DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 75

We came from here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1083417

I couldn't resist starting a new thread with a first for me. FOUR Red Admirals at the butterfly brew. The was a fifth flying around somewhere.

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Even though its very windy here today, these guys were really hanging in there. This really made my day and got me all psyched for my first Illinois Butterfly Monitoring route tomorrow.

Nice pictures Ms Ed....I see maybe two at the same time here. I need to put some bf bait out this year, haven't yet.

Oh how cool ist that! I had a bad banana to put out put DH threw it away....

They are very prolific so far this year, i just saw one in flight and it is only 52° here.

Yup...have seen the every where here too! Lots of TST's flitting around too so far.

I believe the RA were the first butterflies to come around this year and I finally got to raise some. Some are still around!

Black Swallowtail cat in the Dill.

Another.

Chomping away.

Oh wow, congrats GP. I planted more Fennels this year. Hope those babies will visit our garden soon.

Thanks, LIly. Here's a family pic, eight visible here. I have another Dill plant with 1 cat.

Wow, your season is well ahead of mine. Our hostplant haven't even made flowers yet. Those are so healthy looking, look like they are about in their final instar?

I wonder where they will dissappear to when it is time.

Good question, I watched mine until the last instar last year....then puff! They all vanished! :((

I'm ready with dill, parsley.. not many pretties here, yet.

All but two of mine were gone this morning. Hope they made it safely to their final destination. I'll keep looking and see if I can spot them.

The first black swallowtail we raised roamed the cage for 45 minutes!

I'm planning to raise some cats. this year. Can't wait....

Oh, I'm so glad someone else started a new thread! I've told myself a hundred times I was going to get on here and post but then the cats keep me so busy. Plus, I returned to work on the 5th so I've been busy there, too. Here's a picture of my one and only sulphur this year. He's an Orange-Barred Sulphur. Last week at the museum I picked some Cloudless and Orange-Barreds off the same cassia plant! But at my house it's just been this guy even though I see lots of Cloudless flying around. He's in his chrysalis now and I can see the wing pattern so maybe tomorrow he'll grace us with his presence.

Now, after all the cudweed I've checked, I finally found a Painted Lady cat while wandering through my neighbor's yard. Once I saw what their silken nests looked like, it made it a lot easier to find them. I've found six more since then! I just hate how the flowers of the cudweed turn all puffy and blow around like dandelions. Still, I've been keeping Dad from mowing. I showed him the three PLs I found yesterday and said, "That's why we don't mow my weeds!"

My Red Admiral crop came through just fine. Here's one hanging in his J position.

Here's one crawling on my jeans. Butterflies at the museum do this a lot, too. I try to let them go and instead they land on my jeans and ride around with me. Oh, last week we had a girl that had just eaten some ice cream and got it on her hands and there was a Julia that would not get off of her. We all watched its proboscis tasting her.

RAs have a lot of blue on them if you get close. Very pretty. I agree that it's been a great year for them. In the last three years I'd say I've probably seen four total and this year I raised about a dozen, not even counting those at the museum. Even today, I was in the drive-thru at McDonald's and there was a butterfly fluttering around this tree that was in bloom. I pulled up and got underneath it, looked up and realized it was a Red Admiral. So odd how their numbers fluctuate!

As for Monarchs, we've had some at the museum, but not too many. At least, not outside in the gardens. In the flight cage they're captive so we've had lots and lots of babies. At my house, I hadn't seen the first one until last week. I think that Monarch Momma hit every single one of my plants. I checked yesterday and the cats are out there and they're just about big enough for me to bring them inside. I like to wait until they're about third instar. Just easier to handle.

I've also been dive-bombed by Gulf Frits who insist on laying only on my "Lavender Lady" passiflora. I set that one in front of Mom's window so she could have some entertainment. I'm going to have to move some of the cats over to the Blue Passion Vine so they don't eat the other one to the ground. I've also got passiflora lutea but the Zebra Longwings seem to like that one - not that I've seen a Zebra Longwing yet. Dad saw one while delivering mail a couple of weeks ago.

As for other firsts, I saw my first hairstreak. I was re-reading one of my books and it mentioned that they overwinter in the egg stage. That explains why I never see them early in the season. This is a White M Hairstreak and it was appropriately hanging on one of my oak trees.

My faithful duskywings are back and enjoying the lavender. Actually, everyone is enjoying the lavender. And I also got these big dianthus from Target (they were listing them as carnations but also had the scientific name on the tag). They're a hot pink color with big clusters kind of like a hydrangea. The butterflies have been loving those, as well. The plumbagos have just started blooming so hopefully the swallowtails will stop to feed and I'll get my Cassius Blues back.

My duskywing friend...

My boss at the museum traded for some Julias and so I thought I'd make everyone jealous by posting a picture. I'm jealous and I get to visit them every week! They've been very nicely laying lots of eggs so hopefully we'll have them around for a while.

The Buckeyes at the museum have totally been hamming it up for the cameras. And we've had people in there lately with cameras that look more like telescopes. Oh, and everyone keeps asking me about the ageratum this Buckeye is on. First, it was the diascia, now the ageratum. It's good that I know plants as well as butterflies! Although, if one more person asks me where they can buy caterpillars, I'm going to start throwing things. Didn't these people ever play in their yards as children?

And just so you get an idea of what I do at the museum...this is what I saw when I came in last week. Lots of Polyphemus moths who had totally stripped their plant. I had to go pick a ton of willow and stuff their tank.

Here's a close-up. They still kind of scare me although I did take one in the flight cage so the guests could see it up close. Most people were impressed.

In good news, I found four Zebra Swallowtails on my pawpaws! This is the second year I've had them lay eggs in my yard. I also found a ton of eggs and little cats on my neighbor's two pawpaw plants. Today, I wandered over to the new house they're building one street over and found about 15-20 cats, a chrysalis (I never find those!), and a bunch of eggs. I swear, when those people move in (and the house is almost done, by the way) I'm going to have to be their best friends so they'll let me come on their property and pick caterpillars. I hope they have kids. That will help.

I saw this bug climbing my house and I thought it was cool because it had eyespots like butterflies do. So I took a picture and now you can all see him, too. That's it for Melanie today. I've got to police the Zebra STs so they don't eat each other. We've already had a few close calls.

Melanie

Oh Mel, you put us all to shame.

But it's so darned fun to read.

Next time you see a "silken nest" could you get a picture?

Will do. I didn't have my camera on me and honestly I got so excited I picked them before I even thought about it. I'll try to calm myself next time!

Just happened to spot my FOY BST on Saturday morning! Just got 1 shot of it and it was gone.

Nan, there's not much yellow on that guy. Is there a chance it's a Pipevine ST or maybe even a Spicebush?

I'm thinking it's a female pipevine swallowtail.

Fuzzy pic of a Red Admiral.

Holy smokes...ya know I was thinking it looked a bit off but didn't think to check & compare! LOL

I have had Spicebush BF's. A Pipevine would be a new one!!

After looking at my old pics is not a BST for sure! Going to look to be sure what it is.

Am reporting this to our regional guy since there is no report of Pipevines in my county!

This message was edited May 16, 2010 9:58 PM

I dunno Nanny, I'm thinking Spicebush or Black Tiger…