Silver spotted skipper?
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 41
Monarch
This one I have no clue
Edited to add, I think this is an American Lady?
This message was edited Aug 10, 2008 5:54 PM
Not a very good picture, this one wouldn't be still long enough. Cabbage white.
Silvery checkerspot?
Welcome, welcome! Lovely pictures - I have so much new competition for the photo contest this year (sniff,sniff). I think your first one is a Spicebush ST, but it can be hard to distinguish them from some of the other swallowtails. I don't get Checkerspots where I live, but I'm pretty sure that's what you've got there. I also can't remember the difference between Painted and American Ladies but you've got one of them. Good going with the pictures and the IDs. I like seeing what's present in other states so please keep sharing!
Melanie
Welcome MaryinLa, guess you are in MO now?
Great pictures where ever they were taken! The Lady is the Am. Lady, you were right. I will agree with Mellie on the others. Not sure on the white since there are so many and the wings are visiable.
Keep up the good work!
I did spot a Giant Swallowtail today and grabbed my camera and chased it for a while, but at 105 degrees, that wasn't long before I gave up!
Yes, moved to Missouri from South Louisiana after Katrina.
Don't blame you for leaving after that. I lived down in Venice LA in '66 after a hurricane there was next to nothing left. Starting over after a fire, etc. is one thing; but after what happened there is too tough. Glad you found a home away from home and have settled in. Your pictures are great and give me hope that it won't be long until more bfs are down here.
Thanks, Shelia and Mellie. I took tons of pictures to only wind up with a few good ones.
These guys are especially hard to capture, had to set shutter speed at 4200 just to capture the wings not blurred.
Welcome Mary! Thanks for sharing such wonderful photos! Gotta love that hb moth!!!
~ Cat
ps...was at the local NABA park today...lots of butterflies but a gazillion were Snouts. Not sure if ya'll can see all the Snouts on this Anacua aka Sugarberry aka Sandpaper tree. These trees were in full bloom and they were literally covered in Snouts and a few other species of butterflies like the Crimson Patch, Sulphurs and a couple of Ruddy Daggerwings.
wow. that' a lotta butterflies!
Sheila, you are correct on the Cloudless Sulphur. I had looked in the Butterflies of NA book. On line is better..LOL
Great pics, Mary
Love it! A butterfly tree! I have an Anacua, but it's still small. Guess that one got enough water after Dolly, for sure.
They are thick on the tree, I lost count at 41!
Mary that is a great shot of the moth too! I especially love your Buckeyes!
Wow, Elaine, you will have to get us a Anacua. : )
~Lucy
I counted 77. Probably more!
Wow that is amazing! I've never seen so many butterflies at once!
Maryinla's pics are all beautiful! I don't have a nice enough camera to get a hummingbird moth without blurry wings. Hopefully someday I can upgrade.
We've been having a lot of rain here. I've only had one fully sunny day in weeks. You could tell all the butterflies were hun-gry! I know there have been lots of photos of rsps but I rarely see them besides patrolling high around the trees so I was so happy to finally have one on some flowers long enough for a photo. I tried it with the flash like mellie suggested even though it was super sunny.
My spicebush swallowtail cat is getting bigger every day. My dd helped me get an updated photo. She loooves caterpillars!
We have a lot of monarch cats now and some of them are getting quite large! Please excuse the frass lol!
I have to double check, but I think I had a red admiral. I don't get them often so I am not positive about ids when I see them.
I think someone else may have posted one of these before, but I was intrigued by it, it is such an unusual moth.
I couldn't believe how many different butterflies I had in one day. Here is a TST on a sweet pepperbush, which smell like honey. I added a similar pic to plantfiles just a few minutes ago.
And last but not least a fritillary on 'nanho blue' bb.
Cat, I can't believe all those snouts! That's just amazing! Mrs. Ed thanks for the helpful dots!
Meredith, WOW! You sure have a lot of beauties. I love that moth too!
Hee. I couldn't resist, I really wanted to count them.
Heh heh...and just think that was only a small portion of the tree.
One of the Texas Parks & Wildlife guys came over during his lunch hour because he'd heard we had two Ruddy Daggerwings and he'd never seen one...so he wanted to see them. Anyway, we couldn't find them so I started going around the tree grabbing a branch and shaking it to see what would fly up - it was a real sight to see all those Snouts fly up and then light back down on the flowers. Alas, we didn't find either of the Ruddy Daggerwings for him. Perhaps he'll try again during the week.
~ Cat
Ooh, I want to pet the Spicebush cat! They just look like they want to be petted. I'm hoping the eggs I saw being laid yesterday at MOSI will become cats that climb down the tree where I can bring them inside. It's either that or I'm getting a ladder, LOL! We have three camphor trees and I noticed a couple Spicebush plants showed up about two weeks ago so I hope to have lots of them to share with the guests!
By the way, I had a weird thing happen the other night. You know how when the cats poo, they kind of push their anus outside their body and then it goes back in? Well, I had a Poydamas cat whose stuff was hanging out his booty. I tried pushing on it to make it go back in, but he didn't seem to get what I was trying to do. I thought maybe he was sick, but the next morning I woke up and everyone was fine and they've been ok ever since. It was very odd.
Boy am I glad I have other people I can talk to about caterpillar poo! My family is sick of hearing it, LOL!
Melanie
Mother nature took care of the problem. She can't always, but sometimes she does. Poo isn't my favorite part of the job...one reason I like the RSP cats is because they rarely have any that's messy. Monarch cats, on the other hand...I've been known to keep telling them to pupate because they get so darn messy.
This message was edited Aug 11, 2008 2:20 PM
Lol Melanie, that's funny. It made me think of the other day. I was checking out a cat and it seemed like it was shaking so I picked it up to see if it had parasites coming out of it. I didn't see anything so I put it back on it's leaf and the next thing I knew he did a big ole poopy! I was chuckling to myself, 'oh the poor thing was just trying to relieve itself and here I am bothering it.' lol
Careful picking them up when they aren't eating. They may be in the middle of shedding skin and if interrupted sometimes it won't release.
Hmmmm... who knew??? lol
I'm getting to be able to tell when they're molting. If you look close, their head capsule slides down low on their head. Like, normally it's right up against where the stinkhorns come out, but when they molt you can see a gap between them. I'll have to take a picture to illustrate my point.
I had to go to the dentist today so I got home a little early and weeded some of the flower beds. I shouldn't be surprised how many Polydamas there are given the fact that I've released at least twenty by now, but I'm still surprised to see them so often. Not that I can get a picture that isn't a giant blur - those guys are fast! But just for kicks, here's a big Polydamas blur on the purple porterweed. The blue in the back is my front door.
The Gulf Frits on the other hand love to pose for me. They also love pentas.
This Long-Tailed skipper was claiming a spot on top of the newer purple porterweed I planted. Again, that's the front of my house in the background. The hummingbirds feed on this same porterweed so both butterflies and hummingbirds will come right up to your house (in case you ever wondered).
Boy, I'm getting kind of tired of photos with the purple porterweed. But that's what the butterflies like. Here's one of my faithful duskywings. Now that I think about it, the Polydamas did hit the plumbago and the Tampa verbena. I also spotted a sulphur but the Gulf Frit and the Polydamas chased it away. The Polydamas are very aggressive butterflies - I watched them chase each other and any other butterflies away from "their"plants.
Melanie
Ok, now Ms Lucy, that sandpaper tree is tropical right (?) So you need to grow it. LOL.
I released 5 Gulf Frits today. My DH was watching as we released them. So exciting.
Elaine, I don't know if it's tropical or not. I don't think I've ever seen one. : )
Anacua is subtropical. It can tolerate some freezing weather (8B or warmer is fine, for sure). I have a small one. It will eventually grow to be a tree, so needs some room.