Daily butterflies page 78

This Red-spotted Purple came over and gave me an open wing pose while I was out in the flowerbed!

okay, I'm pretty jealous already of all your butterflies Nanny.

OH Dale, that's good to know about them all looking alike!

Opps...edited to correct cut and paste....I had a problem with caterpillars that I suspected was OE last September. I found I was beginning to have too many dead or deformed emerging bfs. So I did some inspecting and found the signs of OE or another viral problem on two or three cats. I killed them for the benefit of my future ones. I put the containers in the freezer rather than squishing them. I disinfected cages and clippers, tables; and even clipped tops from my Milkweeds. I did have a healthy series afterwards before migration was over.

For those of you who don't know what OE is, this is a great website.

http://www.butterflybreeders.org/public/health/disease_prevention_what_is_oe.html
This one shows the caterpillars. http://www.mymonarchguide.com/2007/11/oe-on-caterpillars.html




This message was edited Jul 21, 2010 10:37 AM

Thanks for that second link. I had never seen anything regarding inspecting them, just the adults.

I'm loving all of the butterfly pictures. I need to get some more host and nectar plants to attract more into my yard. So far Gulf Frits are the only ones who come back reliably.

Roly, I would think that in Miami, you have lots from which to choose! Can't wait to see.

Monarch death update. I just checked the cage and found parasite eggs. Boo.

Meanwhile, found 3 more on the swam milkweed, so they are in a brand new cage. I looked them over for OE with a magnifying glass… they looked fine but they are so small… who knows.

This Mornings Monarchs...........we've released 23 in the last 10 days or so. I've been finding chrysalis all around the yard, and some rather far away from the milkweed plants ! Little buggers can really travel !

Monarchs on Torch Flower

Keep reading how much BF's like Pentas. I was at Lowes yesterday & they had some really nice lookin gones so I bought a pot of them to add to the front porch.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on thistle.

Nanny, I have the old fashioned tall red penta and they love it

Nanny I have also found that the pentas are VERY popular with many butterflies but like Mrs_ed I use the tall red penta or old fashioned. The commercialized small pentas don't have as much nectar content or in some cases have it bred out all together. And as always a nice clump brings in a lot more customers. I use clumps of 3-5 plants.

Keep an eye out for the Tersa Moth, pentas are a host plant for them. Cool looking caterpillars.

Everyone's pics are wonderful!

Jmorth,
Your post from July 19, 2010 at 08:39 AM in this thread is of a Painted Lady, not a Red Admiral :)

Nanny_56,
That's a Peck's Skipper...here's a link with info...
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=2088

Here's a pic of a Regal Fritillary...

This message was edited Jul 22, 2010 5:54 PM

Nice Regal, Susan. Do you know where their host, the birdsfoot violets are located?

Well the monarchs are really struggling in my garden again this year. I lost a 5th one overnight. So I found 3 more when I went to get feed. I see a good amount of flies and bees on the swamp milkweed. So far all that have died are from that plant. I wonder if they are more prone to parasite attach on the swamp. hmmmm something to ponder.

I got swamp milkweed in a trade from some one up north last year, it hasn't bloomed yet, and the monarchs have not used it at all. And right now I have a ton of Monarch's, what milkweed is left is getting pretty stressed ( except the swamp).

Hello Mrs_Ed,

I don't know where those violets are around here...it just stopped by to nectar. Although we have lots of host plants, we don't have room in our small backyard for all of them. thankfully we still get migrants of various species we don't have host plants for...like this Gulf Fritillary with a broken wing passing by last month...

We have 8 Milkweed plants...the 4 swamp are huge...2 pink and 2 white...we have 2 Bloodflower and 2 Asclepias tuberosa. It has been amazing here with Monarchs...dispite the hardship they had last winter with the storms in Mexico, and the millions that died...many experts say between 1/3-1/2 of the population was lost...we have had 17 Monarchs compared to 9 by this time last year. We feel blessed! Hopefully they will rebound without any problems :)

That's great to hear, Susan. So far our monarch population has been a bit down. last year it was really good, especially later in the year.

Marna....Why don't you try netting the swamp mw and see if you can get some eggs laid on another plant. That OE is deposited with infected females laying eggs, then the cats injest it. If you can get some healthy ones, then maybe you can cut back tips and soap down the swamp milkweed.

Well this time it was not OE, it was parasites. I found two of those brown eggs. But that's a good idea anyway.

Here's a picture of one I brought in yesterday. I think this is the one that died. See that little spot on the left rear? I touched it with a qtip and it came off, so i thought maybe it was just frass.

I'll see how the three do that i brought in today do through the night. hope they make it

caught him snoozing. I was checking my citrus and found several new eggs this evening. I have seen this year they prefer it to the wild lime. Zebra ST paid me a visit but I was not quick enough on the draw. I keep checing the PAW PAW but no luck yet. If i find any eggs that might be when I take the parental challenge.

checking out the Pentas.

Very nice pics Viceroy!

A Common Wood Nymph...

Sorry Marna.... I forgot you said it was the parasite problem. I had that happen several times before, with the tachnid fly I believe. This last group of BSTs I had in a cube to emerge, had one that was a victim. Thank goodness I noticed the gnat like movement when letting out a GST that had emerged. I turned the opening down and carefully took all of the chrysalis out and drowned the buggers in a tub of soapy water. I thought how many cats they could have parasitized if I had not caught it.
Here is the exit hole.

Not sure what it is, other than trouble. Maybe the Baracnid wasp? This is the fabric of the castle or cubes that Monarch Live distributes. If it had been something else, I would not had a chance to destroy them.

Viceroy,
Have you had any Zebra Longwings yet. I have yet to see one, we had them last year. Weird Monarchs were light last year, this year tons of them, Zebra's were strong last year, this year "notta"..........

I have only seen one this year, but they are not abundant because i dont have much shade:( the peacocks that are usually abundant here are very sparce this year yet how bout you?

Mjsponies,

Yep, strange about the Monarchs...we've had 17 so far and by this time last year we only had 9...
And as I mentioned above, the populations over last winter in Mexico were heavily damaged due to so many storms...experts said they thought from 1/3 to about 1/2 were dead...
Scratching head...lol

This message was edited Jul 22, 2010 9:11 PM

two Giants

Is this why I found new eggs on the citrus?

Great Spangled Fritillary...

thanks for the clarification susanlouise, Mrs Ed pointed that out a couple of posts later...

The best nectar plant here is the Torch Flower ( the smaller of the mexican sunflowers) We laugh as there will be so many butterflies around it we start joking that we need air traffic control. Salvia's Penta's and Porterweed the next, but they like Morning Glories too, Here is a monarch on a
Jmg" Red Feathered"

Hey MJ, I agree on the Torchflower. In fact, Susan turned me on to those last year. I had huge ones and there was always something on them! They are just now starting to bloom, but not are as tall as last year since I was late on getting them in.

Zinnias are also a favorite, but I was late with those too. They are piddly little things right now. Boo. Thank goodness for the coneflowers!

Ah Giant Swallowtail love!

this will wake you up !!!

Very nice!!!!

Hi SusanLouise, it's nice to see you joining our thread. Welcome back my friend. Ladies and gents, I need a name for my very first BST chrysalis. My very first--ever!

(Sorry my friend, I mis-typed your moniker).

This message was edited Jul 23, 2010 11:43 AM

Hello Lily,

(((Hugs)))
Glad to be back...been so busy lately...missed posting on DG :D
A Great Big Congrats!!!!
A name, aye? Hmmmmm. Will have to go non-gender since we won't know what sex it is til it
emerges...and a special name of coarse...how about 'Black Star'? :)

Thank you, 'Black Star' it's!!! thank you, Susan. I'll post the 'baby' pix when it ecloses. While worked on the garden this morning, I found and brought inside two of its siblings. These two seem to be on their last instars, so hopefully they too will form chrysalid soon. I cleaned out the cage, thus they're R & R by the kitchen sink area at the moment. Oh just a tit bit addendum; found a first instar in the cage. That was a surprise, but can't send that weebit little thing back out to the harsh environment out there. So I get to raise it I suppose.

Very cool!! They should pupate real soon for you. :)

The 3 I found earlier this week all gut purged yesterday and all are attached waiting to undergo their transformation into a chrysalis. Tori (GD, who is 10) was totally fascinated with watching them last night!