DAILY PICTURES #108

At Sheila's suggestion, time for a new thread!

We came here from: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1357794/

Here's a Southern Dogface (Zerene cesonia).

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

Big news! finally got a native pipevine! It was growing all over at a rest area and when I spied it a month ago I got permission to take a bit home. I have been looking at nurseries and asking gardener friends, but no luck for almost 2 years. I could have mail ordered some, but I wanted the "real deal" to attract the butterflies. So, I got 3 little plantlets, each with at least 18 inches of roots and about 4-5 leaves. They are temporarily in a plastic drawer I recycled as a foster home for rooting or parking til I get a spot ready. I lost one, but the other 2 are looking good. Yay!
Now, all I need is for some butterflies to show up! I have not seen even one for at least 3 days! I have seen a couple of skippers, but thats it!

Well no pics could I get ,, drat but today's visitors
Cabbage White
2 or 3 Red Admirals
1 Monarch
1 something that looked like a Lady BF only was not May of been a pearly BF ...
1 Giant Swallowtail
and a Ruby Throated Hummingbird
More company than I have seen in a long while !

oops , scarletbean ; meant to say great news on the pipevine ,, good deal too !!! Here BF ,, come to mama come on little BF;'s mama has a treat for you /.... awww your a good little pollinator , now aren't you ,,, ^_^ Just had to as I seem to be in a good mood ,, must be the company ,, the thread does that too ,,

This message was edited Jun 25, 2014 10:01 PM

Milkweed+ Zinnia = Butterflies .. lol Well you just have to be there folks ,,,

A winning combination J7! Your milkweed and zinnias are looking spectacular!

juhur7, absolutely gorgeous milkweed and the mourning cloak is enjoying the flowers too.

Humid and rainy here for several days but the butterflies pop out when the sun breaks through. A lonely Monarch was busy nectaring butterfly bush flowers at the ARC Nature Center yesterday. Hope she lays some eggs on the milkweed nearby.

Thank you Vitrsna and C_A_Ivy

C_A_ Ivy Nice Shots , Monarchs are so picturesque ! I am still waiting for mine to hatch , as to say .. lol


Here's this afternoon , Mourning cloak , an all day visitor , saw a painted Lady , no pic ,,
and here's the camoflage look at a Question Mark 2nd and last pic ..

Dale - Thank You for starting the new thread...and with such a pretty butterfly, too! The flowers are lovely as well.

Congrats on the Pipevine, scarletbean! Would love to see some pics when you get them planted.

Your Milkweed looks wonderful, juhur, and your Zinnias are looking great, too! Sounds like the butterflies are all at your place.

Beautiful Monarch pics, Ivy!

It is hard for me to id sulfur butterflies. Except for this one. The sun was out one day I was touring Frostweed's garden and I got a great outline of the dogface.

Hi everyone,
I'm enjoying your photos, and thought I'd share a couple I took recently.
This first photo was taken last week on our way home from Oregon, where we attended the family reunion. This beauty was found on some branch trimmings laying on the hot asphalt in the rest area we stopped at. After I spotted this beauty, I found a branch to leave it on. I know I'm kinda silly when it comes to butterflies, but I had to rescue it. Looks like it survived a bird attack, but seemed really happy to get out of the parking area.
The rest of the photos are of the gulf frittilary's that love the Lady Margaret Passion flower.
The last photo is of the Lady Margaret Passion Flower.
Hope that you enjoy these photos, as much as I enjoy the ones you've all shared.
Walk In Beauty~
SingingWolf

Here are some regulars to the garden plus one i haven't been able to identify yet.

Queen (Danaus gilippus) ovipositing on Asclepias c.
Queen caterpillar
Giant Swallowtail caterpillar (Papilio cresphontes) on Choisya ternata
One little bf not yet identified resting on Choisya ternata, later feeding from Asclepias c.

Vitrsna ) That last one could be a Taylor's Checkerspot .. Rare , endangered , listed ,,,


Sheila _FW Love the little Sulpher) Dogface , I get one here rarely ...


SingingWolf and Vitrsna ,, love the pics ^_^ ,, always a enjoyable !

I have a little white BF flying around that looks like a ball of cotton fluff or dander when they atart , very small growing to a little fingernail (yours) size ,, two hair like tails floating from there wings ,, I will try for a better pic.. lower right .. on the bloom.

Vitrsna ,, this might help ? The family species is this ,, Euphydryas edita their are several rare ,endangered sub -species of this ,, all look similar in photo ..

Thanks for the idea J7 about the Taylor's Checkerspot but that bf is not a visitor to my area. Looks like its range is in the Pacific Northwest of the US.

Yes but long ago they use to occur with a look alike in Southern California ,, I believe a near look alike was Quino ? Checkerspot .. Your photo looks like the Bay Checkerspot But if that Cat with white at both ends belongs to that BF , That is how the Checkerspots on the east coast look , the white to brite gray chrysalis..
Guess it going to take a society member to ID that for you ,, (Good tough Puzzle)

Once again , it looks like your photo belongs to this family species( Euphydryas edita)
Which one it is ? I could not possibly know or identify ,,,

Their is only one small Checkerspot here , and very rarely have I ever seen one ..
Meaning , Thanks for the look see ,, at rare for us here ..

This message was edited Jun 28, 2014 5:37 PM

Vitrsna you and all know once I get going on days when i sit here,,, lol
Let's if this works ..

By Steve Toub

As part of our continuing series examining the impacts of climate change on endangered species, we’ll now address how the rapid, disruptive climate change impacts the Edith’s checkerspot butterfly. The butterfly is so sensitive to climate that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study on the Ecological Impacts of Climate Change says it acts as an “early warning indicator of climate change in North America.”



Bay checkerspot butterfly – T.W.Davies (c) California Academy of Sciences
Two subspecies of the Edith’s checkerspot butterfly are listed under the Endangered Species Act, the Bay checkerspot in the San Francisco Bay area, which was listed as threatened in 1987 and recommended to be “uplisted” to endangered last month, and southern California’s Quino checkerspot, listed as endangered in 1997. Habitat destruction due to human development is the primary cause in declining populations of both subspecies, but the NAS reports that the Quino “is the first endangered species for which climate change is officially listed as both a current threat and a factor to be considered in the plan for its recovery” since the habitat in Baja California that is least developed is becoming too warm and arid to support the population.


Known for their delicate nature, butterflies’ unique life cycle is part of their cultural appeal. Caterpillars need enough to eat during their larval stage to be able to go dormant during the pupa stage and emerge as adult butterflies. Unlike the migratory monarch, whose caterpillars can live on any number of milkweed species, the Edith’s checkerspot butterfly spends its entire life in an extremely small habitat. Both the Bay and Quino checkerspots have only one primary host plant species during its larval stage, the dwarf plantain (Plantago erecta).

This habitat sensitivity makes them more susceptible to environmental changes than other butterflies: when the dwarf plantain ages earlier as a result of climate change, it becomes less available to checkerspot caterpillars. This lack of synchronicity between checkerspots and the resources on which they depend has been proven to lead to declines in their population and local extinctions, negatively impacting the likelihood of their recovery.

By looking at historical records in combination with 1994-1996 field studies of the Edith’s checkerspot butterfly, Camille Parmesan has found that “population extinctions were four times as high along the southern range boundary (in Baja, Mexico) than along the northern range boundary (in Canada), and nearly three times as high at lower elevations (from 8,000 to 12,5000 feet).” This shift northward (92km) and upward (124m) in elevation corresponds to the warming trend in this region over this time period (105km northward and 105m upward), making this one of the first studies to make the claim that decline of a species is most likely due to warming trends.

While rapid climate change may force the checkerspot to migrate northward and to higher elevations, the host plants and nectar sources they depend upon may not always be available there or be able to migrate as quickly as the checkerspot, creating resource mismatches. Stanford University researchers also report that since the temperature and precipitation changes are expected to increase in variability, it is less likely that butterfly and its larval hosts could adapt than if the changes followed a consistent pattern from year to year.

In response to increased climate change, the traditional options of protecting habitat in the northern and higher-elevation areas of the existing range of these two subspecies may not be enough. Some conservation biologists such as Parmesan are now proposing that species like the Bay and Quino checkerspot butterflies be forcibly moved into areas in which they’ve never been. This “managed relocation” strategy, isn’t without controversy; critics have labeled it as “tantamount to ecological roulette.”

May be some relocation , going on .. Hitch hikers , riding , for new .. my 2 cents ,,lol

Thanks for the new thread, Dale. Man I am SO behind, but then again, there are only some cabbage whites and a blue azure here and there in my jungle of a garden.

Thanks everyone for the entertainment and gorgeous photos. Keep 'em coming.

A.

J7, the caterpillar pictured to which you refer with the white at each end is a Giant Swallowtail caterpillar and not related to the unidentified bf. I have not heard about any relocation going on, but you never know :-)

vitrsna I saw that I read that wrong after I posted that reply ,, That article was with some saying the Baja Bay BF was traveling to more friendly environments
Maybe one of the Sub species has been living south of the border all the time , Beyond borders except South America and Monarchs , there is not much info on my web access , anyway ..
You show several off and on in your pics I have never even heard of ,,


Amanda Nice to see your still lurking here ..lol

vitrsna, lovely checkerspot with all those arrow shaped markings it looks similar to Gabb's Checkerspot which occurs in southern CA.

By the way, thanks everyone for your support and encouragement on my Butterfly Quest. Result: Best of Show at Mt. Magazine Butterfly Festival.

Thanks CA, i'll take a look a Gabb's Checkerspot. I was not finding anything similar in my Mexico butterflies book references and the markings are so distinct, i thought it would be easy to ID.

And congratulations for your Best of Show recognition! I expect you are more surprised than we are about that....well deserved and well earned...that's happy news...and something else to add to your CV :-)

It looks very much like a Gabb's Checkerspot (Chlosyne gabbii) to me, in really good condition for being so far away from home. I submitted the photo to BAMONA with the hopes they may be able to confirm an identity and will post here if i receive word from them.

Two girls and a boy, and one more shortly

Looking Good BCH!

Vitrsna, maybe Elada Checkerspot? Closest I can see in my book.

And then there were 4! This is so much better then last year where we didn't see any until september

love your little butterfly factory there. haha

Looks good on my daughters shirt

Congratulations BCH...what a lovely site.

As for you Mrs. Ed i am fairly sure you have got it right at Elada Checkerspot and thank you so much. We'll see if BAMONA gets it right and if not, i will refer them to you so that you can straighten them out. (I already submitted the photo, so too late now). Appears the taxon has changed from Texola elada elada to Microtia elada and i do find it in my Mexico/Central America book but the photos of this bf are not so good in the book and i only had a ventral view to work with. What book did you use to do the ID? Whopping good job and i am much happier knowing that it is at home in my area. They say these bf's host on yellow composite Acanthaceae so i guess i'll look for that because i'd like to have more of these. I do have acanthaceae but not yellow composites.

How is your Senecio c. doing? Mine has started to bloom now in the middle of dreary rainy season which will be really good for butterfly and moth traffic. When it is closer to "spectacular" i'll send a photo. Thanks again, i don't think i could find a closer comparison. For the people in south Texas, these should be in your area as well

Well not a puzzle , just a Happiness ,,
Monarch from chrysalis this morning ,
Pic with the screen over it is how it looked when I got to it this morning , only released , no problems , one more to go .

vitrsna, you can edit your BAMONA sighting if it is pending. Go to "My BAMONA" and under pending for your sighting just click on the blue highlighted "Edit" and make updates.

Great pictures everyone! I braved the heat today and witnessed something I have never seen before. 2 GFs...possibly mating behavior..or hide and go seek? I am just not sure. Check them out.

The first picture, the BF on top was just hovering over the one on the ground.
Second picture, they were both hovering barely off the ground
Third - a little higher hovering
Fourth - one of them decides to hide between two planters.
Fifth - One is hiding in the shade, the other hovered for a very long time.

I snapped many pictures and was lucky enough to get a few that were clear and focused. I have a passionflower planted in a planter box just to the left of all this activity.

Keep those pictures coming.

Russell

Hey Vit. I used Kauffman's North American Butterfly guide. Love it for so many reasons.

The vine is hanging in there. It has not started blooming yet after the blooms when I bought it. I'm about to fertilize all my pots with some bloom booster, so maybe soon.


http://www.amazon.com/Butterflies-North-America-Kaufman-Guides/dp/0618768262

congratulations J7!!!!! it is a special happiness to see your photos because of the difficult year you and your proximate neighbors went through last year with hardly a bf in sight...and how you all lamented (as i would have done too) so i am happy to see in photos this much happier year for you. :-)

oh, thanks for the reference Mrs Ed...it probably won't make me as smart as you but i will be better equipped anyway...excuse me, goin' shoppin'!

And thanks for the BAMONA info re editing CA. I'm pretty sure that the Elada is my bf (it is really common around here evidently), but i'd like to hear it from just one more source. If they don't agree on the Elada, i am going to sic Mrs. Ed on them. Really there are so many bfs out there with some keen similarities that i have never seen, never will see. I'll let BAMONA finish up their process if they choose to do so. If not, i'll do an edit.

I'm sure BAMONA is trembling in their collective boots.

:-) as well they should be.

BCH I missed the clone factory results , lol ? NICE GOING !!! ^_^

Russell --great nursery pics! Also the shirt design!
Juhur --Nice GF pics, my GFs haven't made an appearance yet because we had a hard winter and it killed a lot of vegetation that would normally be fine. Those that had overwintered didn't make it I am sure.

Sheila That was Singingwolf and yakmon showing gulf frit BF's

Monarch's here , yesterday a boy !!! Today m this morning , it's a Girl ,,,

Wow...so many people to congratulate!

► Vitrsna...for that Beautiful "Elada Checkerspot"! Gorgeous markings on that one and also congrats on your new cats!

► Mrs_Ed...for being smarter than the "so-called" experts vitrsna consulted!

► Ivy...for "Best of Show"! Beautiful picture...you deserve it.

► BCH521...for your fantastic butterfly nursery! So organized.

► Juhur...for saving those perfect Monarchs from certain death!

► Russell...for your incredible shots! Amazing timing.

Also, super shots - Sheila, SingingWolf, juhur and BCH521!

Vitrsna - I can really vouch for the Kaufman Butterfly Book since I bought it on Mrs_Ed's recommendation last year and I love it! Unfortunately it hasn't made me any smarter, but that's my problem, not the book :o)