DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 40

Has anyone ever seen a Polydamas cat like this before? It is the biggest I've ever seen and a lot lighter than the rest of them. I have about 5 cats left in my lanai that are almost ready to make their chrysalises and about 15 that have done so. When I went to get some fresh leaves this morning, I noticed this gigantic cat right in front of my face. I brought it in and did a quick photo comparison while they were still sleeping.

I have it segregated from the others, just in case! I'm hoping it's not been parasitized....

Well, I got the one they all loved, "Attraction"


http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/78709/

They had a few of the yellow there, and no one was interested.

A really pretty light blue was the second favorite.

Thank you for sharing. That seems to be in the color shade Mellie described as being most attractive to butterflies. She said purple, but like purple coneflower purple. : ) I have been keeping that in mind when thinking about new plants.

Closer inspection does give credulous consideration as to Shelia FW's conclusion.

Wow, the forum is busy this morning! I was at MOSI playing with the caterpillars. And on the pipevine next to the door was a Polydamas cat that looks a lot like the one in the picture up there including the lightness of color. They can get ridiculously huge like that. The fact that he's paler is because his skin is stretched so thin (at least that's what I think). I would just say - expect a messy gut purge!

Meredith, you have a lovely Painted Lady and Red-Spotted Purple. I get so jealous over the RSP since I'm on their borderline and I haven't seen one here in FL although my boss at MOSI has. I'm still hoping - and my cherry tree is ready anytime!

Glad I could be of help to everyone! My book says butterflies prefer that magenta-purple color. I have a bougainvillea that shade that does get a lot of action now that I think about it. The Gulf Frits seem to prefer red, but like I said before, I really do need to write this stuff down. Of course, everyone likes the porterweed; that's the one they fight over in my yard. Actually, the butterflies and the hummingbirds fight over it!

Melanie

SVP...wow! That's a big 'un :o)

Also saw photos of a similar colored one on bug guide.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/183970

~ Cat

I wish I could take credit for those but they are Mrs Eds : )
I have seen RSPs but they never stop long enough for photos - so far. : (
I haven't seen any painted ladies yet.

Oops, got confused with so many messages to catch up on. But everyone on here is doing great and there have been so many beautiful photos lately. I'm going to have to try really hard if I want to make a decent showing in the photo contest this year!

I got to fish two White Peacock cats out of the water today which was fun. Ok, they were actually on the bacopa, but it grows in the water. We've had to transfer the White Peacocks to frogfruit because they've eaten the heck out of the bacopa. Apparently, we have Buckeye eggs on our plantains at MOSI, but I couldn't see them and I didn't want to disturb the cage so I left it alone. Maybe next week I'll be able to see the cats and share pictures.

I've been wanting to ask about the photo contest. Where is the info about it? I've tried searching and couldn't find any info on how to enter.

That I would describe that color as a "plum-purple".

Would be cool if those BFs were in my garden, but they were at a garden center that is out in the country. I saw a ton more that I could not get a picture of, including a giant swallowtail (I think). And I saw two deer!

:D

I hope they change the way it's set up. Last year it just wouldn't let me vote at all..I tried, but couldn't. And it was taking so long...seemed like an eternity, to get just one category of pics to show up completely so I could see them. I wish they'd break it up into more smaller categories so it will be faster.

Past photo contests link: http://davesgarden.com/contest/ The 2007 edition was held in November so I imagine we'll see the 2008 contest around the same time.

I had to go to Lowe's today and I saw a White Peacock and a Zebra Longwing. It's been raining here most of the afternoon so I'm cleaning house. I have my blinds up and in between rain showers I saw a Zebra Longwing fly by.

Visiting a garden center (or a park, or public garden) can be a great way to see what butterflies you actually have in your area. Then, you can see what they are attracted to. It's also good to visit in different seasons so you can see how the butterfly populations vary and what nectar plants are popular at which time.

Break time's over - back to cleaning!

Just a few minutes ago…

And check out the intruder trying to get into the picture on the upper left.

Is your intruder a bee? Or is that a hawkmoth? Mrs_Ed? I saw the TST on my butterfly bush this morning, but your photography put mine back into the kodak's easyshare. lol.

I think it was probably a bee as I did not see any of the hb moths around. The big bumble bees have been around lately, as well as the small ones and the honeybees. But interesting that this insect has a tail!! So I don't really know what it was!

WOW Mrs. Ed! The clarity on those shots is just amazing and the colors! Just beautiful.

Kim, nice skipper shot.

THANKS!!!

You know, that guy was only about 3 feet from me. VERY cooperative!! That really helps. I know that the ETSs love these phlox so I'm sure I'll be able to see more.

Thanks Elphaba, it was lucks and the skipper's cooperation too. When these fellas busy nectaring, they too allowed me to get fairly close to them.

Mrs_Ed, those ETS love budellias as well, that is where I often find them. In early spring here in the South, I saw them in all sort of blooming plants such as Azaleas ect.

Mrs ed those shots are gorgeous! Which phlox is that? David's lavendar? I have that one and a few others. I got them for the butterflies and I never see butterflies on them, except maybe a Monarch once or twice but they seem to go to anything once or twice lol. Maybe I have the wrong kind, though I do see the hummingbird moths go to them.

Lily, Nice TST - that looks like the bicolor buddlehia, I have that one. It is my favorite! Mine smells wonderful!

Well good thing I just bought a buddleia! That phlox is the popular "my sister had too much in her back alley" phlox. In other words. I don't know. But I love phlox. There's a bunch at my grandmother's that I want to get too. This color mixes really well with lemon colored daylilies (the tall kind).

We're seeing beautiful butterflies, then we shifted to hostplants, and nectaring plants. End results, I'm still confused as a novice as can be, lol. I can't tell the different b/w TST and EST!!!

BTW, Meredith is that a white blooming liastris? I've seen the common purple blooms, but the white in your picture with the monarch nectaring on it is beautiful as well.

Kim

p.s. Here is my skipper nectaring on my 'Lavender' Pentas.

This one wouldn't open his wings for me. I don't know what he is.

This is the first yellow butterfly I've seen. I do have several Cassia seedlings and a few Senna alata trees. Could this be a Sulfur?

Lil, I refer to any Tiger Swallowtail as TST, and EST would be Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. I get Canadian Tiger Swallowtails and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails so I usually just say TST because I am not really sure how to tell them apart aside from the canadians are smaller than the eastern tst. : )
That liatris is L. pychnostachya 'Alba' I picked it up by accident at the NEWFS, a great source for native wildflowers for the butterflies. : )

By the way your pentas are gorgeous! They give me zone envy : )

Cordelodawg, Lily will probably know what one of your b's are because I think she had one of the same ones recently.

This message was edited Jul 28, 2008 2:43 PM

Tehehehehe, don't. It amazes me that there isn't much difference b/w our zones. I visitted my sister who lives in Maryland, she has all the flowers that have in the garden. Only thing about Pentas. They're tender perennial here too for me. I've a choice of discarding them at the end of the growing season, or overwinter them in the greenhouse. lol.

Deborah, your 'refuses to open its wings' is the Silverspotted skipper. In my inexperienced eyes, all mid size bright yellow butterflies are ALL sulphers, but can be different in species? Am I correct on this count. Mellanie, please correct if I were wrong.
Kim

This is not my year for butterflies. I was feeling so happy because there was a GF hovering around my passionvine this morning for a long time, and I think one stop may have been an egg laying mission. I was thrilled!! Then later this morning two of my few BST chysalides eclosed, both lovely females. I just brought them in their crate out to the front porch and opened it up to let them go. One flew out over a palm tree and a dragonfly zipped right up behind her and grabbed her. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, it was horrible. They dropped into the palm tree and it took me a minute to find them. I went to reach for them, and he flew towards our other palm, but was too heavy, and they landed on the sidewalk. I pulled him from her. I can't see damage to her but she leaked a little fluid onto my fingers. I've got her on a flower, in the crate, back in the house now, but she's being very quiet. I'm afraid she's going to die. She's so pretty, this is awful!!! If this is Mother Nature's way of showing me who's in charge, well, I'm just not very happy with her at all.

Kim, instead of discarding your pentas try cutting them back to the ground and cover with paper and straw before the first frost this fall. Then after the last frost in '09 spring, uncover. This has worked for me but not for all tender zone 9 plants.

Oh Thea, I'm sorry you had to see that. I didn't know dragonflies ate bf's.!!! I'm losing some of the ones in my cage too. Not to predators but to store bought parsley. I washed it well and dried it. It must be tainted with a systematic. About 10 or more have died within a day of eating the parsley. My first bad experience with store bought parsley.

Thank you all for the id on the silver spotted skipper and the sulfur.

Deborah, that's most strange: I just had that experience too, with parsley I'd bought at Piggly Wiggly, where I always buy my butterfly parsley. First time it ever happened to me too!!!!!! How horrible it is, to see them stop eating when you KNOW they're too small, and they do act like they're in pain. I wash the parsley, over and over in flowing water, but like you said, a systemic must've been the culprit. I'm sick about it, most of my garden parsley has gone to seed, I don't know what to do now! And the BST's are starting to show up in my garden, nectaring. I have no suppliers of organic stuff anywhere near us. This, coupled with my horrible dragonfly incident, has really got me down.

Yup, Silver-Spotted Skipper and sulphur there. In fact, since Kim and Deb so nicely posted in order, take a look at the difference between Kim's Hoary Edge and Deb's Silver-Spotted Skipper. Pretty much all yellow butterflies and butterflies that are all yeallow are sulphurs. The only one I can think of that's yellow and isn't would be the Tiger ST and then you have those stripes to help you out. I'm still not very good at differentiating the sulphurs so I'm not going to try.

Thea, I didn't know dragonflies would do that either! As for the food problem, does Queen Anne's Lace http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/688/ grow anywhere around your area? It's listed as a noxious weed so if there are any overgrown meadows or even roadside areas you might want to go foraging. It's always a good idea to know where host plants grow in local parks or forests. Your Black STs will eat that, too. Any farmer's markets in your area that might sell parsley, fennel, or dill?

Thank you for the confirmation on the bf pictures, Melanie. My queen anne's lace is done for the season. It's a spring plant for me. I noticed the stems were completely brown this morning. Thanks for the reminder about it being a host. All my rue seedlings died. I still have fennel and parsley in the garden, but like Thea, mine have gone to seed too. Couldn;t cut it back because there were always eggs and cats on it. They will get the blooms and stalk so I'm back to adding those to the cages.

Oh Melanie, I almost forgot to tell you, I tried the pinning the silk to the cage to hang a fallen crystalis back up. It worked like a charm!

I've always loved the dragonflies, we have so many, and they're beautiful! I never thought of them as butterfly enemies. But he came up right in back of her, on her very first flight, and just tackled her! It was terrible, it happened so fast and I just didn't know what to do. He was kind of wrapped around her, with his legs. I don't know how he hurt her, but she doesn't seem to be recovering. She's still alive, just clutching the flower I brought her in on, but she's not moving around, as I'd hoped.
Our only farmer's market seems to have only basic veggies, no herbs. I haven't seen any Queen Anne's Lace since we moved here from CT, but I will start scoping out the fields. I'm desperate!!!! I planted carrot seed in the spring, but a kitty dug most of it up; don't BST's use the carrot tops too? I just planted more seed, for a fall crop (hopefully!).

Bingo Thea, carrot tops is a thought. Wonder if the suppler would have used a systematic on carrots? Our grocery stores (2-Harvey's and Walmart) sell carrots with the tops.

What about the organic section of the grocery produce section? I know...it could still have something like Bt and be considered organic. But maybe there's a better chance with organic stuff.

Deb, glad you pinned the chrysalis with success! I use scotch tape, too. As long as you only touch the silk and not the chrysalis it will be fine. Swallowtails do okay even if they lay on the bottom of the cage; they don't have to hang to develop correctly. But for those that must hang, like Monarchs or Frits, it's always good to have a back-up plan.

Black STs eat anything in the carrot family so it would be worth a try to use carrot tops. I can't recall ever hearing about them being a pest to carrot crops though. Has anyone here ever tried giving them carrots?

I read somewhere that if you buy a parsley plant (or whatever) from the grocery store to let it sit for at least seven days to quarantine it. I don't know if that's true for the systemic pesticides, but it seems like a good idea. Of course washing it and feeding it only fresh water would help as well. And then I would try to give them the newest growth if possible. I guess I'm pretty spoiled in Florida where something is always bound to be growing. If all else fails, I go foraging in the woods.

Melanie

BSTs dont' need to hang do they?

No, the swallowtails do ok even if they don't hang. Of course, I guess it's better if they do. But sometimes they don't have enough silk for me to tape them up so I can't do much but let them sit there. They always come out all right.

edited...sorry cross posted....


Thea....Last year I didn't have Fennel or Rue and was low on Parsley in my garden. I had BST eggs laid and hatching galore. In order to keep them from starving I used the grocery store parsley. It is very cheap per bunch here. I washed it several times in cold water and put it in a zip lock wrapped in a damp paper towel. It lasted until I used it all. I had to buy several bunches as my parsley recovered. Didn't see any ill effects and those that had been laid on the last of my Rue did switch over to parsley without problem. Good Luck!
Mrs. Ed.... Are you talking about the Chrysalis of the BST hanging? I have heard that some said they made fine laying in the bottom of the cage, but I have had one that touched the bottom of the cage and it crimped one wing. I find that the easier ones make their chrysalis on a stem of parsley and I simply 'warm' glue the stem on styrofoam.

This message was edited Jul 28, 2008 9:07 PM

Well the first chrysalis was barely hanging on to the cardboard, so I clipped off the piece and have it propped up. I suppose I could try to pin it, but it looks too small for me to attempt, being a newbie.

Funny though, on the rest of them, they almost all chose the same stick to pupate, and are facing the same direction. I'll have to get pictures later.

Will these chrysalis get transparent?