Hellow everyone, I just wanted to pop in quickly and report that I spotted a sulpher butterfly today for the first time! My very first butterfly this year! I'm beside myself, I was so happy!!!
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 58
Cool! What would we do without the sulfurs? Life would be so boring without those. They can tolerate weather that most butterflies can't.
Oh thanks for the correct spelling of those lovely yellow butterfly Linda. I'll have my camera out today and see if I catch some pix. :-)
Hi all, I haven't been on this thread for a while. I've been obsessing over roses and birds lately. I have been taking pics of butterflies though and they are really out today. I wanted to share this little one that I found yesterday. I think he's some kind of sulphur cat. I see lots of descriptions of cats with yellow stripe but not with blue above and below, so I'm a little perplexed. He ate the whole top off of that little cassia plant!
Ooooh, I'd better rush to the local nursery to get my cassias. Those lovelies are here, thanks Alphaba for the pix.
That should be Cloudless Sulfur, one of the two forms of cat that species makes! Congrats! I just noticed the other day that a senna was just now beginning to start growing again after its winter dormancy. Now, how some sulfurs keep showing up all winter here without host plants is one mystery I'd like to know about!
I have winter and candlestick cassia so that I always have leaves for them. One of my two "winter" cassias actually blooms in between the other two so I have blooms most of the year.
Maggie
For those of you who are looking for a way to grow healthier plants w/ less watering, please D-Mail me.
Maggie
Linda, thanks for the ID. I had no idea that they had two forms.
I don't know what kind of cassias I have. The seedlings came from a neighbor's plant, but they are green all year. Sulphurs have been laying eggs on them all winter whenever we had a nice day, but this is the first cat that I've seen.
I was out looking at my pansies that were looking sad, thinking about what to put in my two big containers next and found a caterpillar. At first it looked like a Gulf Frit but it is a Varigated Frit!!!!! My first I might add. I didn't know that pansies were a host plant for them, I guess I never really looked. This is the first year I remember planting pansies for a very long time. So watch your pansies folks, don't yank them out too soon.
I went back out and found four more so I need to get out my cages and get ready. The butterflies are back!!!!
oh that's so great!
I couldn't figure out what it was doing there since I don't have PV in that area, like I said I was thinking Gulf Frit.
I saw this Clouded Sulphur yesterday, or that is what I think it is.
Then I also spotted a GST that was around the Rue, but didn't spot any eggs yet. I have had Gulf frits all over the PV for a while now, the cold didn't seem to bother them. I have seen sulphurs of all sizes and a Black ST but not ready with the camera.
Well need to get back to yard work!
Like somebody once said...pansies are just glorified violets!
I have violets this year too but only about three little plants, hardly enough yet to notice.
What an exciting news, butterflies season has begun!!!
I may be too old for that, but I keep wanting to jump up and down with excitement! I saw her twice to day, first time I tried to follow, but lost sight of her. The second time I actually ran, followed her into the back yard, then I circled around to the front as she flew over the house to the front. It looked like she tried to light on a couple of trees, but didn't. Then headed to the Arizona Ash. It was so windy I don't know how she did it , but she laid eggs! As soon as she flew off, I dragged out a tall ladder and even though I told myself I'm too old to do it, I climbed up to check the branches high up there. Yep! She did it! I've got what must be TST eggs! The two-tail surely wouldn't use ash. Not a dark butterfly...I didn't get a close look, but definitely a yellow and black tiger! I don't have much leafed out. Neither Texas Ash or the black cherry trees yet. It was a hard winter and rain was practically nonexistent. Lean pickings out there for the early bird, obviously!
Okay. Some of the eggs don't have that fresh-tiger-egg shade of green. Maybe that butterfly I saw a while back was doing the same thing. And I looked something up. Two-tails do use ash trees elsewhere in its range. Not sure about Arizona Ash! Well, my Hop Tree isn't leafed out either, although it has little leaf buds forming. Whatever this is, the early bird (butterfly) had to settle for the tree that leafs out early.
This message was edited Mar 9, 2009 7:03 PM
OMG Linda, that's so funny. But you be careful on that ladder.
No photo because it totally caught me off guard...but I saw a Mourning Cloak this afternoon!!!
Congrats Linda and nanny_56!! I would be jumping up and down too!
Nanny, you MUST be joking. OMG, that's amazing. I was burning some firewood this weekend and had to check every log for evidence of butterflies.
I tried to chase the darn thing, but I had my little guy in tow...so lost it! LOL
I'm just amazed! I had read that some of those actually winter over in between buildings, concrete, etc.
I had BST nectaring on the Mex Plum yesterday and a GST today, so they are coming around.
Yea!!!! Check out your neighbor's pansy plants, the yellow especially. That is where I found my new friends!! I brought in five VFs to raise.
Oh I forgot to show the picture of another type of cat on the pansies on the deck. No wonder they have never seemed to grow as well as others. LOL!
LOL, Sheila! I love both type of cats LOL. I was searching my pansies for cats. None were found! :((
Well I didn't get pics but I saw a yellow swallowtail and I think maybe an Admiral? It didn't really look like a "swallowtail", had brilliant blue at the tail tho. I was busy potting up seedlings and didn't have the camera out there but at least I know they are coming back...yippie!!!!!!!!!!. I've been so busy planting stuff I know they like, but with the freezes the pickins are slim. One was nectaring on a geranium. I've not had much in the way of geraniums before but got these for a steal...
The sulphurs were out too...but they are out anytime the weather even thinks about getting nice.......they must be the most resilient BF around besides skippers.
mjs....maybe it was a pipevine ST? They are black with the blue markings being very prominate.
I forgot I saw an adimral also the other day. DH spotted it first and IDENTIFIED it even LOL! Getting him trained. This was the only picture I could grab, he was gone in a flash.
Melanie, I may be late to the party, but I just discovered the MOSI blog!
Cool!
http://lepcurious.blogspot.com/
Well I spent about 30 minutes out there just now. That is a great site. I loved the classroom paintings and the tea party service on the table! So Melanie....where are you on there?? You should write some of the articles with all you know about bfs.
I was happy to sea the tea party, because when I have my conservatory (after I win the lottery), I'm going to also have a tea room as part of the conservatory. hee hee
Oh I want to work the Tea Room...I can be the greeter...lol!
not with that broken toe! ;-)
LOL!!!!
The two "older" eggs I had on the ash tree leaves were cats as of yesterday, but I was having trouble with the computer at that time. It downloaded a Microsoft update that had a bug piggybacked on it. Hope everybody else dodged that bullet! Anyway, here's the cats!
Cool...new babies!
Look what I found just outside my patio door this afternoon........I can never find these in the garden. This one is under an overhang of a roof, about seven feet off the ground.
Could not get a good pic of this one, but looks like a Black Swallowtail.
Unknown on the Forget-Me-Not.
