Melanie's Butterfly Weekend

Well, I'm hot and tired but I have lots of new plants and lots of butterfly pictures. I went to the USF butterfly and herb fest today, and while I don't think it was as good as previous years, I still had fun. I bought lots more purple porterweed, blue porterweed, cleome, salvias, and pipevine (trilobata). I also got some fennel, dill, and parsley for the cats, and rosemary and thyme for me. There were a lot of children there enjoying the butterflies and cats which was fun to see.

Mom was good at spotting the little skippers today. This one is on purple lantana, I believe.

There were several Monarchs flying around, and most of them were tattered like this one. It's feeding on regular lantana.

I chased this Pipevine ST all over the place. They flutter their wings constantly and very quickly so it's hard to get a good picture. I'm not sure what kind of bush it was on but it was large and purple.

Mom was really into this Long-Tailed Skipper. The skipper was really into the pentas.

I was chasing Polydamas all over the place but they are super fast and don't stop for long. They seemed to prefer the red flowers.

I was sitting down when I saw a Swallowtail that had tails so I knew it wasn't a Polydamas, and it was too big to be a Pipevine. I approached it, and when I didn't see a line I knew it wasn't a Palamedes. That left me with - a Spicebush! I don't often see these except when I'm hiking in the woods.

Here you can kind of see the top of it.

So we came home and put the plants away. I was going out to pick a few pawpaw leaves and Mom was watering the plants when we saw this Giant ST. There was also a White Peacock (my first of the year and the second spotting in our yard) but he was too fast for me. The Giant ST hung around for a long time on the plumbagos. Basically, until the Gulf Frit chased him off.

The duskywings are back in the neighborhood. They like the porterweed, too.

The underside of the Giant ST. You can see the plumbagos are literally next to my house.

I haven't weeded in a while so the Spanish Needles are really growing. I also have some Tampa Verbena in this flower bed and the Gray Hairstreak was enjoying both. I also saw another duskywing in this area.

The Dainty Sulphur uses Spanish Needles as host and nectar source. I like that in this photo you can see the little bit of black on the topside of the wing.

I went back inside and combed over my herbs for caterpillars. Isn't it great when you get free cats along with the plants? I found two guys on my dill along with two eggs.

My other caterpillars wanted to show off. Here's my hungry little Polydamas cats.

Here are my BIG Polydamas cats.

I had my first Polydamas go into his sling last night while I was sleeping.

And finally, here's my Zebra ST cats eating their fresh pawpaw. I'll be going to MOSI to volunteer tomorrow so I'll add more pictures when I get home!

Melanie

What a great variety you saw! I haven't seen a long-tailed skipper in a while. That one was a beauty, and what a great shot of the GST! Beautiful!

Great pics Melanie!!
I am going there tomorrow with my g/f who is also a butterfly nut! I wanted to go today but she couldn't make it. I hope you left some porter weed for me LOL
I am really looking forward to seeing all those butterflies tomorrow!

Lisa

I wished only if I can see half of your b.f. Melanie.

Thanks everyone! Lisa, there's still lots of porterweed. I got mine from Colorfield Farms; they're the people that have the 6-pack for $25 deal. They had signs saying they were going to open a retail store in Wimauma so that will be a new place to visit.

Meanwhile, one of my Black ST eggs already hatched. I'm also watching for the Polydamas cat in the sling to make his chrysalis.

Melanie

Melanie, really enjoyed the 'show'. ... such beauties. I can't believe they have stores in Wimauma now. We visited there often when I was growing up, and I don't remember any stores then.
Thanks for sharing,
Elaine

Thanks Elaine! Yup, Wimauma is no longer a one-horse town, lol!

Well, today I volunteered at the MOSI butterfly garden for the first time all alone. Mostly, it's just cleaning up after the caterpillars and making sure they're fed. I took pictures from inside the room where I am. You can see one side is all windows. We place the tanks there with labels so guests can look at the caterpillars. It's a little weird having people peering in at me all the time, but I remind myself it's not me they're looking at.

On the other side we have all the chrysalis boxes. They also have little signs indicating what's inside. I spent a lot of time today pinning the chrysalises; I had Zebra Longwings, White Peacocks, Polydamas ST, Pipevine ST, and Monarchs. I also released one Giant ST and lots of Monarchs.

Here's one of the Pipevine STs. See how long their antenna things are?

White Peacocks are cool, and they're my Dad's fave butterfly. However, having a water plant as your host plant can get a little messy. Here's some of the fuzzy cats. I think their antenna are cool; they have little knobs at the end and they look very '50s sci-fi B movie to me.

Kristen, my boss, trades eggs and cats with some of her other butterfly contacts throughout the area. She managed to get a Julia so I took a picture of the cat to share with everyone.

It was sprinkling on and off so the butterflies weren't really that active when I went to take pictures. Even if the flight cage is closed, I always say you can see plenty of butterflies just hanging outside in the gardens. I saw a little orange skipper, a Gulf Frit, and what I am pretty sure was a Spicebush ST.

Once I got home, there were two Swallowtails in the plumbagos. They flew off before I could get a good look, but I think they were Palamades. The Zebra Longwings are still hanging out. Here's a picture of one of my neighbor's firecracker fern (again). They fly between that and the porterweed all day long.

Melanie

cool place Mellie. I would love to have a place nearby to do that kind of work.
Elaine

Melanie, will you explain how you pin the chrysalis in picture Posted #5107912? I'm so glad you started this thread. It should help identify pipevines. the cats I'm so desperately trying to lure to my yard.

How we pin the chrysalis...well, first we have those little plastic chrysalis boxes. Each one has a piece of styrofoam glued to the lid. For Monarchs and Swallowtails, you can usually slide a pin under them, pull up a bunch of silk, and stick a straight pin through the silk and into the styrofoam. For some of the more delicate ones like the White Peacock or the Zebra LW, I just snipped the piece of plant they were attached to. Then, I stuck the pin through the plant although I try to get a little silk if I can. Plants will decay, but that silk is strong. I'll have to take some close-up pictures of the process this weekend.

I just bought some more pipevine to feed my Polydamas cats, and I've set the pots near the plumbago and porterweed in the hopes of luring a Pipevine ST. The parents have seen one in the area, and after Dad looked at my book he thought it was a female. When I was waiting to be let in at MOSI, I wandered around collecting eggs off the pipevines. I found lots of Polydamas eggs, but there were fourteen Pipevine eggs. They lay them on any pipevine, even if that species will kill the caterpillar. So we bring them in and feed them the "right" pipevine, usually a. trilobata. There was one bunch of Polydamas eggs that were laid right next to some Pipevine eggs. I thought that was odd, and I had to be really careful separating them out. Pipevines are my boss' favorite caterpillars so we really "baby" them.

Melanie

How do you tell the difference between a pipevine and a polydamas egg?

Polydamas are yellower and laid in clumps. Pipevines are more of a reddish orange and laid in lines or just a few at a time. Can you see the difference in color in the picture?

I can see the color difference. Not sure if I'd be able to tell when they're not side by side like that but the clumping vs. line thing should help there. I'm going out to examine my vine! Thanks!

They won't always be in a neat little row, but the Pipevine eggs are usually spaced apart while Polydamas will be right on top of each other. Although sometimes you'll see Polydamas eggs laid one or two at a time. Just ask yourself if the eggs are more yellow, or more orange. Or, consult the experts here on the forum! Have fun inspecting your plants!