Thanks, Linda. I wasn't sure.
Ok, Elaine, you get us one, and LeePerk and I will grow it. lol : ) Of course, you can come visit, and enjoy all the BF's. : )
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 41
These guys were all over the plumbago this morning. I only got one picture, but I like it!
Dont know much about butterflies, I am going to read up on them this winter, they are all so beautiful!!!!
And this one is? Thanks! GM
One more.
Maggie, you've got a beautiful Tiger Swallowtail there!
Elphaba, I've been seeing those guys on my plumbagos, too! At night when I go out to pick food for the cats or when I leave in the morning - there they are!
Melanie
GM, you'll know more shortly... LOL. Just keep coming here.
Lucy, right.
Any ideas on this caterpillar (worm?)
Elaine
Elaine, I don't know what that cat is, but I'd almost bet he would sting. Looks like he would, anyway. Be careful.
Yep, looked the same to me. He was on my garden glove. I took him out into the woods.
Hey, that looks like the White Marked tussock moth …
http://www.giffbeaton.com/Caterpillars/White-marked%20Tussock%20Moth2_2003-06-28.jpg
Mrs. Ed, I do believe you are right. How did you find him?
Thanks,
Elaine
Wow Mrs Ed Right ON!
Tussock Moth! Squish, squish! Sorry, I have a personal vendetta against them. Every spring they fall out of the oak trees by the hundreds, sometimes thousands, and eat anything they find. Plus, they get all over the house, the shed, the fences and build their cocoons. I've had so many falling out of the trees it sounded like rain. But some people like them. If there were only a few of them I wouldn't care, but when you have to walk around your house several times a day, knocking them all down, you learn to detest them.
Melanie
There is a link in the sticky to identify caterpillars. I just pulled that up and scrolled until I saw something similar.
More & more "birders" are popping up over too....Could it be that "watching" is an addiction! LOL
This message was edited Aug 13, 2008 8:40 AM
I have to share something that happened last night. I was planting seedlings and I was looking at my rue thinking it might look nice in another bed. So I walked over and dug up a small plant to try one there and as I was walking I looked at the plant and it had a spicebush and a monarch cat hiding in it! I immediately put it right back where I had found it. I was thinking what are the chances that out of about 30 rue plants the one I chose to dig up would have these cats on it. IT was so cute - almost like they wanted eachothers company for the night. I wonder if the rue helps keep them safe by keeping predators away?
*races to check my rue*
Yup, I just checked them and they are still their, I wonder when they will leave the rue and continue feeding. The spicebush isn't yellow yet so I don't think he is ready to pupate.
I had no idea that monarchs ate rue.
Sorry I wasn't more clear but no, they aren't eating it but their is milkweed and spicebush very near by. It seems like they just chose the rue to hide in at night. : )
Take a picture Meredith! I so want to see them.
Nanny, we are watchers aren't we! The nice thing about butterfly photos is that you can use your flash without getting devil eyes like you do with birds!
My camera is insisting that I use the flash even when the sun is shining. The photos with flash are clearer but they give it this weird black background. Can't resist taking a picture when they sun themselves!
Rue is a host plant for the GST and the BST. I've noticed that Monarch and Queen cats sometimes leave the host plant when outdoors...I think they're hiding from intense danger from predators. Then they reappear on the host plant to feed. This is how I've overlooked some cats, even though checking often. Of course, cats also leave to wander around before pupating.
Did you check them again Meredith?
Maybe cats outdoors would do like the caged ones and leave the plant to molt. In my plasticware they crawl up to the top or sides between instars.
Yup, those Monarchs will wander. I was pulling weeds and the bahia grass had gotten pretty tall in my beds. I found three Monarch cats on it and had to put them back on the milkweed. Maybe they were trying to escape the aphids, lol!
Cool thing - I had noticed some ladybugs in the area so I was like, "Yeah! Eat those aphids". So Monday I planted the new plants I bought at Hollie's and I had the hose out to water them in. I figure while I've got the hose I'll spray the aphids off the milkweed. Except - the milkweeds that had a lot of aphids no longer had any!
I had three Polydamas cats gut purge today. I managed to get two of them on paper towels on my desk but I missed the third. It could have been worse...at least that's three I don't have to feed anymore!
Melanie
I was filling the pond without my camera and a Giant Swallowtail landed right in front of me. Of course, when I came back with my camera he was no where to be seen, but I saw this one, a Dorantes Longtail.
None of these are from my own garden, but they are beautiful butterflies at Callaway Gardens.
Funny about the aphids, I had not seen any this summer or white flies either and they were awful last year. After the rain today, I saw lots of aphids on my butterfly weed. I just say it's nature at its best or worst. I'm with you Melanie on those moths. I have to download the emerging Gulf Frit caterpillar I took pictures of yesterday. I will make a new post since there were quite a few. It was awesome.
Elaine
This fellow looks plain on top...
but check him out from the back side...
Elphaba...
That looks like a White-Striped Longtail Skipper (Chioides catillus). We get a good amount of them in south Texas and they use beans/legumes as a larval host. They mainly use Texas Snout Bean that is a native vine out here.
~ Cat
Here's one I raised and released.
And on a shoulder
on the underside of a plant.
Ooops forgot the picture
oooo, I need to take a trip over to Callaway. Now they have a golf course too... love their butterfly house.
Pretty pictures, Lili
Elaine
I could spend hours there. My husband and kids will ride around on the bike trail while I visit ALL the gardens, and look at all the plants.
Sometime we stay overnight.
And in October, if it's not too windy and the weather is just right, they will have the Hot Air Balloon show. Beautiful!
Cat, you are so right! I went and looked in my book again and they had the white-striped as a comparison to the dorantes but they put the picture under the Dorantes heading! I just looked at the title and the picture. I'm so lazy. Thanks for the correction!
LilMerci, your pictures are gorgeous! What beautiful butterflies.
Thank you.
Lili,
Nice photos of the exotics we don't get here :o) We do get the Banded Orange Heliconian though...that's the only one I recognize for the US. Had one at the ranch in March of this year. It was a new record sighting for our county :o)
~ Cat
This is a ventral photo of it.
Hi everyone, I am so bummed I didn't think to take a picture! I kept checking to see when they would leave and the Monarch had left before the Spicebush. Then the next time I checked the spicebush he was MIA. I looked on all the spicebush plants and couldn't find him. Then I looked everywhere I could think that he may have made a J, but no luck. I did find a bunch of 1st instar spicebush cats though! Only one disapointing thing, there was a spider web with one in it! I removed the spiders so hopefully the rest will be okay. This always happens to me with spicebush, I check them every day and then they just disappear. I always worry a bird got them. : ( Hopefully they are just really good at finding safe spots to pupate, and that's why I can't find them. I'm just use to the MOnarchs making their chrysalis' all over the place in plain view. lol
I am really considering bringing the new batch in, I have an old aquarium I could set up. It's just so hard to have time to take care of them along with my 1 yr old and 4 yr old, that's why I don't usually bring cats in. I tried with Monarchs last year and the leaves dry up so fast and the frass needs to be changed so often I gave up and put them back outside. I think I had one pupate and of course he ended up with that black death disease. I can't help but think it was my fault I am such a worry wort. : )