For most of the summer, all I had were Polydamas, but lately they haven't been around as much. I was actually glad to see this one yesterday.
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 51
Am doing the poly dance! A fellow member of our NABA South Texas Club brought me a poly cat she had on her plant - it's about a 3rd instar. She's raised them before and gets poly cats a few times a year. I'd been whining about having dutchman's pipevines but no polys ovipositing on them. :o)
Woo hoo!!! Photo below :o)
~ Cat
ps...I brought the little bugger in as it's supposed to get down to 50 tonight. Don't laugh - I know 50 is a warm front for ya'll that get below zero temps - but out here in hot and humid south Texas well that's pret'near a blizzard! ROFL!
This message was edited Oct 27, 2008 9:07 PM
I had to take advantage of MOSI's safe haven law and drop my caterpillars off at the museum. I just didn't have enough food to care for them all. I left five on my pipevine; I think I can handle that. Glad you are getting to experience the joy of the non-stop eating machines.
I know what you mean about "cold" weather. We're supposed to get into the 40s tomorrow night. This morning I was at Starbucks getting an iced cinnamon dolce latte (yummy) and the guy in the drive-thru was like, "And you're wearing short sleeves!" My thermometer in the car said it was 59! I was like, "C'mon, I'm a native Floridian and I can take it."
Melanie
Melanie, that is so funny (safe haven law).
I had to do what was best for them...sniff,sniff. At least I still get visitation on Sunday, LOL!
Melanie
So funny! I still have one cat left that has not pupated. Can't believe it isn't frozen after last night's freeze.
Woohoo! I got to see a Yellow-tipped Flasher (Astraptes anaphus) today at our local NABA park. Jeff Glassberg was in town checking on the park as well so he got to see it too.
~ Cat
Ventral View
Yellow-tipped Flasher - dorsal view. This butterfly is an irregular stray to south Texas...so getting to see one was exciting!
~ Cat
Nice!
Also got to see another fresh male Silver Emperor :o) These buggers are showing up just about daily during this fall season.
I wiped the sweat off my brow and placed my finger near its feet - it climbed on board and started lapping it up!
~ Cat
A photo catching the blue flash on the male Silver Emperor that shows up on the wings when the sun hits it just right :o) Wasn't able to get the whole wing to show up blue though.
~ Cat
Oh Cat, I like that Silver Emperor. Very pretty butterfly. : )
~Lucy
Okay, that does it! I'm moving to South Tx. (I wished), lol. Beautiful b.f. Cat.
Kim
*gasp* gorgeous
soooo pretty. I will be down hmmmm about February, lol
OMG, Cat! I love the Silver Emperor and the Yellow-tipped Flasher! Wow! Those are amazing shots too. The detail is just perfect.
--and to think, I was excited about having another Painted Lady visit!
Amazing, cat!! both of them! I need a better camera--I can't get those sharp, clear photos with my camera. Two things I am buying when "my ship comes in"---a new computer and a new camera! LOL
Elphaba--I get excited about the Am. Painted Lady, too. That's a great photo!
I still have one Am. P.L. in the garden, but she's flying high and I couldn't get a pix of her just now. :((
Thanks Marilyn. I took about a zillion shots though and only a few were even decent! Like Mrs. Ed said, lighting seems to be the key. If you can get the sun behind you, the shots are better. Butterflies aren't always cooperative, however!
Lily-love, I'm sure she'll come down soon! Don't they come down in cold weather? It's a bit nippy here -- well, it's in the 70s, but I'm wearing a sweatshirt and long underwear. I'm just funny that way.
Here she is from the side.
This Gulf Frit was warming up and positively posing for me.
ooo, pretty.
Sweatshirt and long underwear. Funny.
Tehehehehe, did you mean 'Long john'? LOL. Those butterflies, they're so beautiful. I haven't seen one G.F. nor monarch today! Did see some Sulpher on the field. But none other!
To my surprise, after the last two nights of frost, I found two Painted Lady bf's and two different kinds of sulphurs(I believe) plus several skippers and bumblebees feeding on the few remaining purple coneflowers and Oranges and Lemons Gaillardia which survived the frost.
Perhaps one of you can ID this one for me.
This is the other one which I believe is also a sulphur. It is more light green-- the one above is more gold.
I managed to catch them both on the same flower at the same time. The photo is a little fuzzy because I caught them fluttering their wings but you can see what the topside of the wings look like. I believe someone called the topside the "dorsal view".
Here's the two American Painted Lady bf's.
These have been quite abundant in my garden this season. Some sort of skipper, I believe?
Elphaba - good going on the Painted Lady photo. There were a few dozen at the park but they were just too skittish and flighty. I couldn't get close enough to one to get a good photo without them flying off to another mistflower bush.
~ Cat
Marilyn, I can't believe that you got the tops of those sulfurs! That's sooooo hard to do! Also, two Painted Ladies in the same photo and both with their wings open -- holy cow!
This isn't a great pic, but it's kind of fun because you can see the shadow of this monarch's legs on the banana leaf below. The banana flower is supposed to be pink, but the color didn't come our right.
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