Daily pictures #99

Thanks Vitrsna for the host plant recomendations. I have a wild passiflora which the Gulfs cats loved last summer. Also I have located several other host plants at a local nursery but I am very interested in the asclepias curassavica so I will D mail you my address.

Good for you, shorthog! Local nurseries are generally much better about carrying native plants, too. And natives are generally what the butterflies use for hosts and nectar since they evolved together.

I had two Polydamas emerge on a rather cold, windy day here. The high was only 60 degrees (I know, it's Florida, that's cold for us, LOL!) Last night I noticed a small skipper taking up residence on the stucco in the entryway and as of this afternoon he hadn't moved. It must be warm near the front of the house, and he is on the south-facing side. All three of my Monarchs molted today and they're currently back to eating all my milkweed. I'll have pictures when I feel motivated enough to get up and find the cable to connect the camera. Right now I'm snuggled up like a caterpillar in it's chrysalis!

Melanie

Ok, picture time! First is the little skipper that is still hanging out in my entryway. Second is the Polydamas I released. It's hanging out on the bougainvillea.

Then, at the museum today, all the Great Southern Whites came out at once. Normally, they would fly out of the hamper, but it's so cold here (54 degrees this morning when I got out of the car) that I had to pick them up one by one and throw them onto a plant. Finally, the Zebra Longwings were roosting together again and I thought it was cool.

Melanie

Those are some interesting of the roosting butterflies Melanie!!! Love that Poly too.

Beautiful BFs Melanie and so many of them. I assume that the skipper is a Whirlabout which is indigenous to the Gulf coast and Fla.

Thanks for the pics, Melanie. :)

Melanie, I can'd decide which of the multiples I like more, the southern whites or the zebra longwings!

I finally have something to contribute! Just came back from vacation and saw some butterflies. This was the only one that I could get a picture of.

Welcome home Mrs. Ed. Oh how I missed out! I can see some Iroxa buds and recognized the Passiflora vines from the tropical paradise! I'll be looking for more of your photos, and Margaret's as well.

That passiflora was amazing to me because I had never heard of the corkscrew passiflora. i followed the vine until I found the little flower.

SHHH though, don't tell where I was because we're going to play a little game on the bird forum to guess where we were.

Your secret is safe with me. lol I won't say a word. SHHHH. ^_^

Glad everyone enjoyed the pics! Today I released a Polydamas and Mom released a Monarch while I was at an appointment. I also found two more Monarch caterpillars. So now I have five caterpillars and six chrysalises. When I pulled in the driveway I saw a Giant Swallowtail so that was exciting. Still nothing on the rue, though. Did find a small Gulf Frit cat that I had to transplant to a bigger part of the plant. Things are really starting to heat up here in Florida!

Melanie

Dale I agree with you and think the Cloudless Sulphur cats are so beautiful. That is a really great pic.

Mellie I love the pics of the butterflies, it was pretty cool, don't blame them for not wanting to come out of the hamper.

I pulled off the side of the road to get a photo of this butterfly on a thistle weed in Micanopy, FL. I was thinking it is a Palamedes Swallowtail.????

Yup, that's a Palamedes, all right. Beautiful!

Melanie

Thanks Mellie, guess I'm getting better at BF ID after-all. ☺

Saw my first Painted Lady of the season today! I have lots of cudweed so let's hope it was a female looking to lay some eggs. Also, the Monarch is still flying around the milkweed. Not pictured, but also seen, were a Zebra Longwing, Cloudless Sulphur, and some tiny skipper I couldn't get a good look at.

Melanie

I always have a hard time photographing those Painted Ladies...that's a great shot! We have been having some visitors lately, mainly GST, BST and Monarchs, with some skippers mixed in. Here are a couple from this week.

Russell

Had a Monarch visit today. I swear it laid an egg on every leaf I own! We watched it through the sliding glass doors and it was out there forever. Should have a new crop of caterpillars soon. Also spotted a Duskywing nectaring on Spanish needles.

Melanie

The Monarch was at it again today - it even found my Giant Milkweed. But also at it today was the Gulf Fritillary fritting around the passion vine (picture 1). I also saw a Gulf Frit caterpillar that had just molted. I took naked pictures of a caterpillar, LOL!

Melanie

I totally forgot to mention that I found my first clutch of Polydamas eggs on my pipevine today. There are only five eggs; usually they lay a lot more. Still, five is manageable and I'll have plenty for them to eat. Although, I'm sure I'll get more eggs in the meantime!

Melanie

Great pics. Melanie, Russell, and Sherri. I especially like the newly molted Gulf Frit. by Melanie, the Painted Lady by Russell, and the Palamedes Swallowtail from Sherri. It's so nice to see your pics. from zones 9 and above. Here in my zone (7b), things are warming up. I saw my very first 2 Sulphurs last week, then yesterday I saw a couple more, a black swallotail-like butterfly, a smaller orange butterfly could possibly be an American Lady. I hope to capture a few pics. this weekend as the weather is going to be sunny and warm. Will share pics. when I've some.

I've got MW in the basement which is ready to set out for my future Monarch. Looking forward to spring.

Spring has sprung in west central Arkansas. Sunny and warm, up to 80 today. I'm tired from chasing sulphurs and photographing lots of butterfles as well as moths. Wild crabapple trees seem to be a favorite early spring food source. I saw mourning cloaks, red admirals, commas, question mark, and snouts nectaring on the same tree. Then saw others along the road which included goatweed leafwings, falcate orangetips and gray hairstreaks.
I'm going to be busy logging all these data.

No.1 Mourning cloak
No.2 Comma
No.3 Falcate orangetip
No.4 Red Admiral
No.5 Snout

Well that's a wonderful sight to see!!!

Butterflies were plural today. In other words, more than one of each species was observed. Mating is their priority. Here's some more.

No.1 Goatweed leafwing
No.2 Gray hairstreak
No.3 Grape epimensis moth
No.4 orange sulphur
No.5 Question mark

Excellent shots, and such variety. Those are some exotic looking captures there. Great pic of the mourning cloak too.

Thanks for sharing.

Russell

You guys are posting some great pictures! Melanie...so jealous of egg laying Monarchs! I am looking forward to spring migration here!

This message was edited Mar 16, 2013 9:54 AM

Still trying to recover from yesterday's butterfly observations. It was really warm again today and many butterflies were actively darting about looking for mates or laying eggs but the flower and nectar supply is very limited for them. I saw a black swallowtail in an overgrown dead vegetation field that was apparently laying eggs on anything that looked green on the ground level. She was fluttering her wings very rapidly and was constantly searching. I was unable to get a pic with her movement but I was able to get a small American lady (note white dot in forewing orange above for ID) on wild verbena.
I used to live in New York and Ohio, so I hope you folks up North get some of this nice Spring weather soon.

Sheila, I saw my first monarch yesterday. A male, slowly patrolling the vacant lot next to me.

Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com

Two Giant Swallowtails emerged at the museum today! I hope I got a male and female so I can have little caterpillars! I also found seven Monarch cats in the milkweed. All in all, a good day.

Melanie

Did you see the reports of this years all time low Monarch numbers? Makes yours more important than ever!! I did not see more than five last year ,

Yes, I saw that news article. I'm glad the population here is so strong but I would hate to lose the migrating population. It's such a wonder of the world.

Melanie

I let some Honey vine milkweed grow because they like it . the monarchs go to that first no matter what they have. It is usually eradicated a a noxious weed .
Even more so when the vines cover a shrub , it has been about 8 or 9 ears since I have seen any cats climbing about , Sometimes I will see a few eggs here and there , but no cats ,and no cat chewed plants either.
About a decade or more now,ago I remember seeing the cats starving on eaten bare milkweed plants as there were so few after a stadium was built on a former milkweed field I counted 60 cats starving and had to stop , it does not take long to damage a wildlife population that way. That was at one plant I did not look any further ..
Anything starving is a sad sight to see.

@ Dale....Great news! I have seen a GST, but still waiting on my first Monarch of the season.

Anyone that has a great photo....it is time to start a new #100 thread.

This message was edited Mar 18, 2013 1:25 PM

I had two Monarch cats when I went to bed last night and when I woke up Mom had added five more. Then, I found one more while picking food for them. I also saw one flying around today. Then, I checked my Dutchman's Pipevine and found two clusters of Polydamas eggs! My first clutch still hasn't hatched yet, but sometimes they take longer than others.

Melanie

gee whiz...now i can see that my monarchs and polydamas' are vacationing in the southern US and i do miss them but it gives me some time to ramp up the food supply for when they return.

here is a photo i took a while back of a monarch caterpillar with a brand new skin and the old one left behind. what a cutie pie :-D

Do they Hibernate in any part of Florida ? if so What tree or plants do they use?

New thread started!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1303421/

Russell