DAILY PICTURES #103

We came from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1320448/

I took a bunch of pictures at the museum today to spice up the thread. Even I'm getting tired of looking at Gulf Frits and Zebra Longwings all the time, LOL!

1. Giant Swallowtail - Always impresses the guests at the museum.
2. Julia - I got to release one of these today!
3. Another Julia shot - we don't really get these in my area; the manager trades to get them
4. Pipevine ST - a little beat up; I netted this guy outside in the museum gardens
5. Long-Tailed Skipper - there were TONS of these guys on the porterweed; it was like a skipper party!

1. Orange-Barred Sulphur - we had a male and female and she was laying eggs and he was trying to entice her but it wasn't working, LOL! They were also all over the white pentas for some reason. But this one is checking out a vinca.
2. This poor male Monarch was basking. I had two male Monarchs that kept getting into fights with each other. I took the handle on my net and broke it up; I don't know what was going on. At first I thought it was a couple mating, but then I saw they were both boys so I was like, what the heck?
3. Some kind of skipper. This skipper kept landing on people, including me. One guy had it in his beard, one little girl carried it around for minutes. I've never seen a skipper so keen on people. It was weird!
4. White Peacock - this guy was on my porterweed when I pulled in the driveway. It was starting to rain but it didn't seem to care.

And finally, a post dedicated to the Mourning Cloak, which I got to see for the first time ever! We had some rotting fruit out for them which was smelling up the whole flight cage, LOL! I got to release one too, which was fun! Oddly enough, I had one of these guys land on me, too. He was probably getting the salt out of my sweat; it was so hot today I almost overheated. Stay hydrated, folks!

Melanie

Thanks for the pics .. makes you(us) feel better ,, What do you men was? it is still hot out there whether your in air condtioning or not ..lol

Red Admiral landed on me for a few seconds a while ago . but when their doing their super ball loop flight dance , good luck with getting a pic of them ..lol

Usual BF's and BSWT Once every three or four days .. Black hornet with sunspot dot (we use to call them sunspot Hornets) are building a nest in my neighbors woodpile near the back corner of my garden ,
Quick to and from when they are there ,from that corner of the garden (early and late)

Thanks me for the thread and for the pics. They are inspiring. Can't remember if this uploaded yesterday or not (days starting to blur together!).

Finally, 6 BST cats on dill.

Congrats Amanda on the Black ST cats! The manager at the museum ordered more rue plants and put them in the shade house until they can be planted. I went in there and picked at least six caterpillars of all sizes off those plants! I love it when plants come with free caterpillars.

Here's a Black ST I just released; I had to wait until it stopped raining.

Melanie

Beauty. :)

Interesting, the dill and bronze fennel overlap in the garden, but there were only cats on the dill.

Maybe I'll try to start the rue again. I blew it last spring.

I guess I should also be inspecting the passion vine just in case.

Some ookie orange beetles were eating one of my MW way at the back of the yard. Same size- ish as lady bugs. Is this the dreaded MW beetle? Fortunately they didn't travel to other plants.

Sounds like a milkweed bug, but maybe in the nymph stage. When they get a little larger they get black dots on them. Check out the BugFiles for pictures; I'm sure it's in there. I've got a bunch of them on my plants, but what can you do? You have milkweed, you get caterpillars, milkweed bugs, aphids, etc.

Melanie

I am still a trying , at least you can tell what they are ...lol This one's been out there for two hours , , must be hungry , Now when it gets to the fennel or dill you all know what's coming then ,, don't you ? lol
What can I say ,, ?I just have this thing that I want to play too !!! lol

This message was edited Jul 14, 2013 4:23 PM

One other of the same .. someday .. Yes I get carried away ,, I can't help it ...
You all know I love all of everyone's pic's here ,.

That's a female dark form Tiger ST you've got there! Up in your neck of the woods they probably use tulip poplar as a host. Here, they eat Sweetbay magnolia.

Melanie

Only shade tree in the yard , eastern tulip poplar , yellow poplar 12 feet tall now , started this baby from seed three seasons ago
Fee is still having dinner ,, loves that milkweed nectar tea ...

I get to happy .. lol thank you . I thought it was a black swallowtail The one that every three or so years is chewing every queen anne's lace place for miles
Guess I ought to watch the poplar leaves ...!

This message was edited Jul 14, 2013 4:55 PM

Oh yeah! You've got tulip poplar! When I visit my grandma in WV I go around checking all the tulip poplars in the neighborhood for caterpillars. I also check all the sassafras for Spicebush caterpillars. I get people stopping every now and then to ask what I'm doing (because they all know each other and I'm a stranger poking around) but everyone gets a kick out of hearing that I'm searching for caterpillars. Plus, it helps that I'm pretty harmless-looking, LOL!

Melanie

Thanks for the new thread. Love all the pictures and the info on host plants and rearing pillars.
Melanie, I thought I had a variety but you have a butterfly zoo. By the way I didn't realize that Brazilians were so friendly, skippers that is.
Started a new project today, nurturing three buckeye caterpillars and they are munching away on watercress.

Sheila_FW;; They are the size of a mans little finger . I know a hornet when I see one .
Black with steel blue sun reflecting wings and a yellow round spot center , they eight times larger than a Masonary bee , I have those also , including a nest being used ..
Hornets are pretty , but the last time I was stung by a giant african hornet , those look like giant dinosaur size honey bees , I had a welt the size of a 1900 silver dollar and a headache for about 4 or 5 days .
Those things are mean this time of year ,,!!!

Well something here , I went around the corner to get the camera to pic a male
Tiger SWT , Got back in a few minutes and this was there . one on the Milkweed and another on the Burdock I did not get a pic of the Male or the Female on the Burdock ..

This Red Admiral looks as though it has been through a war(or should that be Revolution)?

It's nice to see a Red admiral with open wings, even the beat up version.
The dark form tiger swallowtails must be very common in your area. I have seen estimates vary from 20 to 90 percent depending on the region / state. It seems to be a mimic for the pipevine swallowtail where they are common.

I really do no know for sure about the SWT's I only know I have at least five different types.. The family is prolific , that is rare and a good thing in our age of time !!!
Most of my pics still look like this . check out the second , guess what might be going on with the stinging nettle . noticing lots of holes in the leaves on the shady side of the clump

The other side of the story is keeping eggs and Catapillars from getting in my nettle tea..Ewwww!!!
Oh well -one leaf at time -for our little winged friends ..

This message was edited Jul 15, 2013 6:11 PM

Sad news everyone. My Tiger ST caterpillar appears to be on the verge of death. I found him in a pile of caterpillar vomit and he's not even stinkhorning when I poke him. He's barely able to move at all. I was wondering if there was something wrong with him because he didn't seem to be growing, but then he molted the other day and I thought he'd be all right. I'm thinking maybe a parasite? On the positive side, at least I know my Sweetbay is attracting the butterfly and hopefully I'll get more caterpillars in the future.

Melanie

That's very disappointing, only there will be more..Keep the faith and hope ..We Will also hope for you to have more .
I have been waiting for three years to see any , Now as you know , I am seeing Adult but am still waiting to see cats ...
You do a lot of nice pet keeping for our enviroment and great pic's for all of us here ..
They will come , because of all of our appreciation of you ,

Thanks Juhur, I appreciate it!

Aww, sorry. :/

Sorry about your loss of the Tiger ST Melanie, like Ju said, keep the faith and hoping more will be around soon. Amanda, your avatar is so very pretty and fun. Is that your pet bird, or is that photoshop pic?

Just for the record, as far as butterflies. I saw my very G. Frit. today. The butterfly was oblivious of my present when I stood still. It came and sampled my jatropha which was where I stood, it also tried the MW, and other flowers, but kept returning to the Jatropha. No pic. though.

On the stinging nettle today..
#1 something or BF new on nettle , -drying new wings
#1 a few feet away on fennel and sunflower stalks ,, older admiral

Red Spotted Purple in the yard! Like last year probably - we found our first chrysalis and I treated that icky old cherry tree to some fertilizer when I realized it was our host plant.

YAY...my Kaufman Butterflies of North America was just delivered!! Gift from my husband!

Thank You, Marna, for the recommendation! Now...if I would only see some butterflies around here...sigh.

LOL, yah that helps (seeing butterflies)

you know… here's the list of Lake County butterfly monitoring sites. You might want to become a volunteer, or just go to one of these locations, or I can probably even see if someone can take you along as a note taker.

http://www.bfly.org/cgi-bin/site_lists/released/site_lists_by_county.cgi?County=Lake

Thanks. I appreciate it. I might just wait a little bit for now. My husband and I are temporarily sharing a car so it's not as easy to get around. We're actually in Kane County, though most of Kane is way south. Most of Algonquin is in Mchenry County. Don't know if the county you live in matters or not.

I've been wanting to go to one of the Butterfly Exhibits. There are at least a couple that I know of in the Chicago area. The one at the Chicago Botanic Garden looks like it would be great. We're trying to find the time when it's not ridiculously hot and humid since it is outside and enclosed in mesh.

Oh, well you can go to that web site and pull up the Kane county sites too. Just a good list of local prairies. I think the CBG also have two prairies there that are monitored. The idea is that there are likely more species and quantity of butterflies than you have at home.

I'm so pleased, the number of butterflies is picking up in my backyard. Today I saw several beside my very 1st Gulf frit. for the season, I also spotted two of these beauties. Please say it's so. That I've here a female BST? please, please pretty please. ^_^

Hard to tell, but it kinda looks more like a Spicebush ST to me. Still, it's a Swallowtail, and that's exciting!

Melanie

Thanks Melanie, a Spicebush ST? Either one, BST or SBST I'll take either one. LOL, it's getting late. Tomorrow I'll see if I have other better photos of the same butterfly to add. 'Til then, happy butterflies gardening to all. Thanks again Melanie.

Mrs. Ed what a super cool butterfly network you have in IL. GOOD GRIEF.

I'm stuck inside with sick fish, cats, and dog. Have made little forays into the garden and caught a glimpse of an eastern yellow swallowtail. Everything else must be hiding in this heat. I'm making a puddling tray today. It's a broken down circular ceramic (?) cake pan and I will put some sand in there, a sprinkling of goat poo (because I caught them puddling on it last year), some water, and some nice smooth stones on top. Will let you know how it goes over.

HAve a great day.

Melanie, one of these days I will learn the subtle differences of all the Swallowtails, for the time being, I afraid I can only pick out the RSP. I appreciate your being patience.

These pics. are but one and the same butterfly that I spotted yesterday. Today I saw a Silver-spotted skipper, but no pix.

I have a hard time telling the differences too....but I have noticed that that Spice St will flutter their wings will fast sometimes when they are on the flowers. I have never seen a BST do that.

My Spice ST from a few days ago...I think!!

I think that the spicebush have less yellow spots on the forewing. So I'd say that was a Black Swallowtail.


http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabambc/frames-2species.asp?sp1=Papilio-polyxenes&sp2=Papilio-troilus

So Mrs. Ed, Nanny's BST? How about mine? I still think it favors the Spicebush ?