DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 28

Continued from http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/803173/

Hey There Butterfly Lubbers!!
By now many of you are beginning to plan and plant your garden for the upcoming butterfly season. Then there are our friends in Florida & So. Texas, etc., who are busy raising and releasing!! Applauds and thanks to you, there will always be butterflies flapping their wings on this planet!!
It is such a great work you all do! While perusing around in research this week I came across a Hawaiian website I thought you all might be interested in looking at... Take a look: http://www.wowinstitute.info/

Because of you butterfly gardeners there will be plenty of these winged beauties to ensure that the one person who needs a lift in their day may be passed or touched with a little healing joy.

Keep on sharing your pics and keep up the great work you all do!!

Did this year whiz by, or what?

American Lady nectaring on Blue Mistflower

I am hoping to continue discussing the various natural ways to manage aphids and such in our butterfly gardens as we plan and plant.
Here is Linda's post from the last thread with a lot of excellent suggestions:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4475053

here was a little of what I could dig up:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4476140

Always plan for the enemies, because the enemies always have a plan :-). I realize it is nature attempting to balance itself, however we are into successful quantities of butterflies AND beautiful healthy gardens. Let's outsmart them any way we can!!
All ideas are welcome~
:-)

Debnes, I'm so happy to hear the news about your nephew, that is wonderful!

"I plan to share more butterfly stuff with him as he heals as a captive audience"

that just made me crack up. We can find so many parallels to the butterfly life cycle...
Thanks for sharing his good news!

My camera's memory card went on the fritz, DH figured it out for me, the camera just kept on cycling throught the opening video... Should be set tonight, then I can take and post some pics of the monarchs that are J'ed. I'm wondering how long it takes for them to form their chrysalis?
Cathy

Thanks Cathy!
Depends on the temps, (the warmer, the quicker) but the chrysalis forms in just a couple to four hours once the cremaster is formed and it's in J. When mine would form the J by evening one day, they would remain like that all night and the following morning they were completed by noon.
When the wiggling begins, you know it's about to happen. The last instar skin splits from the top end and the green liquid replaces it. Then it hardens into a little okra jewel.
Please document the whole thing here, if you get a chance to take any pics.

:-)

OMG, I zoomed home for lunch and checked the cats, they all looked good. Checked the one that first formed the J, and it looked like it did yesterday. 20 minutes later, I went to check it one last time, and I missed it- it had already formed into the beautiful celadon green little case. It still had ridges at the top and bounced a little bit. Hubby had managed to remove the damaged memory card and told me I could take some pics w/o it, just not very many. I snapped a few, then back to work. And here I am, counting the minutes til I can go back home and watch some more!
I'll post them tonight. Thank you for the info Debnes, I have to Google cremaster, it's a new vocabulary word for me!
Cathy

I've always heard that a good stream of water is best for the aphids. I don't mind some of them, but I was getting huge colonies. I don't consider myself to be 100% organic or anything, mostly I'm just lazy, LOL! But I don't use many pesticides and I don't want to. I've been reading a lot lately about vegetable gardening because I'm going to try growing my own crops for the first time this year. Naturally, I expect caterpillars and bugs and who knows what else, but I figure I'll go with the flow and figure it out.

On a related note, I was reading about genetically modified foods (and talking with DGers on the sustainable living forum). I always figured GM foods were about producing more or bigger crops; I saw an interview one time with a guy who wanted to use them to cure world hunger by altering crops to grow in harsher conditions (like African deserts). However, the two most common modifications made are: to make plants resistant to the weed killer Round Up and to implant the BT virus into the plant itself. Of course, the BT virus is what people use to kill caterpillars (I confess, I've used it on the plague of tussock moths we get every spring). It's considered organic since it's a natural bacteria, and I have no problem with people using it on a limited basis. But could you imagine entire areas of crops that would be poisonous to butterflies and moths? And then what if the GM crops mixed with other plants? That idea just terrifies me.

I just try to remember it's all about balance. Everything in moderation is ok. I don't villify anyone who chooses to use pesticides, but do we really want to breed them into our plants? Ok, I'm stepping off my soapbox now...

Melanie : )

Yesterday went to Leu Gardens, Orlando FL. 2 highlights are the formal rose garden and butterfly garden.
Gulf Fritillary on a rose.

Gulf Fritillary on pentas

Monarch on pentas

Monarch on a lantana

Hmmm...might be worth the drive from Tampa. And it's a boy Monarch! Lovely photos!
Melanie

Oh my, bsharf. : ) I have been trying to get my DH to take me over to Leu Gardens. Is it pretty right now? Or should I wait a couple of months....
~Lucy

GM crops and implanted BT, now that's the stuff nightmares are made of.
Leu Gardens, wow, definitely have to put that on the list of places to go when heading over to Orlando. What beautiful pictures bsharf! I really like the monarch on the red penta.

Here's a pic of the chrysalis that formed today at lunchtime

It's tucked right in the corner, so neatly.

When I came home from work, I discovered its neighbor had also made its beautiful green case!

These two were the roamers of the bunch and settled in the corner near the door.

The other guys were much more cooperative and stayed in the kiddie pool, on the milkweed. They'll probably work their magic the minute I leave for work!

So darn cute!

Awww...I just turned my laptop and showed everyone while saying, "Look at the wittle caterpillars!" Oh, Dad the mailman reports seeing two sulphurs, a Gulf Frit, and some kind of hairstreak today.

Our weather as been equally freaky lately. Hot then cold...go figure! Well, had the suprise of my life when I got home from work tonight. One of the forbes' silkmoth cats that pupated 12/26/07 eclosed!!!

I wasn't expecting the emergence until March or April!!! This is truly an unexpected surprise with bad timing :o)

As soon as I can find out if it's male or female I'll either release or keep for breeding purposes.

~ Cat

Go to Leu Gardens while its cool enough to enjoy walking around. The Roses and Camellias are in full bloom. There are some nice demonstration gardens of interest to floridians. The butterfly garden was really nice. There is also a beautiful tropical section, since they have a micro climate of 10. The gardens benefit from being on the bank of Lake Rowena, which warms the air.

Whoooohooooo Cat!! Forbes' is beautiful!!! I think it's a female.... The males would have more ovate (leaf) shaped antennae for the thicker filaments........See the guy on the right in your pic here. http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/TexasPuddyPrint_921.jpg
His antennae look more like 2 leaves, and the lady on the left are narrower.

Bsharf what lovely pictures!!! A real breathe of fresh air! Thank you!

Cathy wonderful work there with the Monarchs, they are looking great. Ty for posting the pics!

I hear ya Mel~~ Even though "they" say BT is organic it works in an evil way.. eeek systemics!!

debnes

This message was edited Feb 1, 2008 10:45 AM

Thanks bsharf, I'll start lighting a fire under DH, so we can head on over to Leu's garden. : )
~Lucy

Finally, some butterfly action to report. It's been windy and overcast the last couple of days as that front moved through, but today was bright and sunny. It was also a little warm for January, but I'd rather sweat than shovel snow.

The sulphurs were out and about today, and most of them seemed to be flirting with each other. I better keep an eye on my senna. I kept chasing these little sulphurs around and when I finally got a pic, the butterfly was just flying off. Once I got the pic on the computer though, I see that I actually got the topside of the wing! From the pic, I think it's a Barred Sulphur.

This message was edited Feb 2, 2008 4:27 PM

Then I finally managed to see one of the larger sulphurs stop and nectar. I think this is the Cloudless. I think we also had some Orange Barred Sulphurs flying around because I kept seeing a few that were even larger than this one.

This Long-Tailed Skipper was sunning itself on my bromeliads.

Before I forget, let me mention that I swear I saw a Swallowtail today. I only saw it fly by once and it flew across the street. At first I thought it was a Fritillary but then it got close and I saw distinct yellow stripes on it. I'm thinking it was a Palamedes or Polydamas. I hope it comes back soon!

In the meantime, I had a real Gulf Fritillary that decided to come out today. I had a lot of fun getting different views of it.

Here's the top of the wings.

Their antenna have little white stripes on them. I thought that was cute.

This one kept unfurling his proboscis, but he never did try to drink me. It was so cool to watch though. It looks kind of wet, which you can see in this pic. I wonder if he was just testing everything to make sure it worked?

I tried hard to capture that silver sheen, but some things have to be seen for themselves. That's the report from Tampa!

Melanie

WOW, what cool pics Melanie, the one with the proboscis closeup is really neat.

I think I saw an orange barred sulphur, it was the biggest yellow bf I've ever seen here. It looked almost orange, so I'm thinking that the blur of yellow and orange is what I saw. So pretty and so quick!

Cathy

Just snapped this pic of the cat making his silk pad (I think that's the correct terminology?!).
You can just see the white tube off the leaf in front of its face.

Oh, I just want to hug him! Don't they look so plump and huggable? I've always thought their prolegs were cute, too. I guess it reminds me of how I cling to my pillow when I sleep. Butterflies are beautiful but the caterpillars are so fun with their different personalities. Can't wait until my zebra swallowtails come back again!

Melanie

Mellie - Lucky you!!! I only saw one sulphur today at the ranch. One measely butterfly!!! ARGGHHHHH!!!

SV...and you've got caterpillars crawling about. I've not seen a one in weeks!!!

~ Cat

Aww...don't worry. It will pick up soon I'm sure! My ladybugs are starting to form small armies. They were all over the entryway today. I also found a dead one in a spider web. I was also seeing a lot of wasps so I went around the house and sprayed their nests. I'm not big on pesticide, but I don't play with wasps. I got stung last year while trimming a palmetto and it hurt so bad.

I'm planning to start my first vegetable garden this year so I spent most of the day sifting my finished compost. I'm going to be an organic gardener if I can. I'm going to grow herbs, too. I'm already planning on growing some just for the caterpillars, and relocating any I find on my food plants. Because - can't we all just get along?

Melanie

Here's the same cat that was building his silk pad last night, in a perfect J form.
Since today is a day off, I'm hoping to be able to get some good pictures of the transformation.

I was trying to find info on determining the gender of a caterpillar, and came across this page.
http://butterflymilkweed.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-can-i-gender-id-pupa-chrysalis.html
Now I have to go look at he chrysalises and see what they are!
Cathy

I think they are all boys! These two, I could get the camera in to take a pic, I hope the last 2 that haven't pupated yet will be females...

And one more

Beautiful Cathy!!

The gender is formed inside the pupa, before that they don't need or have a gender.

Keep us posted... If it is warm they could eclose in as early as 8 days. Most of the ones I raised take about 8 days anyway.

Great going!

Cool, thanks Debnes! So they really are eating machines! Supposed to be warm this week, they're saying 80's on Tues, so I'll be watching them closely.
Thanks for your guidance and teachings Debnes, it's very appreciated.
How is your nephew progressing?
Cathy