My new Adopted Gulf Fritillary Cats

For those of you that don't know, Connie (maidentheshade) and I built a caterpillar house this past weekend. We plan on building her one soon.

I received a call from Connie this afternoon. She said that she'd found a few orange and black spiky cats on her passionvines. She said to come get them before the lizards or the birds got to them.

As soon as I could, I raced to her house with my transporter (shown below). This was my bug cage that I bought for my granddaughter.

I felt like I was driving an ambulance! HAHAHAHA

Janet

Before I left, I started some cuttings of passionvine and put them into the new cage.

We noticed that one of them was making it's "J" on a wire mesh basket light fixture. There were 4-5 in all. I clipped some of her passionvine so they'd feel right at home in their new cage.

I feel like a new mother already with my adopted babies!

Janet

The one that was making a "J" is wandering a bit (shown below). I put a wire basket (like the coconut liners go in) into the cage just to give him something metal, if he prefers.

He was just a tad different in color than the rest of them.

They all seem to act like they are right at home within just a few minutes.

I'll keep you posted on any new developments.

Janet

I hope the "j" cat is ok. There was no way to take what he was on (one of the baskets of my patio string lights) with him without me being electrocuted so I had to carefully remove him. I'm sure he thought he was about to be eaten so he may be stressed. How's he doing this evening Janet? Hopefully headded for the top of the cage so he can get back to business.

You're not letting them doo doo all over the brand new cage I hope ?!!


:^)

lol, I was thinking of making some cat frass tea and fertilize my whole yard..there was and is so much! Thank goodness it doesn't smell.

Nice transporter.......I would probably be borrowing that thing way too much.

Janet and Connie - Ya'll are too funny! ;-D You might try putting some paper towels down as liner for the bottom of the cage to collect the cat poo and keep things tidy in their new home. Great photos!

Janet - Congrats on your new "babies"! Enjoy watching them change into beautiful orange butterflies, like the one I attached to this post! They may be piggies, so be sure that you have more Passion vine to add to the cage!

Connie - Good eye spotting the cats! Are you going to build the same type cage that you built for Janet?

Janet? What in the world is that on the bottom of that transporter cage? Is that frass art?! It looks like an upside down man holding a big ol' hammer. Is that your hubby's shadow ?

Yes we will when I slow down becky. I got too many irons in the fire as it is. I just picked up another project today at Goodwill that I barely got out of the truck before I started on.

Oooh Becky, nice photo! And lovely baby cats Jan & Connie :)

~Sunny

It sure is. He's a beautiful butterfly. I wanna know how long you had to stand there poised with camera to get that pic of the wings open. I tried and snapped a couple dozen times and every time it took the pic he closed his wings !

Connie - It was just sheer luck! (And lots of photos taken until I got that one shot!)

I love digital cameras - I've probably saved thousands of dollars deleting useless photos from my camera all for that one good shot. :-D

Butterfly fact: Most butterflies open and close their wings to help them sip nectar from flowers. And are you ready for this ..... The butterfly's long proboscus (a straw-like tongue) is made up of not one but TWO parallel tubes that uncoil to suck liquids. It's really neat to watch them drink. That long proboscus checks out every space of a flower for the sweet nectar. I had a butterfly that had a defective proboscus. I had to cut one of the tubes because it wouldn't coil back up into it's mouth. It survived just fine with one! Though he probably had to feed twice as much! ;-S~~~

LOL You did surgery on a butterfly!!! What did you use for anesthesia??

Now did you also know that the male anole and chameleon lizard has bilateral hemipenes. These I know for sure... other lizards may have two... too.

I have saved thousands of dollars too. Not only on wasted shots but the whole roll that never got all taken and consequently never got to Eckerds to be developed !

fly_girl I just read your post on the cat frass tea!! LOL

Hmmm... Connie ..... I think that was more than I wanted to know! LOL!

Actually, that is an interesting bit of info. I have anoles and chameleon lizards everywhere in my yard. I have never seen so many tiny baby ones as I have this year! They must be trying to re-populate from almost being wiped out from my yard 2 years ago during the hurricanes. (There was very little life moving around in my yard after those storms except mosquitos!) Survival of the strongest, I guess.

Duh, a paper towel on the bottom of the cage, who woulda thunk it (hitting self upside the head). Great idea. Karen

Becky,

I've noticed many babies in my yard this year as well. Even caught several "in the act" of making those babies. :-) I do believe you are right about them re-populating after the storms. We had a dozy with Rita here last year. Those I might not have been AS observant before I joined DG, I do know that there have never been as many as there are this year.

One of the GF cats has gone to the top and is in the J position. 2 more are on the way up the walls of the cage tonight.

We found several more last night at Connie's and I brought them home. Probably another 15 or so GF's of varying stages. Even her tenant was up there on his deck where the passion vine was growing helping us look. We were all up there looking on the leaves that hang over the deck to Connie's pool area and he was so funny. Suddenly he says, I found the mother lode! I bet he keeps on looking. He watched some as we were building the cage. I think he was just as excited as we were.

We added a pretty big Monarch and a green horny looking worm today. The Monarch came from a nursery and the fella didn't mind giving me that bonus today when I was buying other plants. The green worm came from the woods. Hubby has been hunting the past few days and he brought him home in the transporter. I told him to keep that in his van because he says they are all over the place in the woods and crawl on him. I went out tonight and that green rascal was on the OUTSIDE of the cage. I'm not sure how in the world he got out. But that does make me worry about the rest of them. Doggone it! I just had my hair colored, I don't need to worry more and have it go gray again! HAHAHAHA

Janet

Will get some photos of the J cat and the green guy tomorrow so I can get an ID on him.

Oh Janet! Wonder if Mr horney worm chewed a hole???

GASP! I didn't even think that! Bite your tongue!

I'm going to go look with a flashlight. I'll kick his horny butt back to Warrenif he chewed a hole in my cage!

J

If he was to be a moth instead of a butterfly he mightof.. they do eat clothes.

Vwath thor thnathes!

This message was edited Oct 14, 2006 10:09 PM

Whew!

OK he gets to stay. No holes in the fabric. I had put him back on the floor and he was back at the top though. I wonder if he's getting ready to do his J. I'm going to see if I can find out what he is so I'll have some food for him.

Janet

Can you take a picture of him, maybe someone will be able to help ID.

I'd love to go out there and get a photo. Unfortunately, I left my camera in Connie's Shop yesterday and forgot to get it when I was there today. I sure hope the shop is locked! :*

I have been searching BugGuide and haven't spotted him yet. I'm pretty sure he's a sphinx, but didn't find any with pale pink spots on their backs. There sure are some STRANGE looking sphinx moths. Alien even!

I'll get the camera tomorrow sometime and get some photos of him, if he doesn't sneak back out again.

I did see a sphinx moth in my yard tonight. They are so beautiful. I sure hope that's what's in the cage too.

Janet

Janet, I think he's a pink spotted hawk moth cat....he's been floating around on different threads. If that's him, he's a beautiful moth.

Yes, that is the one I have seen too fly_girl. This link I believe. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/659437/

Too bad they're so ugly when they are cats......many probably don't make it to a moth because of the human intervention.

That cat doesn't look a thing like mine. Mine is more "boring", other than those pale pastel pink spots down his back. The spots aren't really defined with outlines or anything. Maybe mine is just a pink hawk moth (not spotted) if three is such a thing. That one looks more brown. Of course, mine may surprise me and change colors also. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I'd go get my other camera, but it's in hubby's van and it's chilly out there tonight. Lots of wind.

Janet

I didn't think the other one was ugly. Just not as brilliant as some. But you're right about human intervention. Before joining DG, I might have "eliminated" him.... Sadly, I could possibly have eliminated other more beautiful ones in my past life (Before DG!)

Janet

A lot of us were guilty of that before DG! That is why it is important for those that have kiddos to take cages to school for observation. Maybe the next generations will stop and think before squishing the ugly guys that are eating plants.

I plan on doing my part with my 3 grandbabies.

Janet, did you just stick the passionvine cuttings in earth to root? Karen

Hi Karen,

Yes, I just stuck them in the little pots with dirt in them. They are doing great! A little less leaves than when I did it since that was lunch. But they are holding up very well.

Janet

Just tried it. Took a couple of frit egges and one teeny cat with the cuttings, so we will see.

Looks like the cassia i tried to root in water isn't going to make it. Next I will try in soil. Karen

2 of my GF cats have formed their chryssalises. The weather here is miserable. Lots of rain, wind and tornado watches. I haven't been able to get out there to take pictures yet. I did go out this morning to put more Passion Vine into the cage. Good Lord there was a lot of catpoop in there. I used a papertowel to clean that up. Looks much better. I left the stripped PV cuttings in there (since there were cats hanging on the vines) and hope that new growth will come back.

I need to make some type of hinged lid for the cage. Right now I have 2 sun shades laying on the top with a piece of plywood to held them down. Water is accumulating on the shades and pours in unexpectedly. Fortunately, the pouring is in the center of the cage and the cats are on the sides. We put a smidgen of space in the flooring slats so the water can drain quickly.

I sure hope the weather improves soon. It may already be doing it as I can't hear the rain on the roof now.

Janet

It rained really hard most of the day. No Flooding, praise the Lord! That's always a concern for us here in SE Texas. If I remember right, I was told that we are about 5 ft. above sea level. The weather has been so yucky that I haven't been "cat-sitting" as diligently as I might have if the weather had been good. That's NOT a complaint. We've needed this rain.

I just went out to check on "everybody". The Monarch has made his "J". Surprising to me was that he's almost on the bottom of the cage, right under a PV leaf. I hope the GF's don't mow him over as they keep on getting bigger. I'm not seeing some of the little bitty ones anymore... well duh, they've grown, but I'm also not seeing as many bigger ones as I thought I would at this point. Not sure if others are eating the littler ones or what.

There's still plenty of Passion vines in the cage. If necessary, I'll add more tomorrow. I put a big sprig of milkweed in for the monarch this morning. I just stuck it into one of the little copper pots that the PV is in. It doesn't look like he ate any of it at all. It doesn't look like it wilted like the other cuttings I did last week either. I'm thinking all that rain today helped to keep the soil moist.

I'll try to get some photos tomorrow. I don't want to take my cameras out in this weather an take a chance on getting them wet. It's really neat watching the changes in the chrysallis.

Janet

I was able to catch a Monarch cat pupating, it was really fast, less than a minute and so smooth. It's like they pull a blanket around them, I don't see where it comes from, it just appears. Have you seen one yet?

No. He still had his stripes. Let me go look again.

Janet

My GF's attach to our cedar siding on the house. Messy, but will get pressure washer out in November. Elaine

fly-girl - Actually what happens is that as the cat is hanging in a J, it is changing underneath the exterior skin. When you see the chrysalis forming, it is actually the skin splitting and being pushed upward to the top of the J. And it will wiggle until it gets the skin to drop off the top of chrysalis to the ground. If that doesn't happen, it may cause damage to the chrysalis and developing butterfly. I have also had a chrysalis drop to the ground (apparently wasn't securely attached to a branch, etc. and when it hit the ground and ruptured it was nothing but green slime. No resemblence of a cat or butterfly. The whole process is simply a miracle to me! But so is the development of any life! God's whole cycle of creation is amazing!

This message was edited Oct 16, 2006 8:44 PM

OK, I couldn't resist. I took my camera with me since it wasn't raining.

Here is the chrysallis of the one hanging on the top of the cage.

Close up shot of the GF Chrysallis