Melanie,That is so exciting! You are making me want to go get this one and bring it in so I can watch all the antics. So far I have only snuck peaks of them daily until they disappear. I only saw a yellow one once and at first I had thought something was wrong with it! Then thanks to the internet I searched images and saw others that way. I can't help petting them when I check them. I notice they don't stink horn more than once. Usually right when I uncurl a leave thay are in the first time. I am pretty sure I read somewhere that when they stick out their stinkhorns it may be stressful for them. I could be confusing that with puffer fish though lol.
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 40
I still can't get mine to stinkhorn! I just tried everything I know on one and I could barely see the openeing where they come out of. All my other swallowtail cats have been more than happy to do it! Some do it when I open the lid, when I drop in food, when I clean the cage, etc. Maybe WV caterpillars are more polite?
Still no chrysalis...about to go lay down and bring the cats with me. Yes, I lay in bed with them too, lol! You have to understand, I'm horribly allergic to anything with fur so I never had "real" pets. : )
I ran across this link today and couldn't resist looking at it on YouTube...yes, butterflies on film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2cE86AA1q0
My own PVST cats are eating up everything in sight these days. Oh, BTW, I was at an event at the Antique Rose Emporium in San Antonio this evening and saw....a Monarch flitting around the gardens! The last I saw it it was on the Gregg's Mistflower. And I wished I'd brought my camera!
Melanie you are so funny. My DD would love it if I let her take cats to bed. lol
Wow Linda that was so cool!
Wow, I want a clear winged hawk moth! I haven't even seen hummingbird moths this year. It's been so hot that I haven't been out much.
Great pics everybody. I'll be looking for orange spicebush cats. That's so cool.
Kim, I'm with you on the difficulty identifying the swallowtails that mimic pipevines. Here's one that I had trouble with yesterday. I didn't get a clear shot of the top of the wings. Wish I had b/c that was the difficult part -- no blue. Just yellow spots and yellow shading. I thought it was a poly at first, but it had tails, orange spots underneath and that spotted body. I'm thinking it's a spicebush ST too. Seems like the spicebushes also have more crescent shaped spots.
I believe it's a Spicebush Swallowtail also. Lovely shot!
Thank you Melanie for posting the side-by-side link again. It will be very helpful for me to make referrence later. I've just spotted a yellow tigerswallowtail in the garden. By day end hopefully I'll have a pix to share. Have a great weekend everyone.
Kim
Elphaba, you've got to love those hawkmoths. I've noticed that when they're busy nectaring especially while they were on Pentas, they allow me to get very close to take pix.
Hummers too, with hummers I don't know if it were the young ones that get close to us humans. I've seen one stayed resonable close to me one day nectaring on my spicy jatropa, then all of a sudden another one dive into it....seems like it was the parent hummingbird teaching the youngun to 'Not too close to our humans' lol.
Pentas is a must in my garden, eventhough they're tender here.
Red Admiral on rudbeckia
Red Admiral on coneflower
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail dark female
This message was edited Jul 26, 2008 11:08 AM
Cabbage white
Swallowtail
Monarch
Buckeye
We found these black swallowtail cat's in my dill. We just released our first butterfly two weeks ago so this is all new for us - I've 3 little girls who are ecstatic! Here is a picture of them the day we found them - so tiny!
Here is a picture of the little guys today - amazing how fast they grow. Notice the size of the dill seeds. I believe that we are hooked and can't wait to design a butterfly garden with my girls. So much fun!
jmorth, WOW!!! I want to see a buckeye so badly! I love that red admiral too. They're all gorgeous!
Cheles, good luck with those cute cats.
Linda, thanks for the confirmation!
Kim, pentas freeze back here too. They don't die completely, but it takes them a while to come back and they look horrible for months. I just realized that I have a sunny spot under my office window near the hose that's full of ferns. That's just a total waste of sun. Next year, those ferns are coming out and I'm either doing milkweed, pentas or both! They'll look ugly in the winter though. It's so hard to find plants that you can enjoy all year and in all weather.
Wow, I'm so jealous of thos SB cats. Cheles, I've dills all over the garden, parsley too, and I haven't been able to find any 'lil ones on them. Waiting on my turn, lol.
Jmorth, your butterflies are abundant, I love the buckeye which I've seen around here, but not sure Admiral can be found in my necks of the woods....what is their hostplant? Maybe I can plant some for them.
Elphaba, the operational words here is diversify. I try to have various annuals/perennials and learning more about hostplants to attract more butterflies into the garden.
Ok, folks, this my feeble attempt of identying my Spicebush from the almost identical looking BST. I've very little sassafras in the garden, but I've ton of fennels for the BST, still longing to see those 'lil cats. lol.
Here it's on my 'Black Beauty' lilium, and the fennel is all around this bed, is it or is it not? (Pardon me Melanie -- I can't be positively sure, but there is my wishful thinking I'll have some of those little ones to raise soon). lol.
Oh, those are beautiful shots, jmorth! And congrats, cheles_garden! Welcome to the fascinating world of butterfly raising!
This is my newly emerged Giant Swallowtail, about to fly off to see the world! I noticed last night that the chrysallis had turned dark and made sure it had sticks close enough to climb onto when it crawled out to dry its wings. And sure enough, this morning it did it.
Black ST - lots of yellow, black dot in middle of orange spot
Spicebush ST - no yellow, no black dot in orange spot
Wow jmorth has lots of butterflies! I like the Red Admiral on the rudbeckia. I'm so going to lose the photo contest this year.
Ugh! I turned my head and I have a Polydamas that just emerged. Don't they know it rains evey afternoon in Tampa? I'll leave you guys with a picture of the Polydamas I just saw outside a few minutes ago. Polydamas flutter their wings incredibly fast - way faster than the other swallowtails I've seen. So usually my pictures end up being one giant blur. And that's why I raise them - it's my only chance to see them up close and sitting still!
Well, here's the Polydamas that came out today. I was trying to get him to show the top side of his wings, but they're kind of stubborn.
In other sightings, the duskywings were back and this one was checking out the pentas. I also saw two Zebra Longwings trying to chase each other away. I'm not sure who won because they both flew off in different directions and left me all alone.
But that was okay - because I saw something else flying around. I think I know where my hummingbirds live! I saw one up in our biggest oak tree kind of hovering and flying around the lower branches. Then, he zoomed off across the street. But as I was looking up I saw another hummingbird in a different section of the same tree. They always fly in from the east side of the house where the tree is, so I guess that makes sense. Maybe I've got hummingbird babies on the way?
While I was staring up at the tree I saw a Zebra Longwing wander through on its way to the bougainvillea. And I spotted a new tillandsia (bromeliad) I hadn't seen before. It all got me thinking about those evil guys who stop by occasionally wanting to spray the moss off our trees. Let's just hope I don't answer the door. You see, Spanish moss (and ball moss) is a type of tillandsia - a genus of bromeliads. And I love bromeliads. And except for the two I just mentioned, nearly all of Florida's tillandsias are threatened or endangered. Plus, they don't harm the trees contrary to what the sprayers want you to believe.
Seeing all the butterflies and now hummingbirds up in that tree, I thought how horrible it would be to spray it. The duskywing in this picture (Horace's) uses oaks as a host plant so they would probably gone as well. It was just another reminder of how all things are connected and you really can't harm one thing without having an effect on so many others.
I looked through my book and I think this is a Dun Skipper by the lack of markings on him. But boy, does he have a long proboscis! And as always, he's on the purple porterweed. You know, I have two other purple porterweeds planted in front of the fence of my neighbor's house and I don't see the butterflies hit those at all! Of course, maybe they're drawn to the buffet of flowers laid out in front of my house and the porterweed just tastes the best. Although, some of the butterflies would argue and say plumbago is tastiest. I should really write this stuff down so I can say with confidence which butterflies prefer which flowers.
Got an email today from my favorite local nursery and they're having a butterfly lecture and plant sale in a few weeks. It will be all about how to bring butterflies and hummingbirds to your yard. Of course, they probably recognize me now as the girl who always brings her camera to shop. But they always have lots of butterflies and caterpillars - I just have to bring the camera, LOL! They've also been known to give me "bonus caterpillars" with my plants!
Melanie
Dunno who this is.
Or this…
But I know these two and they were fighting over this particular milkweed flower clusters. It was NOT the only plant in the area either.
GET OFF MY FLOWER!
Melanie, What you posted - Black ST - lots of yellow, black dot in middle of orange spot
Spicebush ST - no yellow, no black dot in orange spot - Is really helpful! I always find myself having to study pictures when I get those butterflies.
It seems today was a very good day for butterflies in my yard. Before yesterday and todasy - We have had some bad weather for a few days - so they must have been very hungry after waiting out all the down pours!
Here is my first photo of a spicebush, which was easier to identify than usual because of Melanies posts.
Hi Mrs. Ed, lovely butterflies!
I meant to say first spicebush photo of the season.
I finally got a somewhat decent photo of a Monarch this season too. : )
There was a lot of fritillary action with the Purple Coneflowers blooming, which I remember happening last year as well.
Last one - Lots of Clearwing Hummingbird moths today too. They are tough to get non-blurrey photos of! Can you believe I got these pictures all today!? I also was thinking about the post that someone mentioned rivers being nearby attracting more butterflies. I live somewhat close to a river but not really close, but I do live near powerlines. They are closest at 5 houses down the road and to me that seems like butterfly paradise. Due to all the milkweeds, goldenrods, queen ann's lace and other wildflowers and un mowed grasses - it seems like that would draw butterflies in as well. Does anyone else think so?
Mrs Ed I had to go back and look at the Monarch and Tiger fighting over the flowers. That is just so cool! And funny too lol!
Goodness!!! There was so much to catch up on. Everyone had some great shots to share!
Mrs Ed - your 1st pic in the last set is a Red Admiral. Great shots.
I think your 2nd unknown might be a Red-Spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis).
Lily-love, Red Admirals' host plants are plants of the nettle family (Urticaceae) including stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), tall wild nettle (U. gracilis), wood nettle (Laportea canadensis), false nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica), pellitory (Parietoria pennsylvanica), mamaki (Pipturus albidus), and possibly hops (Humulus).
thanks jmorth. I've had red admirals here before but for some reason I did not think that was one. I was at a garden center. I watched which butterfly bush color was the most popular and and chose that one to buy!!
Mrs Ed, I agree with you the pic you posted here http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=5325233 is NOT a Red Admiral, it is a Painted Lady from what it appears to me.
So Mrs ED which one did you get?