PURRRRTY
Daily Butterflies Page 45
Nice crisp photo of that Queen cat indeed! Add it to the bug files :o)
Am disappointed in ya'll...skeeters have wings and fly around yards - can't we just consider it a very tiny and ugly butterfly? ROLF!!! On another note...I read that if you rub on vanilla extract or essential oil on it will deter skeeters? Has anyone tried this? Am going to try it this weekend...but will still carry my bottle of DEET just in case! Am trying to find other ways to repel skeeters without having to use so much chemical stuff. That DEET spray makes my skin burn when I'm out in the sun.
Also read you can add a couple of teaspoons of garlic powder into a gallon of water and spray your yard to repel the adult skeeter. Gonna do that too just as soon as I get brave enough to go outside with a sprayer!!!
~ Cat
That is a Purdy cat!
There were some suggestions on this thread below that you could try also. It's funny...we use insect repellents and yet...we like many insects, especially butterflies. I once saw an ad for this special suit or something that a person could wear to keep skeeters and such off...and thought, wow, that would probably be like being in hell in a hot place like Texas.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/689443/
I already added that Queen cat pic to Bug Files.
Well, I saw the tiger butterfly again when I drove up the mail boxes to check mail. Sure is pretty, but still it was too far away to see how many tails. Also saw a worn GST...probably the one that laid eggs on my Hop Tree.
I tried ID'ing this but couldn't. Any ID? Also what type of guide would be good to use?
I don't think I've seen this before.
thanks
Looks like the White Admiral! Cool! I've never seen one...they don't come here. We have the Red-spotted Purple instead, which is related to that one.
I didn't have a good butterfly day. On the way home from the shelter, a butterfly flew right into the grill of my car and I felt awful. I figured that was the end of the poor thing, but when I got home, he was still on my grill, broken but still alive. I felt so bad. I took a couple of quick photos of him and then wrapped him in some tissue to put him in the freezer for hopefully a peaceful end.
Maybe this will end my confusion, is it a Spicebush or a Pipevine? Whichever, he was a beauty.
And then a GF started to eclose in the crate, I went off to do other things, and came back to see he'd never gotten very far, he just dried up hanging out of the chrysallis, never having opened his wings.
I hate days like this.......
Thea, sounds like you had a rough day. Just remember that we're still beating Mother Nature's odds! You have a Spicebush ST there. The white spots on them are much larger, especially on the forewings. Also, the Spicebush is a bit larger in my opinion and has longer tails. And the blue on the Pipevine is more a reflection of the light whereas you can always see it on the Spicebush. I always think the Spicebushes look like someone rubbed bluish-green eye shadow on them - it's a very powdery look. Hope I'm helping; it's kind of hard to describe things. I'm a very visual learner myself so I have tons of books and take tons of pictures (and still don't have everything figured out).
Melanie
Oh thea, sorry, that was a beautiful butterfly.
Here is what I did this morning.
That is very cool!
Very cool indeed.
Nice collage on the Monarchs, debilu! Today I went outside and saw 3 Queens at one time. Here's one that didn't fly away after I got my camera. I found two more tiny Queen cats and an egg...all so far has been on the native Texas Milkweed.
I'm technically a lurker here... but I just can't resist your beautiful pix! Wow - how do y'all get some of those shots?! This year I started a small bed for butterflies but have primarily attracted bees, with just a few b-flies and cats here and there.
debilu, that's very cool!
No lurking! I demand you join in the fun!
Today was an excellent butterfly day for me. I have a lot of chrysalids that have been that way forever so Mom decided they must have Seasonal Affective Disorder and is giving them light therapy. I had a Polydamas come out the other day, and last night I noticed a Zebra Swallowtail was going to emerge soon! I was excited because it's the caterpillar I picked off Grandma's pawpaw when I was on vacation in WV. It came out about 9am and sat in the critter keeper on my desk. It got a little antsy this afternoon so I threw my sweater over the cage.
Here is me releasing it! FYI, it's easy to get good pictures when they can't fly very well.
And here is the topside view!
Then, a White Peacock flew by and landed amongst the plumbagos and porterweed. It sat there sunning itself and let me get really close and take lots of pictures. This is Dad's favorite butterfly. While in the same area I saw what I'm pretty sure is a Sleepy Orange that's been flying around. Mom and Dad keep saying they saw "the prettiest orange butterfly" and I think that's what they were talking about. Now, if it would just stop so I could get a picture!
Another way to get good photos - take about a hundred and you end up with a few good ones.
Across the street on my neighbor's corner I was pointing out my pawpaw plants while Mom admired the echinacea. That's when I saw this Phaeon Crescent! I had a bunch of them this spring, but had only seen one or two since then.
Here's the side view of the Crescent. Both it and the White Peacock use frogfruit (phyla nodiflora) as a host plant. It grows plentifully in my neighbors' yards which is why I had so many Crescents this spring. I searched a few plants but didn't see anything; I'll have to check more when I'm outside tomorrow. At l least I know what the White Peacock cats look like since we have them at MOSI.
Melanie (Mommy to the Zebra Swallowtails)
lol...thanks, Melanie. :)
That zebra is so equisite, right down to its green legs! Just gorgeous....I have b-fly envy now - ha! Superb pix; thanks for the pointers too. I need to research host plants. I've got the obvious: butterfly weed...but never heard of 'frogfruit' and would've never linked it to a b-fly.
Do you know it by the name 'turkey tangle' maybe?
Your monarch collage is a stunner, Debilu, it's so clever! You must really know your way around both the camera and the computer, what a work of art!
And mellie, I get so jealous when you post the lists of butterflies you're seeing, and show photos. I would LOVE to see the Zebra Swallowtail, I had no idea they are so beautiful til I saw your photos. And the white peacock..... My stepsister just moved to FL and I'm encouraging her to look for butterflies, but she's a dedicated birder, I don't think she has room in her life right now for other winged creatures. If she saw a ZST up close, she might change her mind!!
Frogfruit??? Got to look that one up!!!
awww. all so nice.
Slow in my yard now for butterflies. that's sad. Mr. or Ms. Buckeye is still eating and BSTs are still napping. My phlox are done and the zinnias hanging in there. Fall is in the air… sad sad sad.
Oh, I meant to comment on the great pictures too sorry!! Especially the collage Debilu!!! That is a super one. You need to post it under the bugfiles Monarch listing. It shows every stage really clear. Great job!!
Every time someone posts a Red-Spotted Purple I have butterfly envy (sniff, sniff). Thea, my aunt is a birder but she's been sending me pictures of butterflies and asking what they are. In fact, she sent me a picture of a Red-Spotted Purple she saw on a rotten apple; I was so jealous!
Fall may be coming, but we Southerners will once again do our part to keep everyone in a virtual butterfly paradise!
Researching host plants is always a good idea. Many of the things we consider "weeds" are what caterpillars need to survive. Frogfruit is one of those tiny plants that grows in your grass and you never notice it except to curse its existence in your lawn. Unless you're me in which case you notice how much the little sulphurs and skippers like those tiny flowers. And they are tiny - the flower could easily fit on a dime. I always say it's a good idea to leave a weedy patch somewhere in your yard if you can. I'm lucky I live on a corner lot because I let some of the right of way by the main street get a little weedy and no one cares. I've got desmodium (tick trefoils) for the skippers, Spanish Needles (Bidens alba) for the Dainty Sulphur, and Fanpetals (Sida acuta) for the Hairstreaks and Skippers.
Melanie
I love the Frog Fruit. I had it in a hanging basket but it is really a ground cover. I put it in my TX bed and it is making it's self at home there. The whole flower cluster is smaller than a pencil eraser.
It does spread, Sheila...a bit too much, in my case. I keep it out of my flowerbeds now.
Turkey Tangle is a new one too. I appreciate you listing other host plants, Melanie. Gives me a good place to start figuring out what will work here.
Sheila, does the Frog Fruit play well with other plants? Linda's post makes me think it can be a bully in the flower bed. It's such a cute little flower; I'd like to try it.
My gosh there are Buckeye's every where today...I really need to figure out what their host plant is around here and find some of their cats!
I rarely see them on flowers. Usually on the road or in the grass.
Lots of Painted Ladies too today.
I felt so bad finding BST cats on my denuded parsley stems. I have a few carrots growing in a small patch (should've been a LARGE patch of carrots but a neighbor kitty did some digging in there) so I brought the cats to the carrot tops, one by one, to see if they could transfer their tastes to them. Otherwise, there is nothing left in the yard for them to chomp on. Thank goodness, they're munching away and getting bigger!!! We had high winds and rain yesterday, so I put some pots around them to shield them some, and hopefully they'll climb around on the plants stand I put over them, and pupate. I'm so glad they're surviving! Why don't you see the adult females laying eggs on carrot tops?
Mellie, I'm smugly glad we have a butterfly up here that you don't have!! I love the RSP, how pretty it is!! I see it a lot at the animal shelter, puddling in some questionable stuff.
When I saw this poor tattered TST from my windows, I thought it was a different species, it looked so strange! I got closer and saw all the damage to its wings. But it's still getting around!
Nanny, you might find buckeye cats on these narrow-leaved plantains. Also look for them on snapdragons and toadflax.
http://images.google.com/images?q=narrow%20leaved%20plantain&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi
FYI, when I first got my buckeye cat, I really couldn't see the markings or the spikes with my bare eyes. I had to take a pix. So just look for a little brown guy.
Wow Thea!! lots of BSTs! Mine are still wrapped up. 16 days for the first one!
Lots and lots of butterflies today! I saw two Monarchs this morning - one boy and one girl. Here's the girl, doing what she does best!
I think this is a Dorantes Skipper, but it could be a Long-Tailed Skipper. I didn't get to see the topside of it.
You can't see it in this photo, but I think this guy is a Twin Spot Skipper.
The sulphur finally sat still! This is a Cloudless, but I also saw my Sleepy Orange this morning. Still can't get a photo of him though.
I saw the Giant ST again, but it flew away when I came to take a picture. I caught a glimpse of a ST over on the other side of the house and I thought it was the Giant, but it turned out to be a Tiger ST! I got Mom to come out and see it, too.
I think this is a Dun Skipper because he had no markings at all. But he was a pretty chocolate brown color.
