DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 12

Continued from Page 11> http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/753588/
Welcome everyone! Please post your daily fly bys here so we can all oogle and awe over them,:-)
My little Buckeye made his chrysalis today.. Here are a few pics from the sequence>

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This Sulphur kept circling around again.. Today it was for the Durantas. They are so spastic when they flit around, it looks like they are doing sommersaults lol~

:-D

I showed Mom the pictures of the Giant ST. She knows the Tiger ST. I found a picture I had taken of a Polydamas a while back and she said the yellow part was curved around the wing like that. She seemed pretty sure once she saw the pic. You know, I really don't spend too much time taking pictures. I like to walk around the yard when I get home and check on everything - bromeliads, whatever is blooming - and now I just added bfs to the list. If you plant the things they like, they will come! Plus, living in a warm climate helps. : )

Yes you live in one of the major butterfly areas of this country.. I wonder how many people live there and don't stop long enough to enjoy them~sigh~. Unimaginable! I am so glad you and your mom take the time. It is a very wholesome thing to do. In my case, it really keeps me out of trouble, lol!

:-d

This message was edited Aug 1, 2007 7:26 PM

Love that Buckeye. Lucky you!!! Good looking duranta too. I cut mine back severly last week. It was way overgrown and going to seed. Figured if I cut it back now it would be in perfect shape and blooming profusely during the fall season...our best butterfly time :o)

Lots of Gulf Frit cats on the passifloras. Some strange cat on the aristolochia elegans...unfortunately it's not a polydamas but more of a moth caterpillar. Pesky bugger...a looper no doubt...but left it alone as the a. elegans is a monter anyways. Nothing much else moving around the yard. Same grass skippers :o) faithful buggers.

Wish the fall season were here already. I am dying to see more diversity. Saw only about 100 different species last time during the festival. Considering we get over 300...I have a lot to look forward to this year.


A reminder...our festival runs October 18-21. If ya'll can afford the time off please try to visit this area. More info on the festival and events can be found at: www.texasbutterfly.com

~ Cat

Deb - Great progression of photos of your Buckeye cat pupating into a chrysalis! Such a busy year that you have had so far! I can't imagine what your Fall is going to be like! Is your hummer still around?

Mellie - That's cool that you and your mom are getting into watching butterflies! Welcome to the addiction/obsession! lol

Cat - Wish I could hop on my private jet and come out to the butterfly festival. But alas ..... John Travolta has borrowed it from me! LOL! I hope you take lots of photos during the event!

oh lucky you Deb. I got a couple of Green Shrimp plants in trade if they ever show up I might get some baby cats for the first time too. Big congrats to you.

Cat that would be awesome to go to your BF festival but I don't travel very well anymore ;-(

Sent the link to the DH with a suggestion of a weekend trip. LOL! Doubt he will think it as interesting as I do.

Aw too bad ya'll can't win the lottery to enjoy a butterfly field trip out here. Lots of the authors and photographers will be here. Our regulars are Jim Brock, David Wagner, Mike Quinn, Bob Berhstock, Paul Opler, Ro Wauer, Chip Taylor, Bill Bouton, Kim Garwood, Richard Lehman and more I can't remember. Jeff Glassberg will be our guest speaker for our dinner party on Saturday...meowrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Dale Clark from (www.dallasbutterflies.com) will be conducting a seminar and last I heard from Judy Burris she and her brother Wayne Richards and their family - remember them from that wonderful Life Cycles of Butterflies book for the 23 most common garden butteflies ? (www.butterflynature.com) are supposed to come down for this year's festival too.

Nana nana boo boo...ya'll are really gonna miss out!!! :o) I plan two weeks of my vacation time around the festival. That way I can be out in the field with the ones who come a few days early and those who just can't leave and stick around for another week afterwards :o)

~ Cat

Thanks for the invite Cat! I hope you will fill us in with all the highlights. If I'm in the neighborhood I would love to come.. Ya never know.

Meanwhile we can up the number of butterflies in our own back yards if we can't make it to the event. I was browsing around and found this site again. Cat had posted it a time or 2, and it seems to have a lot of essentials, and wants for a great butterfly garden.
It also had info on those wee wasps I was getting Chalcid Wasp.
Edith will give you free Plantain seed if you send a SASE. Plantain is host for Buckeye.

http://butterfliesetc.com/hostplants.php

It's getting down to the wire on the presentation at Green Mama's.. DH is buying an overhead projector that will hook up to my laptop so that I can do the slide show. We looked for one to rent... and nothing under $200 a day. DH says we need to buy one anyway. It will get a lot of use, and I will be free to do presentations anywhere with one of my own.

Pray it goes well!

Deb

Good Luck, Deb! I know that your presentation will be awesome! That's so cool about getting a projector to hook up to your computer. I can't believe they are $200 a day for rent! That's ridiculous!!!

Deb it will be fabulous and the info will flow right out of you like you have been doing it for years. Go get'em girl!!

Yesterday I was looking out the kitchen window while I was doing something and was watching a sulfur flying around my Partridge Pea plants. Then I realized it was not nectaring...egg-laying activity going on. I'm not sure what kind of sulfur it wasat that distance, but I started collecting eggs on cuttings this morning to put into containers and raise. Tiny pointed yellowish or orangish eggs. Then I checked the Lindheimer Sennas on the front part of the property and found tiny white pointy eggs on them and one tiny green cat, collected some of those also. I really didn't have time to check that much...difficult to find anything that small. Anybody know if the Partridge Pea stays fresh for a while if stuck into containers with water? I've got a LOT of those plants this year...already started making seed pods, also. I've always thought the flowers are just so CUTE!

Uh oh...... I pulled a ton of them out of my garden! LOL! Weeds here! I have several Cassia bushes, so figured I didn't need the Partidge Pea plants. But they still manage to pop up in my garden beds and do they ever grow fast. I do know they wilt pretty fast. Maybe placing in water will prolong them. Don't know. I have never noticed any Sulphurs laying eggs on my "weeds". Interesting observation , Linda! :-) Good luck with those eggs! Your flowers are cuter than mine! Perhaps I have a different cultivar of PP.

Well, we're on our third straight day of rain here so no butterflies. At least the last two days it was on and off so I had a little chance to run outside, but today it's been solid rain. I drove to the dentist today and I was wondering where the butterflies go when it rains - and then as I was making a turn through my neighborhood a Zebra Longwing almost flew into my windshield. We had a good steady drizzle going on so I had to yell, "What are you doing out here?" Crazy butterfly.

My eggs still haven't hatched and my gulf frit cats seem to be doing the butterfly equivalent of curling up with a good book on a rainy day. They've eaten nearly all the p. "Incense" so I'll have to go out to the fence and get some p. caerulea for them. They eat through the leaves so half of it ends up at the bottom - wasteful little children! I tried draping the fallen leaves on the vines to see if they'll eat it. Fatty is still in his chrysallis which points different directions everytime I see it. I always thought they hung there motionless, so it's neat to see that there is definitely something going on inside. I think this weather has got us all feeling rather lethargic though. And it looks like I'll be weeding again soon (sigh).

My GF cats think the bloom is just as good as the leaves. Piggies!

Carla

I've purchased numerous plants from Edith at that butterflies etc website...Shady Oaks Farm :o) All the plants I've gotten from them are doing so well!!! The Green Shrimp plants are taking over the yard - now I'm waiting for the malachites to find them!

...figured I'd add this passiflora photo. A Brazilian Skipper has been hanging around my front walkway for about a week...finally was able to get a photo a few minutes ago without it zipping off as soon as I walk out the front door.

~ Cat

Well, well .... doesn't that just beat it all! I didn't know that butterflies used the Passiflora as a nectar plant! One of my vines bloomed last year and I never saw a single butterfly or bee on any of the flowers. I am still waiting for all my Passiflora to bloom this year.

Oddly, my Bee Balm is blooming again! It just finished blooming a couple weeks ago and I've been snipping the dried flower heads off to collect the seeds. Today I noticed blooms again! I wonder if all the rain we've gotten had something to do with the back-to-back blooms? Didn't know it would do that!

I get mostly skippers nectaring on the passion flower blooms...and several of those big black carpenter bees. Numerous butterflies use it as a place to roost though :o)

Oh...also saw a hummie nectaring on the blooms when I drove in from work. First time I've ever saw a hummie use it. It zipped off of course...but I did set up a small hummie feeder from a nearby roof gutter. Figured if the hummie was looking for nectar might as well cater to the little bugger.

~ Cat

Hey Cat,

You postings of the Brazilian Skipper in the Bug Files helped me to confirm that is what I was able to photograph late this afternoon in our back yard garden. Went through four butterfly books before finally zeroing in on to the Brazilian. I entered a shot of the underside, showing the 3 spots on the hind wing, in the Bug Files. Here is one similar to one of your posting in the Bug Files. I am showing this one here, as it also shows one of the hind wing spots from the top side.

Rod

Are these the bees you're talking about Cat? I had a few of them on the PV yeaterday. Pretty cool how the flower accomodates polination. The first pass gets the pollen from the lower 'loaves', and as the day goes and the 3 fishes droop down.. the pollen is rubbed against them from the backs of the bee.

Nice pic of the Skipper , Rod.. Do you have cannas on your property?

Love your Beebalm Becky!

Heres another shot of the bee flying over the PV

Becky, you were asking about my hummers a day or so ago... They have been coming every day, all day long. She is so light the Zinnia keeps its shape as she sits fluttering.

One more of her drinking..

And those cutie pie feet.... just darling!

Nice shot of the Skipper on the P. incense Cat! My incense vine hasn't had a chance this year.. I move the cats to the Blue Crown when I see them. There is more of it.

One of the Pipevine STs eclosed yesterday... It was cloudy so the blue didn't show up as well, but it is there.

As soon as she started flittering inside the cage I set her free.. She flew right up into the Maple and stopped to rest... She sat only a minute or two and off she went! Wow I can fly!!

Little Monarchs hatched as well. Still don't know exactly how many there are.

Cool photos, Deb! Glad to hear your little hummer is still around! :-)

Ya know .... I forgot about all the canna I have in my yard! I haven't seen a single skippers either. Odd is not the word for it! My canna plants look lovely! No destroyed leaves. The milkweed bugs are back with a vengence though! Ugh!

It looks like one of my GST is getting ready to pupate right on the side of the plastic bug cage. I put several sticks in there but it preferred the plastic. HA!

I guess 'cats don't particularly care where they pupate? Of the Gulf Frit cats I've fostered in the Cat Castle, about half of them have pupated on the twigs provided inside and half have climbed to the top and sides of the Castle to do their business. I never know what to expect from those little guys.

The Skippers haven't found my Cannas yet either. But the hummingbirds have.

Carla

Deb, we do have cannas, both in the back yard and west side. The Brazilian Skipper was in the vicinity of the cannas when I spotted it. That was one of the clues that it was probably a Brazilian, but I didn't know that at first. I have pictures of several others skippers for which I am going to have to ask for help with identification. One thinks my head is part of its territory. I really love the challenge of spotting and photographing all of the small butterflies, just haven't been finding the time for a butterfly hunting trip. Nearly all of my shots are in our yard or our lot on Little White Oak Bayou. I do take my camera with me when we go plant shopping.

We had a male Monarch emerge this morning and had an E. BST go into chrysalis stage today. Hope the milkweed and parsley hold out. Looking for GST cats on our kumquat, as I spotted mama laying eggs last week.

Attached is a recent shot of a Nessus hummingbird moth.
Everything seems to like the phlox blossoms.

Rod

Ok, here are the 10 monarch cats that were on the butterfly weed. I waited till they hatched to bring them in. The ziplock container worked great. Instead of disturbing them, I brought them all in on there own leaf, hopefully tomorrow they will be together on just a few leaves and I will put a couple of fresh ones.
Do they prefer to be on the screen porch where it is 90 degrees or in the house where it is about 76?

chris

container with pantyhose.
Will all 10 be able to stay in this container till pupate?

This message was edited Aug 3, 2007 5:25 PM

Great hummer pics Deb! I love those little feet too!

Beautiful Bee Balm Becky...hey that's a mouthful. haha
I've always liked those plants....I can't seem to get them to grow here.

Chris, I think they would prefer the house temps...I would. Great idea with the panty hose!
That bottom container may get a little crowded. When they get bigger they seem to get agitated easy especially if they touch each other. They bat at each other with their bodies, so maybe split them up into a couple more containers.

Hi everyone! I was out getting more passionvine for my cats and checking to see if there were any more when I saw a cat I didn't recognize. It's on my p. caerulea and it's about the same size as my gulf frit cats, but is paler and has longer hairs. I just want to know if it's good or bad or if it will compete with my gulf frits. I don't where this guy came from all of a sudden.
Melanie

Those hb moths are great looking. Nice to see another good looking Brazilian Skipper. They always throw me for a loop...with that big body and large wings I am always hoping it's something really exotic. Considering I have two huge canna patches you'd think there'd be more Brazilian Skippers around...but I'm lucky to see a handful a year.

Don't ya just love the underwing colors of those pipevines!!! Awesome!!!

I haven't seen any Monarch yet. Amazing how everyone else has gobs of them :o)

Am not sure if those are the same bees...looks like your bugger is covered with pollen :o) If it's big and black they are one and the same then!!! These out here make holes in the cedar beams of my back porch...UGH!!!!

Went outside a while ago to try to find one to get a photo...but found a huge reddish brown bee instead!!! It's about 1.25 inches in length...big booty! It was flying around my cedar beam...no doubt part of the group that makes holes!!! GRRR!!! Anyway, since I'd not seen this color of bee before I caught it and did the freezy butt thing. Took it out and took photos as it was warming back up again. It only took about two minutes and it flew off. Didn't want to kill it just in case it's special - unusual color for me :o)

~ Cat

This message was edited Aug 3, 2007 8:47 PM