KIm, She's the big one up right with the big hips! If I'm wrong, then she traded positions. LOL I really need to see the blue to tell for sure. Thea, yippers, ain't the truth!
Deborah
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 40
Thea, even though, my distance hugs, cyberhugs doesn't mean much. A warm personal hugs are being wishing upon for you today. ^_^
These flowers are here to cheer you my friend.
Kim
p.s. Thank you, Deb. Now I know to look out for them BSTs and will learn to differentiate the males and females in the field.
Sheila, thank you, for the link. My duskywing does look like 'Sleepy duskywing'. Now, I've another butterfly to add on to my list of butterflies found in my garden.
Thea, I'm so sorry about your butterfly. I had to put down a Polydamas this morning that couldn't get out of it's chrysalis. Even after I freed him, his wings wouldn't open and even the body looked a little wrong. At MOSI, we get a lot of Monarchs infected with this disease that causes them to not come out of their chrysalis right. It's like they get stuck and can't get out, but even if you get them out they're deformed. We use scissors to chop off their heads. It's quick that way. Unfortunately, it's one of those things you have to deal with when you raise these fellows.
On to a happier topic - butterfly sex! Some species are known for being quick to copulate. The zebra longwing male will actually wait outside a chrysalis right before the female ecloses, and sometimes even helps bust her out so he can do the deed.
Two of the Polydamas I left for my brother to release while on vacation came out on the same day and apparently got bored waiting for him to come home and open the lid. So they started making babies.
Speaking of Polydamas, I was just looking at the eggs on my pipevine and there was an ant getting too close to them, so I brought them in. I was trying to leave them there so the bfs wouldn't lay any more eggs, but I guess I'll just put the plants on the patio. I just always forget to water them...
Melanie
Thank you Mel and Kim, it's so nice commiserating with other butterfliers who know how this feels. Wish you guys were my neighbors (but could still have your own regional butterflies too)! I'm sorry you had a sad episode today too, Mel, but you really made me giggle with your zebra longwings info, and your polydamas bored with their incarceration!!!
Cat checked in from south Texas...
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/880950/
some sort of swallowtail on my phlox. It was so pretty I had to run out with my camera.
here she is again, posing for a picture.
Way to go...a lovely Tiger Swallowtail! And those phlox are very pretty also!
I knew, but had forgotten that the Spicebush ST caterpillar turns orange right before he pupates. So I was little surprised when I unrolled the leaf this morning. Here he is tucked away with his little friend. It's a good thing he's so cute because he just gut purged all over the tank. I'm off to clean up another mess...
Melanie
Melanie,
The pix of the two friends are too cute. They won't hurt one another by any mean? So how many instars do these cats. go through before pupation? What order of instar is the little one? The large orange one? I'd love to find out. Thanks.
Kim
Oh, these are both Spicebush ST cats. They go through five instars with the first four looking like a bird dropping and the last looking like the big guy there. The first picture in this thread is the same caterpillar when he was green. They seem to get along; I've got three in the same container. Some cats will eat each other (zebra swallowtails especially) but these guys don't really seem to mind each other. The biggest one and the little one were wrapped in that same leaf for several days.
Melanie
Do they come out and eat, then return to the leaf?
Im a newbie to this forum..and not sure where to post this.
I had 4 Monarchs and one yellow swallowtail yesterday in my yard all day.
First sighting this year,over a month late.
Just info
Thanks.A.
Sheila I think they come out to eat at night. I'm sure Mellie will know for sure though.
I want to share a pic of my first Monarch cat. He is teeny but I am so excited I had to share : )
Oops we cross posted Annie. Congratulations on your first butterflies!
Welcome Annie from Berkeley. You're in good company. Please post away if you have pics. to share. I myself excited to hear about monarch sighting, because I've been waiting, waiting for their arrival.
This morning I think I had a Spicebush ST on my crepe myrtle. It was out early taking its flight before the birds awaken I think.
Kim
Meredith, the 'lil one is too precious. Congrats to you too. I've got to get back to the garden and check on my hostplants for those babies!
Kim
Have I got a Painted Lady in the garden? This beauty is larger than a skipper but smaller than the ST.
Looks like a Painted Lady to me! The Spicebushes hide in their leaves and come out at night to eat. My orange guy made his sling and is literally hanging out on the side of the container. They must eat at night because I haven't seen them eat much, but they poop a lot and I can see where the leaves are munched on.
Annie, welcome and feel free to drop any butterfly tidbits into the daily thread. That's what it's for - just sharing daily happenings and sightings.
Speaking of Spicebushes, Kim's picture reminded me...female SB are more blue where the males are greenish. Now, I haven't seen a whole lot of SB butterflies, but I must be seeing only males. When I was in WV I saw a few bfs flying around that were either SB or female Tiger ST. My aunt even got a picture of one (I'll post later when I'm at home) and I was sitting there trying to figure it out. I guess I got used to seeing the green ones and the blue just threw me for a loop. Even at the cemetery we visited (genealogy research) there was one flying around the sassafras and I was like, "Is that a Spicebush? It's so blue!" Hopefully, one of my three cats will be a female so I can take a good, long look at one.
Another tidbit on the SB cats - they won't stinkhorn me to save their life (literally). They are, however, very adept at moving in reverse. Like, way better than any other cat I've seen. I guess it comes from sticking themselves out to eat and then backing up into their leaf again. I still want to see those stinkhorns though. My cats are way too tame; I guess they figured out I won't hurt them.
Enjoy the tiny Monarch cats while you can - soon they'll be giant piggies, LOL!
thanks for the nice welcome guys!
I fersure posted in the right place.
Nice to meetcha.
A.
hey Annie! Congrats. Now start looking for those cats!
Ok, let me start by sharing the photos my aunt took in WV. She's big into bird watching and got a new camera for Christmas and she's really been taking a lot of photos. I was trying to decide if this was a Spicebush or a female dark-form Tiger ST and I've settled on the Tiger ST. This is a photo of her photo so the color isn't great, but there's another clue.
When we identify bfs we tend to focus on the wings, but we should also learn what the bodies look like. The Spicebush bf has a dotted body, but you can see in the picture this butterfly is solid black. Normally, Tiger STs have stripes, but since this is the dark form it's plain black.
Now that I've got all my books around me there are a few other ways to tell, but the dots on the body are the easiest. I saw another one of those dark form female Tigers when I was roaming around but it went by me in a big hurry! There are tons and tons of Tiger STs in WV so it makes sense there would be some of the dark females. I also saw a lot of Pipevine STs in the area so it also follows that the Tiger STs would mimic them.
Unfortunately, that bf got smashed by a car. Aunt Joyce took a picture of it afterward.
She also saw this Fritillary. I only get the Gulf kind and they're not a true fritillary anyway so I have no idea which one this is. But I told her how it was cool that she caught it puddling.
There was a Polydamas on the porterweed when I pulled in this evening, but it was too fast for me. Luckily, I had one eclose while I was at work. It nicely posed for me, and I really mean that because this guy knew how to fly. As soon as I opened the door outside he took off like a shot and did several circles of the area before heading for the oak tree. When I saw it fly like that I was very grateful it didn't try it in the house. I've had Zebra Swallowtails loose in the house before and it's just not fun to chase them; Dad thought it was hilarious, though.
Apparently, all the butterflies were filling up on nectar before the thunderstorm came. This Zebra Longwing was on neighbor Jim's firecracker fern, as usual. Also true to form, I saw it on the purple porterweed as I was releasing the Polydamas.
On the other side of the house, this Giant Swallowtail was filling up on plumbago. I find it funny that I have pentas, porterweed, sage, and milkweed all around the plumbago, but the swallowtails just want to hit every single plumbago bloom and ignore everything else.
My skipper cats are still growing. I'm sure this one is mad I unrolled his leaf. He'll just silk it up again anyway. It's in the name of science, after all!
And finally, I'm on chrysalis watch with my Spicebush ST cat. He's less orange and more peach now. I'm sure I'll stay up late waiting to see him make the chrysalis and just after I fall asleep he'll do it. I swear they know when they're being watched. I'm also waiting for my Polydamas eggs to hatch - they're really dark and I can see the little cat heads in there waiting to pop out.
Melanie
LOL Melanie, i had the same thing happen today. I wanted to watch a BST. This morning was a cat, this afternoon, after a rough day in front of the computer… I go out and see that the deed has been done. Well, hope I get to see the others, but I'm not home all day tomorrow!!
The first time I missed one I went to brush my teeth and when I came out he was nearly done. So now the caterpillars go to the bathroom with me!
Melanie
Oh how funny. Well, i'm sure i'm going to miss them all!
Mellanie, I wish I were the fly on the wall watching you with your cat's morning activities. LOL. Ok, ok, when you brush your hair, not while you brush your teeth. lol.
As you explained above, this is a spicebush ST, instead of BST? her/his wings are a bit tattered, but it was so busy with the milkweed it didn't pay me much attention.
I discovered a couple more unidentified butterflies which were new to me, I hope to capture pix for I.D. later.
At the mean time, I continue to see lots of Silverspotted skippers, Longtailed skippers, Redbanded Hairstreaks, many hummers, and frequent visit of this Clearwinged hawkmoth.
Kim, ok here's the fun. BST also have dots on their body but they're yellow instead of white, and I think they have more rows of dots on them. You can usually tell Black ST by the large amounts of yellow on their upperside but I can't see that in your picture. A definite way to tell a Black ST is that the reddish-orange spot on their topside will have a black dot in the middle of it (like a pupil). I can only see part of the top wing there but it doesn't look like there's much yellow. I'd have to see the top to be sure. Other opinions?
Its been posted before but bears repeating: http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabambc/frames-2species.asp?sp1=Papilio-polyxenes&sp2=Papilio-troilus This is an awesome site where you can compare butterflies side-by-side. And after looking a little more I think you do have a Spicebush there.
Watching Melanies (very cute) SB cat had reminded me that I haven't checked to see if I have any in a while. So I went to check and look what I found. : )
Woo hoo! More friends! It's funny you should mention their cuteness. My little one is making his third pass on the leaf silking it the whole way. Just watching his little head swaying back and forth as he wriggles is just so adorable. And my Polydamas started hatching and they're soooo cute! Orange Spicebush is still in cat form. He had a little freak out a minute ago and started jerking around but maybe he was just mad at me for moving them around a lot.
Ooh, the spicebush leaf is starting to curl up!
This message was edited Jul 25, 2008 11:25 PM
