Well, Mom called me at work about 4:30 and let me know I had two Polydamas that emerged. Then, when I got home around 6:00 there were three! They're all in the butterfly house now since it's dark outside. I'll have Mom let them go tomorrow once it warms up. While I was out there I checked the Polydamas eggs and they haven't hatched yet. Even a couple more days to let the pipevine grow will help! Polydamas eat almost as much as Monarchs - they're piggies!
Melanie
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 55
I posted this in the Monarch migration thread, but in case you missed it check out this video at Yahoo News about the Monarchs: http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?ei=UTF-8&p=mexico+sanctuary&c=av
Well, Mom released the three Polydamas today. I was sitting here watching football and when I reached for my drink I noticed something moving in one of the cages. It was this Zebra Swallowtail, who must have been out for a while because when I tried taking him out he started flying around the living room. I rustled him up and took this blurry photo before putting him out in the butterfly house. Mom will let him go tomorrow morning once it warms up.
And here are my Polydamas eggs. I think quite a few are duds. You can see some are discolored and some look dented in. I wonder if egg quality declines this late in the year? Maybe I just got a female that wasn't at the top of the gene pool. I'll keep you updated on the ones that hatch.
Melanie
Great photos Melanie. Love that Zebra. I haven't seen a Polydamas all year long. A friend had some in her yard and gave me a last instar caterpillar. It's still in the chrysalis stage but it doesn't look right...am thinking it was parasitized as a caterpillar.
~ Cat
Hey...the NSCR is looking for photographs of Painted Lady caterpillars forming a "J" and a fresh chrysalis. I've posted a separate thread about it. Hopefully one of ya'll can help them out.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/930152/
The weather warmed up nice yesterday and this Sulpher found my hanging basket of red petunias..have'nt seem much else, no skippers yesterday, and they usually are around.
That photo looks great for Christmas!!!
~ Cat
I keep meaning to plant Silver Tidal Wave petunias, but I can't find what I've done with the seeds! I bought them a while ago when I saw them at Home Depot because I've had such success with them I wanted more. But it wasn't petunia time when I bought the seeds and now they have vanished into the black hole of my room. I notice sulphurs seem to like red flowers; they're always hitting my neighbor's firecracker fern.
Oh, another Polydamas came out today but he didn't want to fly away so we're keeping him in the butterfly house tonight.
Melanie
ummmm, Cat, maybe I can put it on a cd and get some xmas cards made!! You gave me an idea!! Thank You!!
We've still got some ladies and a couple of skippers, as well as a GF. I believe this is an American Lady, unwilling to give up its nectaring spot even though the wasp comes pretty near!
And this should a lady from the side. Most of the White Mistflower is gone to seed....if anyone wants seed, let me know!
Yeh, shoot, I'll sign up for some white mistflower. It's a kind of Ageratum? There's a 'weed' in my yard that looks ageratumish. But I haven't seen the butterflies on it.
My day was ruined, got a Stoke's seed catalogue. I need about 100 acres of fertile soil!
Nothing special new on the ditch shrimp, will update when there is.
It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...
Okay...well 84 degrees in south Texas - with a Queen on the neighbor's poinsettia blooms. No chance of snow here :o)
~ Cat
This message was edited Dec 8, 2008 6:14 PM
Had four Zebras and the one Julia eclose today. Why must butterflies make an appearance on the windiest of days?! We had gusts of 35 mph!!! I opened the cat cage under the shelter of a vine covered trellis and set them all to hang from the vine but one of the Zebras and the Julia flew away. The other two stayed put and I figured they'd leave when they were ready. Here's one of the Zebras :o)
~ Cat
Nice Ladies Linda!! Butterflies have slowed down here.... Since the last dip I've hardly seen any. Not even Snouts, which I really expected more of this year.
LOL Melissa, I hate not having enough room for all the plants I want... I really sympathize with that. Sometimes I can't even bear to look at the catalogs.
Beautiful Christmas shot Cat! Congrats on the Julia and Zebras!
Another Black ST eclosed this morning. I had this one and the other one from about a month ago closer to the back door in the mudroom. Guessin it isn't a good place to put the ones that are supposed to hibernate. The ones I have in another cooler place are still dormant. Whew!!
One mo time...dorsal view.
I think my Spicebush baby got parasitized. : ( I was checking the cage when I noticed what I thought was a strand of silk dangling from the chrysalis. I thought that was weird so I started looking at it. Then, I noticed some kind of pupa in the bottom of the cage. It looked like a bean, kind of like some moth pupa I've seen or even one of the Cassius Blues. I opened it up but didn't see anything. Once I looked at the Spicebush chrysalis closely I could see the hole where whatever it was came out. I'm so sad - this is only the second cat I've had that this happen to! And I got him when he was a little thing! Sniff, sniff. Now that I'm thinking about it, the other one I had this happen to was a Zebra ST chrysalis that had a big wasp emerge last Christmas. I wonder if this time of year sees an increase in parasites? Something to think about...
In happier news, I'm training a new volunteer at the museum. She actually used to volunteer back in high school and now she's rejoined the crew. I'm mostly just showing her what's changed. We were trying to catch butterflies to add to the flight cage on Sunday. I almost had a White Peacock, but it got away. We did nab two Gulf Frits, a Monarch, a Cassius Blue (I caught that one), and a Long-tailed skipper. We kept stalking another Gulf Frit but it escaped from both of our nets! The other lady started calling it "Moby Dick" because she felt like she had to capture it, but we never did. I saw it flying around as I drove off; I think it was mocking me.
And in even better news, we found twelve Monarch cats! All but one were on the milkweed in the shade house which makes me think those Mommy butterflies must know where the safe areas are. Not that it's free from predation, but at least it protects from the wind and cold.
Melanie
As it is snowing and windy here, this thread is driving me a bit crazy!! In a good way, of course.
Awee Melanie~ I sure feel your pain on the loss of the SB Cat. So horrifying! Great you have another trainee to work with, sounds like you guys have a lot of fun at the museum!
LOL Mrs. Ed, It sleeted a bit here last night, if it makes you feel better... and hey the BST I released was the only butterfly I saw yesterday. It dipped down to freezing last night from the 60s yesterday morning. Whatever was left of summer is certainly gone now. I was mainly concerned about my little Silkie last night. She is alone now since I had to find a new home for the rooster she raised. He was crowing at 4:30am, and would get a second and third wind. DH didn't appreciate the "snooze" effect. My neighbors were very kind about it actually, said it made him feel like he was living in the country, lol. Rooster Tessla is a Jersey Giant, and at only 3 1/2 months old he was the same size as the fully grown chickens where he went to live. He was beginning to step all over Tango the big galoot!!! It was bitter sweet, but I did find him a super home, and we can visit him anytime. Tango has some peace now, but until i find another white Silkie, she will be an only chicken.
Tango is such a rock star...she has fur all the way down to her toes.
Looks like a chick in a snowman suit!!! Hope you find it a companion.
Can't believe the BST, hope it was able to escape the freezing temps last night.
Thanks Sheila,
She did just fine. I built a house about a month ago and boarded it up when it started getting cooler. Just went to check on her and she was all snuggled in her corner. She likes that one spot where the sun shines in, and she lays her eggs there and will not get off when she does. I made her some chicken salad, (fresh shredded carrot, parsley, and live mealworms) and set it beside her and she began picking out the mealies first... :-)
If any of you are wondering how this connects to the thread, well I use the spent hay to put under my butterfly plants. Chicken frass makes for pretty good fertilizer.
Silkies seem to be a much higher order in the chicken species.. Tango is very gentle and lets you pick her up and pet her. Jackie likes to walk around with her perched on her shoulder. Besides that she is the most maternal animal I've ever seen. A real sweetheart.
Mrs. Ed and Sheila the Kinglets have been back for at least a month now, so are several other wintering species. Haven't seen the CWWs yet, but expecting them any time. The birdies will keep us until the butterflies return.
OK, now back to our regularly scheduled butterfly program....
I love that bird!
Mrs. Ed, did you send us some of your snow? If you did, thanks! I managed to get pics, but it had already started melting before I got my lazy self out there this morning. I did get up earlier during the night when the cat knocked something off and noticed that the sleet had turned to snow...it looked SO cool then! Thought I'd show White Mistflower with a different kind of white stuff on it this morning.
Added: Cool chicken!
This message was edited Dec 10, 2008 12:26 PM
mwahahha.
Nope, I didn't send you any, I got some more of my own though. that's pretty funny, the white mist flower with snow. Do I spy some milkweed pods in the upper right?
My DH just told me he saw a Queen on our Milkweed that bit the dust in the freezing temps the last couple of nights. Hope it found something to nectar on. They are oviposting here this time of year thank goodness.
Tango is much bigger than the first pic indicated. Hope you find a roommate for her.
Thanks Sheila, Me too... Underneath all that fur is a* black* skinned bird that will never weigh over 16oz. LOL!
In exciting news, Mom reported seeing a Zebra ST at our house today! And I haven't released any in weeks so I think this one was a wild one. I made her swear it wasn't a Zebra Longwing (she says the wrong thing all the time) and we consulted the pictures in the book to be sure. I just wish my pawpaws still had leaves!
I got bored with having no caterpillars in the house so I brought five Gulf Frit cats inside. The butterflies are slowing down here since the porterweed froze. Mom still sees the Gulf Frits on the pentas, though. And apparently I have a stray Zebra ST hanging out!
Melanie
That chicken is the cutest thing! She kind of reminds me of the white angora rabbit I had as a child…so fluffy and poofy almost like a stuffed animal. ;-).
Here are a couple of “cheater” butterfly shots from the rainforest in the CA Academy of Science up in San Francisco. I hope it’s okay to cheat?
This one was so pretty!
Here's where it was hanging out:
Yikes, I don’t know whether I should post this pic, but I did find this pretty interesting…(thankfully this is not the same butterfly as the previous pics)
I didn't manage to get a shot of these ones in focus, but they were fun to watch
Yes. You can let us salivate over those! Reminds me of the one and only Malachite I've ever really seen...and didn't get a photo of it this fall!
Butterflies are butterflies around the world, thanks for sharing. It is a shame about them having birds in the rainforest exhibit. But I guess they are in the forest too. I would still send that pic to the Academy of Science and voice your dismay.
Great pics Sunnyg!!!
Malachites are close to being called yard bugs because we get so many of them at times :o) Now those Erato Heliconians are something else. They are rare strays here and it's always so hard to get a photo of them as they never seem to stop and perch!!!
It's good to see some lovely butterfly photos!!! Really do like that first one!!! Awesome coloring!!!
Our weather has been terribly windy that there are few butterflies to be seen. The usual suspects tend to fly low to the ground to avoid getting buffetted around by the gusts.
~ Cat
Wow, I'd love to have common yard bugs that looked like Malachites! LOL. I am pretty much clueless about butterfly IDs...which one is Erato Heliconians...the last pic I posted? Sheila, I'm hoping the little butterfly was already dead before it became that bird's lunch. The rainforest is really neat, and the birds and butterflies do fly around in there together, so I'm guessing nature just does its thing in there on occasion. The entire building also has a "living roof" which they planted with natives designed to attract all the great critters to stop by, most esp. our native butterflies. It was almost evening, and of course mid December, so I didn't spot much action out there besides a bumble bee, but here's a little idea of what it looks like (it is so huge I couldnt take a pic of all of it). I really want to go back and see it in full bloom. I think the middle part is the section of the roof that opens, but I'm not totally sure.
Sunnyg,
Yes, the Erato Heliconians are the ones in the last photo - the ones always in flight :o)
Bummer about the malachite getting eaten - but such is nature. We get chachalacas and mocking birds as well as green jays and other birds coming to the butterfly bait stations - on occasion you'll see a cheeky bird just sitting on the post eating the butterflies!!!
On a consiliatory note - the majority of butterflies eaten are Tawny Emperors which we get by the thousands at times...and after feasting on butterfly brew most were probably too drunk to notice they were in danger.
Here's a photo of a Mockingbird - I watched this bird cock and turn its head as if to check out the butterflies before it decided on which one to eat!!!
~ Cat
Speaking of Malachites...I went out to grab a couple of tangerines from the tree and spotted this worn one eating some rotting tangerines on the ground. I cut up some fresh tangerines and poured a bit of brew for added flavor :o) then dipped my finger in the brew and went over to entice the malachite to climb aboard. Once it climbed onto my finger I walked it over to the fruit tray and let it walk on down to the fresh fruit.
It's terribly windy outside and this one has been sticking close to the ground around the base of the tree - figured I might was well treat it well so it will bring more friends :o)
~ Cat
Nice job Cat!!
Love your butterfly pics sunnyg!