New to Dave's Garden

Hi y'all!
I'm Sherry, and I just signed up as a registered member of Dave's Garden.
I'm a huge butterfly/caterpillar enthusiast! I live on 5 1/2 acres of mostly wooded property in southeast Mississippi, in the country halfway between Hattiesburg and Gulfport. There are lots of natural host (and nectar) plants in my woods, plus many I've added, especially in my garden.
Right now I'm raising palamedes and spicebush swallowtails, one American lady, and sweetbay silkmoths - I've got lots of red admiral, American lady, sleepy orange and red-spotted purple chrysalids yet to emerge, plus two zebra swallowtail chrysalids and one luna moth cocoon. I've recently released nine giant swallowtails, sixteen American ladies, one red admiral and one palamedes swallowtail. One (or more) of my recent giant swallowtail releases has been laying eggs on my orange tree and rue bushes, so I'll undoubtedly be bringing at least some of them in to raise myself. By "in" I mean my front porch, which is full of reptarian/caterpillar cages.
This is the first year I'm without pipevine swallowtails, and I sure do miss them!
I love to talk butterflies, caterpillars, and hummingbirds. I've got four hummer feeders going now, and I'll probably increase that number soon, because so many are draining the feeders so quickly. I'm seeing many juvenile looking ruby-throats, some with a spot or two of red on their throats. Birds of all types are plentiful here as well.
I hope to get to know all of you!
Sherry

Hi Sherry!!

I am usually on the Birdwatching Forum but in the summer I pop in over here once I start to get BF pics. There are some really great folks on here! And they love to talk cats & BF's...and other critter too!

Where you live sounds wonderful!

Will be seeing you around!

Welcome Sherry! You're in the right place to show and tell butterflies and moths :o)

~ Cat

Sherry, you sound like someone I remember from another butterfly forum! Welcome to Dave's Garden!

Good to hear from you again, Linda and Cat!
Thanks Nanny!
Sherry

Sherry, sounds like your busy with your BF"s , WELCOME TO THE FORUM.

Ah, so it is the same MissSherry from the other butterfly garden web site!? Gosh, I haven't been to that site in ages.

Are you still a moderator on N54's butterfly forum too? I've been trying to frequent that butterfly site to keep up with the butterfly world.

~ Cat

Welcome to the forum Sherry! Hope to see some interesting photos from your endevors and share ideas with you. This is a friendly bunch on the forum and all of Dave's for that matter.
Sheila_FW

Cat, I'm still a moderator on that forum, but I don't visit often, because there's so little traffic on it. I could die of loneliness there - the people that do post are very nice, but seldom heard from.
Another giant swallowtail and American lady have emerged this morning. The giants are flying around everywhere - they're so big, you can't miss them!
Sherry

Oh, Sherry, I'm thrilled to see you posting over here! Your (excellent) reputation precedes you!

I follow your posts on GWI and know you are truly an expert ffull of good tips .

(my name on Garden Web is 'fairfieldcircle', but I don't post there too often. GW does have quite a lively BF forum though!)

t.

It's usually so sunny in Texas that sometimes when I'm outside, I watch for "butterfly shadows" as they fly around and then try to spot what made the shadow. With the larger butterflies (GST is one) sometimes I'm not sure if it's a bird or butterfly until I spot what caused the shadow.

Hehehe!
I watch for butterfly shadows, too, Linda - 'thought I was the only one.
I remember you from the other forum, Tabasco - I guess I'm so into butterflies I have to post on three forums! :)
I noticed that Dave's has a forum for posting pictures of bugs, including butterflies and moths. I scanned through it quickly, but did notice that nobody had posted any pictures of sweetbay silkmoths/Callosamia securifera. They have pictures of C. promethea and C. angulifera. I'm raising some now, and I've got some good pictures of the early and mid-instar cats, plus a few fairly good ones of their orange Mom. I'll go through that site again and post them.
When I got home from the grocery store, I found that a red admiral had emerged, too - they're one of my faves for sure!
Sherry

Yes, please do post any BF or Moth pics on the bug files. It's a relatively new enterprise and can use good photos and info.

Beautiful photo!

So glad you are into the butterflies and moths, we really need more on the bugfiles. Look forward to seeing more of your pictures, the SB is great. Someone posted pictures of one recently, DonnaB maybe??? She needs to post her pic to the BugFiles too.

Found it.... It was Donna, girl you need to put it in the data base!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=6402172

This message was edited May 27, 2009 9:47 PM

Welcome Sherry! :-)

Thanks, sunnyg!
I received my order from Shady Oaks Butterfly Farm this afternoon. I got 12 gulf frit eggs and 3 rice button asters/Symphyotrichum dumosum (used to be Aster dumosus) to plant in my garden. I've been planting various types of asters, hoping to get pearl crescent cats - even if I don't get cats on them, they're nice nectar plants in the fall.
I normally start seeing gulf frits and getting eggs in early June, but I thought I'd bump up my gulf frit season a little - I've got miles of passionvines! I might not get gulf frits naturally on time this year - by now, I should have already had variegated frit eggs/cats, but I haven't even seen the first adult.
Has anybody seen any variegated frits lately? Gotten any eggs/cats?
Sherry

I saw some butterflies a while back, but didn't see any eggs or cats. I checked a few Rock Flax today, but nothing!

Well, I've seen a frit here, but I couldn't identify it. I don't know where it came from since there wasn't much green growth around and it was so early for it here.

We don't get gulf frits here, well, I think there may be one reported once in a while.

My passion vine died during the winter and I'm trying to fine a big one to replace it at the garden centers. It seems it's not such a fashionable product this year since there aren't many in stock.

Isn't Shady Oaks the greatest!!! I've ordered various plants from them over the years and have always been so pleased with the quality and size :o)

Sherry...what are you planning on raising the Variegate Frits on? Out here they use only Nodding Green Violet. The fields are full of flax but they go for the rare violet instead. Go figure!!! Haven't seen any lately - they usually show up around September.

I've seen some Gulf Frits around but haven't seen any eggs on the passion vines. Am sure come the fall season all the passion vines will be eaten to the bare stems...as usual!!!

~ Cat

Cat, variegated frits prefer passionvines here, which they lay their eggs on until the gulf frits show up and take over the vines. At that point, they use common violets, with the purple flowers and heart-shaped leaves. I always leave a few big clumps of violets in my garden - they look pretty - and they usually use them, I guess because the fertilizer and extra water spill over from the plants around them, and they get extra big there. They don't use flax here, like they do in Texas.
I love Shady Oaks! The plants are so big for the money, and they keep adding new varieties of nectar and host plants, keeping it interesting.
My sweetbay moth cats are getting really big, but they keep eating and eating! I guess they'll cocoon pretty soon. I've posted a picture of one of them.
I released a red-spotted purple, a red admiral, and a sleepy orange today, another good butterfly day! The spicebush swallowtail cats are eating and growing, and yet another one has pupated, so I'll be releasing a good many of them in the near future.
I had this palamedes swallowtail cat that I named "Still Eating" because I said those words so many times when I'd check it out in its cage - I thought it'd never quit! It was the fattest, biggest cat I've seen in a while, with the fattest head ever. Well, it finally quit eating, and it's pupated - it's gotta make an extra big butterfly!
Sherry

WOW! That's a big 'un!!! Glad to know what a palamedes cat looks like - even if it does resemble a white bus :o)

Funny about those Variegated Frits - they don't use passion vines at the ranch. I've got some of those violets with the heart shaped leaves growing in my yard too - am hoping the VFs will make use of them since I haven't transplanted any Nodding Green Violet here. Will try to remember to look for eggs in the fall season. D-mail a reminder to me around early September if you remember and still want eggs :o)

~ Cat

That cat looks really cool! I think the GSTs around here have a disease going around. Twice I found a single egg and both times it died in its 1st instar, the last one didn't even get out of the egg. I did raise two GSTs that I found in town and they were fine, pupated and emerged.

This message was edited May 30, 2009 8:02 PM

Cat, the caterpillar in the picture is a sweetbay silkmoth cat - palamedes cats look a lot like spicebush cats, green (in the last instars) with "eyes."
Thanks much for the variegated frit eggs offer - if you get plenty of them in September, I'd sure like a few. I don't understand why I don't already have some. I guess it was Hurricane Katrina - nothing has been the same here since then. SO much damage was done to the woods and other plants!
That's bad about what's happening to your giant cats, Linda! I've been lucky here, in that if I get the hatchlings right off the host plant and bring them in, they all thrive - they're very easy to raise. The only problem here for giant swallowtail cats is predators - all the predators just love to eat them!
Sherry

Whew Sherry...I was wondering about that - thinking that sure looks like a moth cat and not the Palamedes cats I saw in Georgia - but thought maybe what I'd seen was some other species :o) Kept wondering where those tubercles came from :o) See what happens when we don't get those species down here - I can't recognize them!

~ Cat

The tubercles look like special map pins!

Welcome Miss Sherry! I remember you helping me on that other forum, when I first got interested in planting host plants. I got fed up with all the adds and don't go on there anymore. I would like to say thanks for all your wonderful knowledge, DG is lucky to have you here! : )

Thanks, Meredith!
Sherry