DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 42

Some puddling Sulphurs. The old water trough has a few cracks and the water seeps out making the ground damp - it's always nice to see a sunshine of sulphurs :o)

~ Cat

Poor Snout - it became spider food. Saw lots of them in the clutches of spiders or caught up in webs.

~ Cat

Found a few Variegated Fritillary cats on the native Nodding Green Violet. Saw numerous adults flitting around the fields as well.

~ Cat

Thea, cute kitty. I know that isn't Sandy's kitty, she doesn't let Sammy out. Yes, they love to play with those butterflies.
Cat, you need to enter those 'line dancing' butterflies in the photo contest. I would definitely vote for it.
Mellie, I love those Zebras too. Maybe one will wonder further north. I have lots of 'golden dewdrops' and I know they love them.

Cat, those pictures are great. I love seeing them grouped together like that. : )
~Lucy

I've been enjoying taking butterfly pics this summer.

One from today-

Another:)

One more

This was a huge guy!

He (or she?) seemed to like Merlot. What kind of butterfly is this?

This message was edited Aug 17, 2008 1:36 AM

Thea.... Yes the lizards do eat caterpillars as do frogs, praying mantis, wasp...on and on! Poor babies, they have a tough go of it out there.
Mel.... What PV is your zebra on?
Cat... So great to see so many bfs in one place! Are they coming from or going to Mexico?
chamthy.... Nice shots!
Pretty Cdawg!

I didn't see much today. This little skipper was my only subject except for hummers. Not sure is it a Least Skipper?

This shot was earlier in the month. DH was going to have surgery and I didn't want to bring anymore cats in to worry over feeding. I kept watch on the last few I had on my parsley and found one had made its chrysalis on this statue. Then a week later another followed him and did the same! This is about 10 foot from the parsley they were feeding on btw.

Gorgeous Zebra shot chamthy!

maggie

Sheila - cute little skipper! Can you believe out of the thousands and thousands of butterflies I saw on Saturday there wasn't a single skipper in the bunch!!!

The Snouts were traveling from west to east - not sure where that will take them...perhaps they'll end up in California :o)

Good going Cham!!! I see you're another butterflier who has photographed a Tiger. I can't even count the times I missed getting a photo of those when I was in Georgia. We don't get those down here. GRRRRRRR!!!

Great Palamedes Cordele! Those buggers are huge too. I got see to see numerous Pals too when I was in Georgia. I was so tickled to see one as we don't get those this far south (double GRRRRR!!!!) ...but after seeing those every day I was ready for something new...and just couldn't find a Tiger that would sit still!

~ Cat

This message was edited Aug 17, 2008 1:39 AM

So Cat....has CA moved?

Thank you for the id on my butterfly Cat. Palamedes is what I was hoping for. How do I tell gender?

Okay, who's the expert on raising Monarchs? HELP!

My second Cat died last night. what the heck?


Also, I'm going to be running an article on monarchs and I'm sure that I'll be deemed an expert by readers. They're going to ask for advice in raising them so I'll need a person to provide that advice!

This guy stayed put long enough for me to go inside after the camera.

Sorry Mrs. Ed about your cat. :-( Sometimes when they are not taken in as eggs, I will have several die in one group. I think it may be that they were attacked in a earlier instar by the t fly or wasp that inplants it's egg.

no kidding? i should take in the eggs? I thought that would be too soon.

These two have both exhibited the same behavior. lots of falling. just weird.

I don't have good luck with the eggs myself, so I grab the cats at the first sign of eating. If you want to bring an egg in, just take the leaf, cut around the egg and place it on a fresh leaf. Hatching is about 3 days, keep a fresh leaf at all times. I think this year since I have a lot of MW, I will clip the stem and put the whole thing in wet foam so it hatches semi-natural. Cutting a stem again just before sticking it into the foam keeps it fresher longer.
As for the cats, don't touch them when changing cages if possible. If you must, make sure you wash and dry your hands between each cage. Leave them in the cage and clean arround them, or clip the stem they are feeding on and place it in the foliage of the new clippings. I found the more I disturbed them, the lower my success rate. Not sure what that would have to do with it, other than the stress, energy loss or interrupted a change between instars?
About washing the hands, we are using a lot of bug sprays (Off, etc.) right now and they are sensitive to those of course. Make sure when you have one die, that you clean that cage with diluted bleach water before using it for the next cat, in case it was viral.

I would love to see GOBS of butterflies at once!!! I think the only time I have was once on the island of Monhegan, off the coast of Maine; we were hiking in September, and came upon a lot of asters growing in a clearing amongst the rocks, and the asters were covered with monarchs. What a sight!!!! Cat, I loved your photos of the Snouts and the Sulphurs. I keep putting out the butterfly brew but so far have only seen ants and bees on it!
This morning I found two Frit crysalides out on the deck, and better yet, two of the five cats I put in a crate this week have pupated. The process seems a lot quicker than with my BST's! Last night before I went to bed, the frit cats were moving around the crate, and now this morning two have pupated. The BST's do their roaming and find their spots to hang, and then they hang there for about a day, sometimes more, before they become a crysallis. Seems to take forever!
Elaine, this kitty may be kin of Sammy's!!! Not as beautiful, but he is a nice little guy (when he's not chasing butterflies!). This morning at breakfast, he was stalking the hummingbirds! And yesterday afternoon he was playing with a big green hornworm!
I'm dreading the day I see a butterfly in a spider web! We've been watching in fascination a huge garden spider in the garden, I even throw a bug in to his web now and then just to watch him twirl it around and package it up! Last week he dined for quite a while on a grasshopper. But mercy, if he catches a butterfly, I hope I'm there to extricate it.

I forgot to ask, how long from pupation does it take for the GF to eclose?

Thanks Shelia. I just got back from a friend's house out in the country. He has a ton of land in conservation for pheasants and what-not. I found two monarch cats, but let them be since my track record is 0-2!

Nice Palamedes! You can tell them by the diagonal yellow stripe on the underside of the wing. Plus, their bodies have yellow stripes whereas most of the swallowtails have spotted bodies.

Hmm...what PV is my zebra on? Well, it definitely laid eggs on the p. lutea. I think the one in the picture is p. caerulea. I actually moved that plant where it would have more room, but I think there were still some roots and it has come back. The more the merrier, I say!

When I was in the flight cage this morning I took a picture of a Pipevine ST since we've been discussing identification.

While I was at MOSI this morning I found seven Spicebush eggs and one cat on the camphor tree. I also had a Polydamas making its chrysalis so I took it inside the flight cage and let all the visitors watch. My favorite part was the mom who told her daughter (maybe 3-4 years old) that butterflies have fairy dust on them just like Tinkerbell and if she touches them and rubs it off they won't be able to fly. I told the mom I'd have to use that one in the future. Always good to relate things to stuff kids understand.

I went to the preserve after the museum and went hunting for Zebra Swallowtail cats. I haven't had any in a while and their numbers tend to increase toward the fall. Plus, with the hurricane coming I felt like I needed to "rescue" them. Sure enough, I found about a dozen of them; all but one are in the early instars. I also found two Spicebush eggs! Here's the super big Zebra ST cat I found.

Melanie

Sheila....heh heh...methinks my geography sucks...but maybe they will travel circumnavigate the world and end up there?

Went to the local NABA park today...saw lots of Tropical Leafwings, Mexican Bluewings, Gray Crackers and Malachites. It was a productive day considering several of those are uncommon but on some days they are pretty close to being called yard bugs! :o)

~ Cat

Female Mexican Bluewing

We were admiring the vibrant color on this male Mexican Bluewing and wondering why he looked almost like a longwing...once we zoomed in we realized he's missing most of his hind wings! Guess that's why he looked so blue - there's no black markings on his hindwings to detract from his forewing color.

~ Cat

Cheeky male Bordered Patch after a female Crimson Patch. :o)

~ Cat

Couple of sulphurs on some plant I can never remember the name of!

~ Cat

Here's a lunch line of Leafwings :o) They are feeding on butterfly brew.

~ Cat


ps...Thea - do ya'll get a variety of 'brushfoot' butterflies there?

Out here a variety of Leafwings, Emperors (Tawny, Hackberry, Empress Leilia, Silver, Pavon), Sisters, Crackers, Malachites, Red Rims, Blomfild's Beauty, Common Banner, Common Mestras, Red Admirals, Question Marks, Commas and some other frequent bait. Not sure if it's because we've got 'em trained or spoiled or turned them into alcoholics! :o)

We also get a nice variety that comes to scat like Sailors, Blues, Sicklewings and other skippers. Once in a while if I'm driving around the ranch on the golf cart I'll pour water on scat to re-hydrate it. The butterflies seem to prefer owl scat or whatever it is that owls upchuck. Of course, butterflies like sicklewings and brown-banded skippers go for fresh cow patties! UGH!!!

Which reminds me...last year a group of use were at one of the parks that has paved trails - which always have lots of critter scat on them. Anyway, one of the butterfliers had his young son with him and kids being kids - this one was sucking on a lollipop. A few minutes into the trail a sicklewing landed on the candy. He thought it was the neatest thing - of course, one of the men just had to tell him chances were those butterfly feet were probably knee deep in scat mere minutes ago!

This message was edited Aug 17, 2008 3:22 PM

Oh...and here's the Malachite. Can you tell? ROLF!!! I couldn't resist taking a photo of it watching me.

~ Cat

Heh heh...okay, here's the ventral view. There were three of them flitting around but they just wouldn't open their wings. They were much to busy slurping up the butterfly brew.

~ Cat

So cool, Cat! You always come up with butterflies that look like they just flew out of some tropical jungle way far south! Green with envy...I've only seen GF's flying today. But at least I saw 3 of them at one time. It's been a while I've seen that many at one time. Now, last year there were lots of butterflies...I miss those ZL's, Julias and Common Mestras from last year.

Oh Cat, what a wonderful series!!

I went out looking for some new ones today… but found the same that have visited my garden.

First, i've never seen so much blue on a tiger swallowtail.

There were some flirty Monarchs. And this guy.

The black ones always confuse me. So please tell me who it is.

A sulfur of some sort… seems to me that there was some orange on the wings when it was open, but might have been an optical illusion??

and finally, a REALLY cooperative Giant swallowtail. This is probably the best butterfly picture I have ever taken.

Mrs. Ed...Don't let that stop you, their chances in the wild is only 2%. We aren't perfect, but more than likely it was a predator
Mel....That is some fat cat, is it going for a record? LOL!
Cat.... What is the difference in the Blue Wave and Mex Blue wing? I may have mislead got2bgreen on id of her pic. http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/207/
That face off with the Malachite is too funny; as is the story of the lollipop!

Back at home, cute little moth having a snack on the coleus.