We came from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/925649/
Martha, I haven't sprouted wings yet, but I was thinking mjsponies' salvia looked mighty delicious in those photos!
My Spicebush changed colors and pupated. I miss him already but at least when I see him again he will be a beautiful butterfly.
The Gulf Frits are still hanging around. They get in fights with the Polydamas over who gets to eat the porterweed. The Frits like the pentas and the Tampa verbena, as well. I keep trying to tell them there's plenty for everyone but they just don't listen.
And on Thanksgiving I was reminded to be thankful for Zebra Swallowtails!
Melanie
Sweet pics Mellie!
Love that SBSt!! Very nice Zebra!
Way cool snakes Cat! You da woman!!
Arghhhhhhhh...now Melanie's showing off those gorgeous Zebra STs and Spicebushies!!! We don't get those down here. Trade ya a couple for a rattlesnake? Heh! Heh!
On good note...the Julia is resting nicely along with four Zebra Longwings that formed their chrysalis. Found some Gulf Frit cats on the boomerang passion flower that the Julia and Zebras prefer to use so I moved the GFs to the front yard incense passion flower.
Here's a couple of the Zebras - am amused that one is light and one is dark.
~ Cat
Cat, totally cool snakes! That Indigo is so pretty. I need a big snake although not a rattler! I have a little rat problem around the bird feeder. Too much information? They're kind of cute really.
Mellie, the color of your spicebush cat is so amazing!
Lots of butterflies came through yesterday but only the skip let me take pics. (BTW, Sheila, total LOL at your poop comment!) Today is cold and windy, so I doubt I'll get much.
Get ready....am about to hog this thread for several posts!!! It was a great day!!!
Went to the local NABA park today. It turned out to be an excellent day for butterflies! Got to see two very rare butterflies which were lifers for me - a "Common Melwhite aka Creamy White" (Melete lycimnia isandra) - which isn't common at all - quite rare for us - I just hate when they use the word 'common' in a butterfly's name - and an Apricot Sulphur (Phoebis argante) but wasn't able to get photographs. Only one man was able to get a photograph of the Apricot Sulphur but there had been sightings of several Creamy Whites from last week. Also saw a Tropical Greenstreak (Cyanophrys herodotus) but forgot my glasses in the car and ended up with a very out of focus photograph :o) I went back and got my glasses but when I got back it had flown away. Another was sighted as I was about to leave for home - and it was about a hundred yards away - I was too pooped to walk that far :o) Maybe next weekend :o)
One of our group thought they spotted the Apricot Sulphur again so you can see how they are all gathered around trying to look get a good look and photographs - after reviewing photos the butterfly everyone is crowed around turned out to be a Orange Barred Sulphur :o) I just had to take a photograph of all the photographers - Ro Wauer and his wife are in the group as well as other local leps.
~ Cat
ps...am wondering if there are butterflies out there flying around with teeny tiny cameras photographing us?! ROFL!!!
This message was edited Nov 30, 2008 7:13 PM
Saw and photographed an Isabella's Heliconian (Eueides isabella) - it was somewhat cooperative as it stuck to nectaring on a lead tree. This is a rare one for us.
~ Cat
...another photo of the Isabella's Heliconian.
~ Cat
Another rare butterfly - a Blomfild's Beauty (Smyrna blomfildia).
~ Cat
It is extremely difficult to get a photograph of a Blomfild's Beauty showing the dorsal view but I got a glimpse of it when a bee disturbed it. There is also a Malachite (ventral view) to the right :o)
~ Cat
Another rare butterfly - a Ruddy Hairstreak (Electrostrymon sangala).
~ Cat
..and yet another rare butterfly - a Red-Lined Scrub-Hairstreak (Strymon bebrycia). This one is a tad worn out but a rare bug none the less :o)
~ Cat
And even more...Mexican Silverspot (Dione moneta) trying to mate. These are rare strays to south Texas...and we had four different individuals at the park today!
~ Cat
...am hogging this thread :o) Here's a female Mexican Silverspot ovipositing on passiflora suberosa.
~ Cat
Somewhat not as rare - a White Angled-Sulphur (Anteos clorinde) roosting under a potato tree leaf. Very camouflaged!
~ Cat
Same White Angled-Sulphur (Anteos clorinde) roosting under a potato tree leaf photographed with the flash on - not so camouflaged now.
~ Cat
Keep on posting Cat! you're not hogging. I'll donate my space to you! Gosh I love seeing all of these. I sure wish I could winter there!
I thought that Malachite was a clearwing for a minute because the green match the leaves!
Ahhh, Mrs_Ed...that's is for my daily butterflies. The rest were common bugs. While photographing the Blomfild's Beauty we had a couple of Silver Emperors and a Pavon Emperor show up on a nearby post baited with cut up tangerines too and nobody paid them any mind.
We are quite spoiled out here in south Texas. It's pretty bad when we start calling rare butterflies yard bugs because we get to see them several times :o)
~ Cat
HA!
Wow, great pictures.. Glad you killed that rattler, Cat. I love all the black snakes, except molly mocassin. I am in Florida and here is a Queen (I think) on Star Fruit.
Elaine
Elaine, that's a Viceroy! You can tell because they have that arc that goes through the hind wings. Down south they tend to mimic the Queens since we have a large Queen population. Nice!
And Cat says I'm showing off!? Hee hee! You've got plenty to brag about, too.
Melanie
Great shots all of you!!
Cat....keep them coming; ours are no longer very active IF they are here. Enjoying the varieties! Some I was fortunate to see at the bf exhibit in March. Love the Isabella's Hel.
HA.
must… plant… more… passion vine…
Been taking care of that vine four years. It was struggling too much, new cats all the time, eating the new tiny sprouts. I finally, last week said, 'no more' and squashed three little 1/2 inch cats, saying sorrows and prayers as I did so. Guess I was too late, the vine's given up, all brown and dead.
Booo, my passion vine.
Yeah, unfortunately those Gulf Frits can become too abundant for their own good. I haven't resorted to killing any instars yet but I do move them from the vines in the back yard that the Zebras and Julias prefer to other passion vines in the front yard...or to a neighbor's vines a couple of blocks over :o)
Am thinking it would be more humane to squish the eggs before they hatch - I don't do that either because I'm not sure who laid what! :o)
~ Cat
Mola.... Don't give up on your vine. Are you where you can plant it in the ground? Looks like you may have it potted? If you plant it out where it can spread it's roots and get more sun it may bounce back. Break a stem and see if it's still alive.
Yeah, passion vines are pretty sturdy. I know a lot of places they'll freeze to the ground but still come back in the spring. I've transplanted a couple of mine and they looked bad for a while but now they're popping up all over the place! Pipevine can be the same way. It may look dead but give it a little time and you'll see little green shoots sprouting up.
Speaking of pipevine...I shouldn't have complained about having no caterpillars. Last night I came home and my pipevine had eggs all over it! I quickly moved it to the patio so I won't get any more eggs. I'm not sure if I can support all the eggs I have, but if not I'll take them to the museum.
Melanie
Melanie,
Which variety of Pipevine do you have? I looked it up and some varietys seem to be more hardy than others. I live in Deland...don't know how far from Lutz that is but we can get hard frosts and occassionaly freezes. I'd like to add the Pipevine to my BF garden, but want to ge the right one.
Thanks!!
mj
I have a. trilobata. It works for both the Polydamas and the Pipevine Swallowtails. The Pipevine STs have trouble with the tropical species and will often die on it. But the trilobata works for both so I like having it for that reason.
Melanie
Melissa~
The frits did the same here... Made me think my PV was done for. They looked just like yours; bare but still green. They are certainly alright.. Just take the advice Melanie offered. Put them in the ground and they should start sprouting soon enough. You can make a big sock out of a loose mesh to keep the girls from ovipositing on them, just put a small trellis underneath so they can wrap and climb. As Mellie said, passionvines are very sturdy.
If you like I can mail you some cuttings of my blue crown, they root very easy and seem to be the hardiest of the species. Just say the word, and I will ship some out to you. No problem at all..:-)
Debnes
Melanie,
Where did you get your Pipevine ?
Thanks, debnes, but the Man would probably confiscate plant material without a USDA certificate. But I'm not sure, I need to ask around.
The passionvine was moved around in his pot for two years. I put him on the ground, still in pot, under a leaky roof gutter, and he got huge, like fifteen or more stems going all over the place, more, probably than twenty five feet, up on the roof, along the gutter, out the electric line to the house. Just before hurricane Omar, I chopped back the vine to eight feet tall, losing my first, and a big crop of passionfruits. Dug under the pot, cutting the half-inch diameter roots. Put him in a deep saucer and was feeding a lot. He was growing madly, until the cats found him.
Just a depressing thing to find after I'd been to a Thanksgiving dinner where I couldn't hear anything anyone said. it's a dog losing one's hearing.
The bottom is still a bit green, but fading. maybe starving with no food from leaves. I just cut the beast back, we'll see. I grow plants for food or fragrance. Mostly food. When it gets really dry here, you must buy water, the big truck comes with 5000 gallons, at 30 cents a gallon, ouch! You can buy little framed poems to hang over the toilet: If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.
At least this passion vine thing in't like going out to the garden after the first hard freeze, that used to murder me!
OK, I'll shut up, sorry to be such a downer.
I got my pipevine at a nice place called Hollie's Farm and Nursery here in Lutz. I also see them for sale at the USF Botanical Gardens plant sales. Also, I like to order lots of native Florida plants from www.mailordernatives.com I bought a. tomentosa from them but I still have it in pots so it's small and the butterflies haven't used it yet. When I ran out of trilobata I tried feeding the cats the tomentosa, but I had mixed results. Some cats will switch species with no problem but I've had a little trouble with switching pipevines on them.
Mola, sounds like you need rain barrels for Christmas!
Melanie
A bigger cistern. If you don't know what that is, it's like having a swimming pool under the house, instead of a basement. They are required here, and many places. From 5,000 gallons, up to one houe I know that has a 40,000 gallon cistern, right big.
I'm renting a place right now that has 'city' water, my bill is 25-30 dollars a month. I seem to average 40 gallons a day use.
I need to go find a ponds forum. I looked in a puddle that's drying up, on the side of the street in town, and there are tiny shrimp and fish!! Where'd they come from?????
I think those tiny shrimp lay dormant in the dirt/mud like crawdads do. I know there are places out here that are a good 40 or so miles from the gulf but when it rains you see all these little holes in the ground where the crawdads come out of and you see them crawling around.
Guess living on an island surrounded by salt water doesn't leave much for finding fresh water in the water table. Rain barrels and roof dew/water collection might alleviate the cost to water plants. We do that back at the ranch. Metal roofing and gutters really do collect lots of rain water - when it rains, that is :o)
~ Cat
We used to on rare occasion find crawdads when it flooded a lot years ago on our dry creek...even found little fish sometimes. I remember when the cat brought one home. That never happens anymore. Probably the dammed-up pond isn't there anymore.
Wow Mola, I’m curious about your “shrimpies”and fish! I am new to ponding, and discovered these bizarre wormlike things in my waterfall last summer…ugh. I got them IDed, and all was well though. No butterfly action in my little garden right now, or maybe I just haven’t been outside at the right time.
