim

Great shots everyone. I have a few I could show, but they are still on the camera!

Enjoyed all these pictures. And am learning a lot.
Is this A Red Spotted Admiral? I searched and it looks the same..
Thanks,
Elaine

another pic.

Well, I call that a Red-Spotted Purple.

I call it pretty! I don't have those in my area that I am aware of, lucky you Elaine.

Ooh, I love Red Spotted Purples. There's also a Red Admiral; I think you're getting the two names mixed up. Sort of like when Mom told me our "Queen Monarch" had eclosed today. I'll just be happy if I can get her to correctly tell me if she saw a Zebra Longwing or a Zebra Swallowtail.

So yes, the Queen came out today. It hadn't really shown any signs of changing and then all of a sudden this morning it was dark and I could see the wings. Monarchs usually give you two days notice. My Queen is a girl so I showed her the milkweed and told her to find herself a good man.

And the side view...by the way, Mom kept her in the butterfly house until I got home. Turned out to be a good idea because it poured down the rain today.

Wow, Elaine that's gorgeous!

Great pics Linda and Cat, and Carla that sunflower is gorgeous!

Melanie, that Queen is so beautiful!

I saw a blue jay get one of my BST cats after it left the host plant. I kept chasing the birds away from the fennel forgetting that they would leave to pupate. A cardinal must have found one too because I cannot keep him away. I put netting around two that I found in the Mexican petunia. I had one left on one of the new herbs that was still in a 4" pot so I put it in a cage. Right now the cardinal is trying to get at it through the cage. I found a new smaller one on some wild dill. I covered it too. I have to go chase off that cardinal again!

Here's apic of a gulf frit from yesterday.

While I was releasing Queenie, I saw this skipper on the plumbagos.

As an FYI, apparently Florida has a higher number of Queens than a lot of places. As a result, we get Viceroys that are much darker because they have adapted to mimic the Queen. Here's a picture I took last year of a Viceroy that has that darker coloring like the Queen. You can tell it's a Viceroy because of the curved line through the hind wing.

I kind of thought I had already taken a picture and posted this, but I guess I didn't. My Polydamas cat finally made his chrysalis. Here's what it looks like!

Melanie! I saw your picture of the polydamas chrysalis and I thought that if I saw that on the vine, I would just think it was part of the vine. I went out to look and I found this! Is this a poly chrysalis? This is taken from underneath with sunlight through it. Is it empty? There were tons of big poly cats all over the vine.

Here's a side view. It looks like it might rain. I hope it does b/c my neighborhood has not had rain in over a month. Will it hurt this guy? I'm so excited! Thanks for showing me what to look for Mel!

Looks like you've got one! And it doesn't look empty. The rain won't hurt it; they are used to nature, you know, LOL! I would be more worried about a bird eating it or something. Yea! I'm so glad you have one, too!

Melanie

Red Spotted Purple.. so many colors, so many butterflies. Thanks for the id girls.
Beeeeutiful Queen, Mellie
Lovely polys too
Elaine

Debnes, sending you seeds from the 'weed' that the Am. Lady cat was on. Cannot believe I am cultivating 'weeds' LOL. I found some more like it on the golf course. Hope you have success with it. I have marked the 2 plants that the cats were on and they are putting out more leaves.
Elaine

Wow thanks Elaine! Been trying to work the Am Lady into the garden for some time now. Maybe this will be my chance!!

I love the pics that everyone has been sharing. I have been reading all you're posts... Especially LOL'd when I read Jenny's (bordersandjacks) post here is reference to a woolly cat...

I'm so depressed. When I came home today, the birds had pulled off part of the netting and eaten both BSTs that had slung themselves up already. Poly chrysalis is still OK.

I would guess this is a checkered skipper, but the blue color is kind of throwing me off.

Is there any way to know from this view if this is a Black Swallowtail or a Spicebush?

It looks like a black swallowtail to me. It is beautiful. I have never seen one on plumbago. Great photo!

It's fun taking caterpillars to work. Much more fun than my spreadsheets. Today one of the Polydamas had a really messy gut purge though. I took him out of the cage and set him on a napkin - good thing I picked up extra at Starbucks this morning. I also got to see my Pipevine ST eggs start hatching. So far I have ten, and I think two more may hatch soon. Check out how tiny they are! I was showing them to one of my employees and telling her they would get as big as my Polydamas cats and she was like, "No way."

Now, I only have so many critter keepers so right now some folks are sharing. I have three Zebra ST chrysalids that have been with me since April or so. I thought they might be goners but Kristen, my boss at MOSI, told me she'd had a Tiger ST come out after 11 months! I left them on the side and put my Polydamas cats in the cage. Since then, I've seen two of the chrysalids move when a Polydamas cat crawled over them.

So the Polys are getting bigger and the Zebras still won't come out. But I've noticed that the Polys won't leave them alone! My gut purger from this morning has been wandering all day and I keep peeling him off the ZST chrysalis. He just curls around it like he can build on top of it. "You're not a two-story house!" You can see in my picture that everyone decided they wanted to molt next to the chrysalids today. Personally, I think the Polys are too lazy to lay down their own silk and so they're reusing the silk that was laid down by the ZSTs. FYI, the guy in the bottom of the picture is in his sling and ready to be a chrysalis soon!

Melanie

I've been enjoying everyones butterflies and cats. I finally found a bst cat after watching a momma lay eggs. I found him on Rue, which is funny because I 've been watching an egg on a nearby zizia that still hasn't hatched, and this guys been growing up right behind my back. The egg on the zizia is very dark so it should hatch soon. Does anyone know if bst cats only feed at night? Everytime I've seen them they aren't eating.

Happy Birthday Jenny (Borders&Jacks)
Lovely cat pictures, Melly
Elpha, sorry about those birds getting your BST's
You are welcome, Deb good luck on those American Ladies.
Elaine

Well....I lost 2 monarch cats but still have 3 going. I think the trip up north might have had a negative effect on them. But one of the survivors made his J tonight, so crossing fingers that everything goes ok for him (or her).

Took a couple pics the past couple of days. Here is a gulf frit, I am seeing more of these now in the yard. Good thing because my passionvine is getting out of control!

And while I was visiting my parents, my very first chysalis eclosed on father's day. An eastern black swallowtail, the second one to make his chrysalis, not sure what is going on with the first one but it still looks fine so I will be patient. Didn't get a good pic as he came out overnight and was quite eager to get on his way once I let him go. But here is another visitor to the garden once I got home.





This message was edited Jun 17, 2008 10:17 PM

This morning I counted and I am feeding 20 BST and have 16 in chrysalis. But most of the 20 will also pupate by Friday.
Oh, I had something happen strange the other day. I had some friends over and we were showing off the cats and explaining the process. They asked about those in the chrysalis and if they were alive. I told them I wasn't sure if all were but I knew some definately were. I explained that I sprayed them with a mist and they would move; and showed them. This was in the afternoon 3pm!! They left about 5pm and I went down to feed the caterpillars and there was a BST with it's wings drying!! I have only had them to emerge in the very early mornings never in the afternoon. The only thing I can think of is that it needed that water to soften the walls to get out. It has been so hot and windy and I hadn't sprayed them that week.
Anyone experienced that before?

Wow, with those many cats, Sheila. Oh how I wished I could just get a couple. I haven't had any experience as such. Maybe someone else will chime in?

I'm excited to have capture the first pic. of this lovely sulpher this morning on Canna.
Kim

I am finally getting a break! I now have all but 6 in chrysalis stage!

DH is working on an idea for me to keep the chrysalis in a natural temp environment; sure hope it works. I will share how we made it if it pans out.

This was the first butterfly I saw this morning!

Here is one more picture of it.

snuzer....Great Swallowtails are my favorite. I have only raised a few so far. Their host plants don't do well at my house, but I am trying again this year....still hopefull.

Here is one that didn't want to leave my finger last year.

I have never raised one. Your photo is great. One thing I like about them is that they almost seem like 2 different butterflies because the underside is so different than the topside. Also, they are just so big and majestic. I have had this one flying around my yard for a couple days. I don't know where it came from, since I don't have any of the host plant. The only butterfly I have raised in captivity is the black swallowtail. However, I got some pictures of a monarch coming out of chrysalis last year. It was attached to a gutter, close to the ground. Also, once I had a sulphur chrysalis on the handle of my watering can. I put the watering can on my screen porch. After awhile, I had a sulphur flying around my screenporch.

I think the Giant Swallowtail might be my favorite too! Beautiful pictures Snuzer and Sheila.

Kim, that's a really nice shot of the sulfer. I find them really hard to capture. I'm impressed.

Meredith, I'm not going to pretend to know anything about raising cats. My only experience was that I brought one in the air conditioned house and left the rest outside. The one in the house hardly ate at all and was tiny until I put him outside. Then he doubled in size over night. I'm sure he must have eaten through the night, but it seemed to me that they ate most vigorously during the heat of the day. I think temperature must have something to do with it.

Blue-eyes, amazing Gulf Frit pic. I'm amazed that your photo is so colorful even in the sun. My sun shots are usually washed out.

Like you, one of my vines was really out of control even though it was covered with cats. My pipevine was all over my orchid tree. I very carefully tried to move the cats to other parts of the vine. I cut out sections with eggs and moved them. Then I saw this guy. I decided I'd better leave him where he is.

Kim...that is a great GF shot, I missed it when reading your earlier posts. Glad someone pointed it out.
Elphaba... The shot of the PVST pupating is so cool. I haven't experienced them yet. Also the sulphur is one I see here but haven't had the host plants for until this year. The watering can experience must have been a sweet experience!

Thank you Elphaba, I think it has been cool here since I found him. It's getting pretty warm now maybe I will go check on him and see if he's eating.

Hey everyone, this thread is really long so I made a new one. Let's continue this conversation over here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/865505/