Butterfly ID Please

This morning I found this poor butterfly trapped in the greenhouse. Luckily, I had my camera with me and was able to get some photos. Series of photos to follow.

It appeared it had flown in the gh through the crack I leave open for the hummers, and couldn't figure out how to get out. Another photo of it trying to exit the gh.

Another photo, it can see the outdoors, but can't reach it.

A slightly better photo.

It tried to fly off.

I felt sorry for it's predicament, and coaxed it onto my hand. (Yes, I took the photos with the other hand).

I went to the Butterfly house, and they all ignored me, so you can imagine how thrilling it was to hold one! ^_^

One showing the detail of the red spot better.

I carried it out of the gh, turned around to turn on the water for my plants in the gh. Saw it fluttering by. Then it got hit by the sprinkler!

Which flipped it upside down. Still having the camera in my hand I took these photos. Turned off my camera, using both hands together, I gently picked up the butterfly.
How amazing the difference of marking from the top to the bottom of this butterfly!







edited for spelling.

This message was edited May 7, 2009 1:28 PM

Knowing that the butterfly can't fly when wet, I placed it up high on my potato bush. I turned around to take care of another chore, and within a few minutes it had fluttered off.
I feel very Blessed this day, to hold one of the Creator's most delicate creatures in my hand. I do hope to find out what kind of Butterfly this is, and I'm pretty sure that one of my friends here at DG will know.
Thank you for allowing me to share this experience with you!
Walk In Beauty!
SingingWolf

I believe this is your little beauty http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?foo=0&curGroupID=2&lgfromWhere=&curPageNum=7

Try this link.it is wonderful for anything http://www.enature.com/home/

Thanks synda! I do believe you got it! Truly an amazing experience to hold North America's largest butterfly! ^_^
I really enjoyed reading the links. I'll bookmark them for future reference.
WIB,
SW

Jules!!! How neat that you saved it's life; and got to share in the beauty of the creation! I bet it was on a citrus tree in your GH & formed a chrysalis there. Did you have one in there?
They are one of my favorite butterflies.

Sheila,
Here is the ironic part. I'm allergic to citrus. Only time in my whole life I was ever able to eat it was when I was pregnant with ES. We do have some lemon or is it lime trees out doors, and we just got an orange tree to plant in the orchard. The info says that they can fly for miles so it probably came from a neighbors place. They've been ripping out our beautiful orange groves and planted housing developments instead.
Inside the gh we have the banana, the guava, two pineapples some strawberries, and yup a lantana. Don't know how the b.fly got in there, but I am so cheered by his/her visit. Was happy to help it out. Didn't want to find it in the pool.
Such a beautiful treat, and such a great visitor. I really did feel bad when it got flipped by the sprinkler. But it was too good an opportunity to miss out on, especially since I was actually holding my camera! LOL! No harm once it dried off and then fluttered away. Saw it later on out front in the Bfly/h.bird garden. They seem to like my gh better though.
WIB,
SW

Special shots Jules!! Great find. My GSts were released all winter.. Haven't seen any besides them yet. things should be picking up for all of us in the next few weeks.

:-)

I sure hope so. I did get a picture of a hairstreak today, but didn't download yet.
OT...Deb did you plant false foxglove last year? If so I want to send you a picture to id.

its the latana since that is what they grow at the toronto zoo in the butterfly conservatory

Sheila,
Didn't get them up last year, (only the year before last).

Hey SW ....

Good to "see" you again! I mostly hang out on the MS forum....so haven't seen you since the seed swap.

Came over to the butterfly forum for a visit to get some advice on attracting more BF.... you sure found a gorgeous one there! SO beautiful... what a great day!!
Genna

Nice to hear from you too, Genna.
I've been mostly taking care of Mom, since she had a stroke in January, and broke her ankle. She's doing better now.
I've popped into the Cottage Gardening forum, but most of my time, my breaks from mundania, I spend on the CA forum, or the Macro forum.
I've been entertaining myself with the hummers that live around here. I've been meaning to check out the b.fly forum. I have a lot of reading to do.
There is always something going on here at the farm. There was a while (when it was still spring here) that I went out every day and took photos of the wildflowers. Now with the hot weather and the lack of rain, it's already fire season. Everything is starting to go crunch when you walk on it. Except of course in my yard. LOL! Which is overrun with weeds.
Exposing my ignorance here, what do you mean when you say you mostly hang out at the MS forum?
Best go take care of some chores!
WIB!
SW

Sorry .... MidSouth Forum..... There is a really nice group on the Mid South Forum...and living in Arkansas...their plants, advice, etc are usually on topic. I have had the opportunity to meet several of them in person at Plant Round Ups as well - and that has been a lot of fun. There is so much info on DG - but I don't have enough time to check out nearly all the forums!! So, I just tend to stay on the Mid South....occasionally I visit the seed swap forums, or the coop forums (try to avoid visiting there too often because I always spend money!) or the iris or daylily forum....but probably 99% of my time is spent on midsouth..... Just venturing out a little today while I had a few minutes to see if I could learn more about attracking butterflies!

Genna

^_^

I have five different patio citrus trees I grow especially for them. Persian Lime, one unknown, Key Lime, Meyer Lemon and a Satsuma. Usually I have eggs by now but nothing. I have seen a female fly right over my garden and I am not sure but I think I saw her snub her nose as she flew by. Sometimes they can be really rude! LOL

I did get this pic of one a couple of years ago.

Are you able to leave your citrus trees out all winter? Or do you have a green house?

gen, you read my mind... I was going to ask Peg the same question. :-)

Peg~ I think there are a few reasons why the GST didn't stop and lay eggs.

1) She was looking for a male to mate with first. (Not fertile, yet.)
2) Already laid all her fertile eggs.
3) She was a he... lol

I have several host plants for these guys...
2 Zanthoxolyms Hersuitim and Clava
1 Hop Tree
Rue
1 Meyer Lemon
1 Lemon from seed (Kirby and I planted about 2 1/2 years ago
1 Mexican Lime

Probably something else I forgot, lol.

They still fly over my house sometimes... So I have given a lot of thought as to why they wouldn't stop.

Debnes

Well, I don't have any host plants for them - but I would sure love to attract some of them!

Genna

The most superior way to attract any butterfly is to have their host plants. As many in the ground as possible. The males know that they can eventually find a female where their larval plants are, and fertile females will be laying their eggs on the plants. Once their scent is around your yard, you get regular visits from any that come near enough to smell with their antennae. Their sense of smell is extremely powerful to smell each other and their host plant from a mile or more away. Of course they find good nectar plants that way too.

Do you have plants that stay out all year for them? Not sure if any of those will survive in 7b...?? Need to do some research on it ...............

Yes,
Zanthoxolym spp. (Hercules Club), Poncerius trifoliata (Flying Dragon) & Patella trifoliata (Hop Tree) are all hardy. The last one is a host for Tiger Sts too.

Peg... I haven't had any eggs this year either. I don't know if they are slow making their way here or some of Deb's reasons apply. I have a couple of citrus trees now and one I will keep potted this year and take in the other I left out last year and it did fine. But then our winter wasn't real bad as in some years.

No GSt here either, yet.

The winter was so warm they were coming out too soon, and one by one. I had at least a half dozen chrysalids overwintering. All came out before Spring even got here. I wonder if they did the same out in the wild.

Thanks for the lovely series, SingingWolf.

Sorry this is so late, forgot to ck. back at my post. About the citrus trees being over wintered...I have a large 10 X10' pop up greenhouse I use to put them in for the winter. Around Feb. they start to bloom and continue till the nights get too warm, which is right about now. I bet you could get away without a greenhouse though, you would just take them in when there is a chance of frost. I used to do that but I just got tired of worrying about them. The Satsuma orange can be grown in the ground here but its iffy with our weather. I would only put them on the south side of the house. I have one that I got in a trade in the fall of last year and I swear it still has not even put on a new leaf. Everything else I have is doing great. If you grow them you need to know that they attract white fly, I have to spray them if they get bad with hort. oil. The oil is not supposed to hurt the cats, it works by the oil clogging the breathing of the sucking insectsb basically smothering them.
Debnes and anybody else that has citrus can weigh in on my comment.

Debnes, is the hops hard to grow? I have given that some thought for awhile now. Thanks for making feel better that the GST just didn't like the menu in my yard. LOL You know every year I add more and more native hosts plants and it seems I am getting less action. I did get this pic of a skipper this week.

Hope you all are well.
Peg

I live the the citrus growing belt. Many of my neighbors have their own fruit trees. Probably was blown in by the strong winds that we'd been having.
Thanks for getting back to me, and letting me know about the white fly. I'll let DH know, 'cause of my allergies to chemicals, etc.
Thank you so much.
WIB,
SW

Peg~ The Hop is a great plant. Mine is trimmed up the trunk making it a nice tree shape, and after a couple years in the ground, in a sunny spot, it is coming into it's glory. They are worth the space and pretty easy to keep. I have found that you have to collect the seeds when they are green because they all start falling off when they are still green. If you want I can mail you some seeds.
Great shot of the Fiery Skipper!

Jules~ CA is certainly a fruit belt. I'd love all the fresh pickings!

Talk about you being late! I totally lost this thread!
Nothing new to report, except an ironic note, the date the photo was taken was on my youngest brothers Birthday. I should have sent him a photo of the b.fly.
This year we've been hit hard by the drought, and I haven't seen very many butterflies at all. I did see a few, but they move too fast. I am wondering if the birds are picking them off.
I did find this weird looking moth in the greenhouse. DH thinks it's a hummingbird moth, but I don't know, I think it's a sphinx moth. I took it out of the gh and let it go.
What do you think?
Any b.flys in your part of the world?
WIB,
SW

That is a sphinx for sure SW.

Peg... Be cautious with the hort. oil. I was intrested and read on the web about it. One statement said it "discourages feeding and egg laying". Then this statement was on another label.
"Horticultural oils are most effective against many soft bodied pests including aphids, adelgids, spider mites, scale insects, greenhouse whiteflies, mealybugs, psyllids, plant bugs, lace bugs and some caterpillars. Recent research shows promise for horticultural oil's future role as a fungicide against powdery mildew on lilac, rose, horse chestnut and other plant species."
I have seen more action on my Rue than on the citrus trees this year. I had 22 GST at one time in the nursery. However I ran out of Rue and had to release some of them on what was left before I completely killed my plant. Hopefully they will get the message and pupate soon.

Thanks for that info, Sheila. I'm glad to know I finally got one right! Yippee!
Also great info on the hort oil. We didn't have any white flies. Thank Goodness!
My lantana is spreading and I planted a lot of other Bfly food, don't understand why I don't get any visitors lately. Am blaming the drought. Although the birds might be a factor too! LOL!
Always good to hear from you. : - )
WIB,
SW

Something strange and wonderful happened. This fellow came to visit and I can't help thinking that it was more than a coincidence.
Am sending the link with the full story.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1037349/
I hope that your hearts are touched as was mine.
Walk In Beauty!
SingingWolf