We came from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/901562/
Well, I finally got my lazy self motivated to post my pictures. Mom and I went to USF this weekend for their gesneriad and African Violet plant sale. We were good and only bought two plants each. Afterward, we strolled over to the butterfly garden where Mom sat on a bench and watched me chase butterflies. This White Peacock kept eluding me, but I finally got it to sit still.
I like this Gulf Frit. These jatropha are usually covered in Polydamas, but I guess they were in a sharing mood that day.
There were lots of Monarchs, but I didn't see any caterpillars. Maybe because they're all at my house?
Mom kept chasing this Spicebush. "It's soooo pretty", she said.
There were some Black ST cats which made me happy. I usually don't see any as I think the birds have figured out where they live. Speaking of that, there's a huge gopher tortoise who built his burrow in the middle of the butterfly garden at USF. Or maybe they built the garden around his burrow? Either way, I like seeing him poke his head out. I love gopher tortoises - got to pick one up out of the road the other day.
Then, I found a bigger one! Mom thought they were cool.
And here's one in a sling! Wait a minute - that's not a Black ST! What's a Polydamas doing on there? Hee hee - the Polys kept wandering away from the pipevine and across the path to the other plants. This one was fine since he's pupating, but I found a couple of younger cats that I picked up and returned to the pipevine.
Speaking of Polys - mine have eaten all my pipevine leaves. So...I'm feeding them stems. They like eating stem anyway so it's a win-win situation.
There were several Giant STs but they were all blurry, lol!
With the caterpillars being present, I should have expected to see a Black ST. But I really don't see them too often so I was pleasantly surprised to see this one.
The Zebra Longwings were out in force. They fly like they don't have a care in the world.
I stalked this Pipevine ST until I got a shot that really showed the shimmery blue on it.
Found me another caterpillar - Gulf Frit! There's a lot of passionvine near the new bathrooms they built so I always make a point of checking them out.
There's also a lot of Spanish Needles growing over by the bathroom and lots of the smaller butterflies were enjoying them, including this Long-Tailed Skipper.
So then we came home and this White Peacock was hanging out around the front door. I like how they vary in color - this one was a lot more vivid than normal.
Then, I had a Monarch ready to come out.
They're so bloated when they come out!
Yesterday, my favorite butterfly of all came out - Zebra Swallowtail.
Another shot once the wings expanded.
This one came out a little dark, but I wanted to show the top of the wings. You can also see where it leaked fluid on me.
Okay, Melanie slide show over. I'm going to wrap myself back in my cocoon for a while. : )
Too funny, Mellie
Loved all those great pictures. Still looking for Monarchs here. I had one lonely TS last month, but it didn't stay around.
Thea, my zinnias are laying on the ground also. I let them die naturally so the birds can have some food. Your yard was pretty. Had a pretty yellow rose growing. I only smelled it. lol
I had a hummingbird fly right into me on Monday. I picked him up and stroked him for a minute and he took off like a shot so I guess he was ok.
Do the black swallowtails prefer the curly leaf parsley over the flat leaf?
Elaine
Nice pictures, Melanie. : )
Elaine, that is something about the Hbird. Glad he is ok. And, in my opinion, curly leaf they like better, than the flat. I have both planted side by side, and all the cats are on the curly. My bronze fennel is all ate down to the nubs.
Nice pictures Melanie, you could support a whole thread by yourself!
"Melanie's Winged Friends of Florida"
Poor HB..glad he was ok.
Wow Melanie great pictures! Everyones pictures on the last thread were great as well!
Last night my DD spotted a huge caterpillar about to try and cross the road. I was so excited because my first thought was it was a luna moth! I looked at my guide and it looked like a Luna moth. When my DH came home we were showing him it and he noticed on the next page in the guide another caterpillar that it looked more like. It ended up being a Polyphemus Moth, which is still pretty cool but not as cool as finding a luna would have been. So I kept it thinking I'd get a pic in the morning because it was getting late and I had to get the kids ready for bed. I planned on setting up a nice little home with leaf litter for it but when I got in this morning I found it had already pupated! I am a little bummed because I wanted a picture of this giant caterpillar but a coccoon is cool too. I didn't get a picture because my computer is low on memory space and I need to go through and back up my millions of pictures I have on it which is going to take while. So I figured I can't upload it yet anyway. I will get a pic and post it soon. : )
At least you got to see and id it before it pupated! That is great! Now you have to wait for the adult, hopefully it won't overwinter!
That is true! I am greatful for that. : ) I was mostly bummed because I wanted to share the picture with all of you. I had planned on putting a ruler next to it to show the size and I know the chances of finding another are rather slim. You know I just remembered that in the guide it said they sometimes make snapping sounds with their mandibles. Now that I know that I believe there are more up in those trees because I heard a snapping sound last night and I've been hearing it prior wondering.... what in the world is that?
It's so cool! At least you saw that Meredith!! What kind of trees are they?
Here too Elaine, BST like the curly better than flat, and they love fennel and dill a lot too. For those you can scatter lots of seed in spring if you have the room. The spice section of the grocery store has bottles of fennel and dill, and they germinate just fine. A very cheap way to get a lot of both.
I agree you guys Melanie has done a fantastic job taking over the daily bf threads, especially since I have been low on butterflies and having a few other dragons to slay around here this summer. I am very grateful to you Mel!
Mrs. Ed! Your pics in the last thread were awesome. Sheila was good in saying that if the thread is long (over 100 posts)... and you have pics like that to post, feel free to start the new thread just copy and paste the title changing the number, and reference the new thread in the old and the old thread in the new.
It seems to be coming from a big patch of Oaks. When we found the cat it was walking away from an oak, but there was a smallish apple tree close by too. I took a picture of a picture of the cat. I don't know how well it will look here.
Oh Mel, wow. I love all the photos. THanks for sharing the Zebra Swallowtail. I wonder if I'll ever see one of those.
Merideth, I can't wait to see the cocoon.
From the previous thread, Shelia I am more than happy to put those sulphur pix in bug files once you experts ID them for me! Hee.
I found one website that indicated that light one with the pink was a clouded sulphur, but butterflies and moths and Dave's garden did not show that much. I see even on this clouded sulphur site you sent, that there are different color variations. http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabambc/construct-species-page-inframe.asp?sp=Colias-philodice
As I looked through all the other pictures of sulphurs from yesterday, I noticed many have that pink running around the edge. Here are a couple more.
Here is the closed and open shot of what you said was a female.
Merideth that guy is AWESOME!
Thanks Deb, now I'll know about posting. In the bird forum, pelletory keeps the rotating list of who's turn it is. So I sure didn't want to step on toes.
I forgot to add this pearl crescent from yesterday. They are so cooperative even if they are tiny.
And I hadn't seen one of these silver-spotted skippers for a while, so I was glad to snap a photo.
I had some very flirty Painted Ladies, but I am still not seeing any red admirals, which is a bummer.
I got a pic of the cocoon, you can kind of see the red spots through it still. It has marks of the mesh baggy it was in. It's one of those ones you can use to protect the cats right on the host plant, I had to imporvise. It was all stuck to it so I hope I didn't hurt it any, trying to pull it off. My plan is to put it in some leaf litter, I think I'll put it in an old rabbit cage I have outside. I'll just have to be sure to move it somewhere I can see it so I remember to check it every day.
ha. it's a football!!!
I forgot to tell you all that when I was taking the garbage out today I found another BST on some old dried dill. Gracious! So, into the cage he went with some parsley (mine prefer curly too, which is good, because *I* prefer flat leaf), rue, a somewhat fresher sprig of dill and bronze fennel.
Great shots Meridith! The one of the cat and cocoon are both superb!
Mrs. Ed, Gracious is right, lol! They really do need our help!
I am sure you have been to this site by now, but here is a list and pics of sulphurs in general which might help you to id them. They can be quite difficult to id.
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/search?searchbox=sulphur
This one I had to snap from a distance, they are pretty shy when humans get too close, lol.
Horace's Duskywing on bi-colored buddelia from yesterday
Thank you DEbnes, that picture of the cat is a picture of a picture though lol! The cocoon is from me though. : )
Deb, I have never thought of the spice rake for getting seeds. What a great idea. : )
Wonder if rosemary will come up, too. : )
~Lucy
Lucy, I haven't ever found Rosemary seeds in the spice section, however Dill Seed and Fennel Seed from spice section are live, and do propagate as well as packaged garden seed. :-).
Oh, that's right. Rosemary is just the leaves. lol Well, maybe they dropped seed or 2 in with the leaves. lol : ) My brain is not working today.
New one for me. Carolina Satyr. When I first saw it, I thought it was a hairstreak of some kind. Had to look it up. LMK if I got it wrong please. Becky
Some of these butterflies are a bit worn...or had a close call sometime.
Poor Two-tailed Tiger....just a little ragged and faded, but it's here, anyway!
