Image
Apr 30, 2015 4:40 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
I'm back from Selby and I'm so excited I'm starting a new thread for the month! I'm only a few hours early.

I had a great time, but the best part was that I SAW A NEW BUTTERFLY!!! Now, I had an idea that I might see this one when I was driving to the garden, but I got distracted by all the plants once I got there and kind of forgot. Plus, I didn't see this one until after lunch so I'd already been there like three hours. So what did I see? A Mangrove Skipper! Now, as you might have guessed from the name, the caterpillars eat Red Mangrove as their host plant. So you only see these guys near the coast. And since Selby sits right on the water and has mangroves, I got to see this guy! There were actually two of them on the pentas and I took so many pictures. I guessed I must have taken 50 but I just checked and I took 55! I won't post them all, I promise. Rolling on the floor laughing So I'm starting the month of May with a butterfly new to me, and hopefully things will kick off soon for most of the country and you guys may see a butterfly new to you this year! Hurray! So without further ado, the Mangrove Skipper!

Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/0c50f1 Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/f96fbb Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/9244a6

Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/06e71f Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/1e4978 Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/935469

Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/c77851

Awesome, right? It has blue iridescence, but not as bright as the Pipevine Swallowtail. They're also a much larger skipper than I imagined. And they let me get really close to them!

Now, for the other boring stuff I saw. Rolling on the floor laughing There were tons of Monarchs flying around today. It was really windy today and Selby is right on Sarasota Bay so the wind off the water was pretty strong. Felt kind of bad for the butterflies.

Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/b9ac68

I only found one tiny Monarch cat despite all the adults flying around.

Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/c78ee9

This Zebra Longwing was on some kind of wild coffee plant.

Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/75d8d1

Found a nest on a Red Bay tree but it was empty. Spicebush ST cats build nests and fold the leaves over. That's what you look for when you want to find caterpillars. Sometimes you get a caterpillar surprise, sometimes you don't.

Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/9c963c

I tried stalking this White Peacock but I think they frown on you walking on the plants.

Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/cefbed Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/a0c4fe

Their pipevine had plenty of Polydamas cats!

Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/179049 Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/d6b4f2

And there were a couple of Polydamas flying around including one who stopped to lay eggs. Check it out - does she look like she flew through a pollen storm or what?

Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/b87822

Monk Skipper with bee friend on porterweed. The non-native porterweed, I'll point out.

Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/96b8de

They have Duskywings, too!

Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/56448f

This male Spicebush ST was a little beat up but he's still going strong. As you can see, he's on the same red pentas as the Mangrove Skipper. The red pentas were really popular.

Thumb of 2015-04-30/mellielong/1ffc58

Other species I saw but couldn't get pictures of include Giant Swallowtail, Great Southern White, and lots of Orange-Barred Sulphurs.

Also, I know I said I wasn't allowed to buy plants, but you guys knew I was lying, right? Rolling on the floor laughing I totally bought two bromeliads. But two isn't that bad! And they were really pretty and I didn't own them yet. So I had to fix that. I'm going to post a whole thread about Selby and I'll let you guys know when it's ready. I took 868 pictures today! Thank goodness I packed that spare camera battery because I totally needed it. I wonder if they make Melanie batteries. I feel like I need to recharge! But I had tons of fun and I feel much better. Happy butterflying, everyone!
Image
Apr 30, 2015 6:19 PM CST
Name: Ann ~Heat zn 9, Sunset
North Fl. (Zone 8b)
Garden Sages Region: Ukraine Native Plants and Wildflowers Xeriscape Organic Gardener I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
Garden Ideas: Master Level Butterflies Charter ATP Member Plant Identifier Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Dog Lover
Thanks for the new thread Melanie! Those Mangrove skippers are pretty cool and I see they tend to have their wings spread unlike so many other skippers. And yes, wow, that polydamas is just covered in pollen!
I am a strong believer in the simple fact is that what matters in this life is how we treat others. I think that's what living is all about. Not what I've done in my life but how I've treated others. ~~ Sharon Brown
Image
Apr 30, 2015 8:24 PM CST
Name: Meredith
Atlanta (Zone 8a)
Butterflies Region: Georgia Hummingbirder Seed Starter
Love the mangrove skipper! And isn't it fun to see a new species? I heard there's spot in the greater Atlanta area where they've seen Baltimore checkerboard. I got all excited must investigate further
I love butterfly gardening & am active in NABA. Please visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/group... & website nabageorgia.weebly.com.
Image
Apr 30, 2015 8:28 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
I know butterflying isn't yet as popular as birding, but I know those bird people go nuts when we get reports of rare birds. Since Florida is a flyover zone, we sometimes get weird visitors - animals and people! Rolling on the floor laughing I'm friends with the Great Florida Birding Trail on Facebook and they post "Rare Bird Alerts" when someone spots something cool. And then everyone runs out to go see it, too. I think that's kind of fun. It's always neat to see something unexpected. Also, seeing it in a book just isn't the same as seeing it in the wild. Even as much as I love butterfly exhibits, I still think it's so much cooler to see them in their natural habitat.
Image
Apr 30, 2015 10:50 PM CST
Name: Margaret
Near Kamloops, BC, Canada (Zone 3a)
Region: Canadian Lover of wildlife (Black bear badge) Tip Photographer Garden Ideas: Master Level I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Charter ATP Member
Morning Glories Critters Allowed Birds Houseplants Butterflies Garden Photography
Melanie, glad you had such a great day, that Mangrove Skipper is beautiful, I love Skippers. Thumbs up
Image
May 1, 2015 2:23 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
Today it was back to feeding the critters but it's so nice out I don't mind. This is probably our last dose of spring-like weather and all the places I like on Facebook are posting the weather forecast and telling everyone to get outside this weekend before we all have to retreat back into our air-conditioned sanctuaries. I used to have Northerners ask what Floridians do during the summer and I was like, "What do you do in the winter?" You stay inside where you can control the weather! Well, we also have the option of going to the beach or the pool so maybe we win that one. Rolling on the floor laughing

The butterflies agreed that it was a nice day, too. I've got mad amounts of Gulf Frits outside. I think I forgot to mention I saw one of them at Selby yesterday. They're just so expected, I take them for granted. Today they were alternating basking on stuff and flying in crazy circles around each other. One of them looked like it might challenge the Zebra Longwing for rights to the passion vine, but the Zebra won that battle.

Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/718056 Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/46b727 Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/3e3f58

I was picking Cudweed for the American Ladies and a Spicebush was nectaring on the Tassel Flower again. But this one looked like a female. I told her she better have laid me some eggs. And FYI, yes, I really do talk out loud to plants and butterflies. I have no shame left. I was even doing it at Selby.

Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/ebdcc6 Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/ea344d

But there was no need to yell because I found three Spicebush eggs! Woo hoo! They tend to lay on the underside of the leaves so look underneath, folks.

Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/2dc933

There were two Zebra Longwings in the butterfly garden. I think one was male because he made it pretty clear he was just there for the Jatropha. But the other one was obviously female because she kept laying eggs on my tiny P. lutea!

Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/ed4a66

I have a slightly larger P. lutea growing up the obelisk but it has a caterpillar on it and some eggs so I thought that would stop her, but no! She got that one, too! And to give you a perspective, that obelisk is about four feet tall. You know how fast just one caterpillar could eat that plant?

Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/3d26a2 Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/8362dd

Here's the Zebra Longwing cat that apparently is not a deterrent.

Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/0020eb

So I'm still pulling Tropical Milkweed seedlings out of the butterfly garden and the lawn. The tallest was about three inches high but I still found a little cat on it. Good thing I did or he would have starved to death. I moved him to the Giant Milkweed where he now has a huge friend to munch along with.

Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/f7a245 Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/7f5626

I couldn't manage to get a pic of the Monk Skipper that I liked so here's one just to prove it was there.

Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/8014d6

I had to go inside to drop off my plants, and then make a second trip out to get Senna for the Orange-Barred Sulphurs. Since I knew eggs had been laid recently, I looked for caterpillars. And where do we look folks? Buds.

Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/aa543a

Then, Mama Orange-Barred comes flying by. I was trying to get a halfway decent photo when she popped right in front of me and I hit the button as fast as I could. This is a dumb luck photo, folks.

Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/dd76d4

So I was picking food to bring in, trying to avoid anything with eggs on it which is harder than it sounds. I pulled some older leaves but I could see where they had been eaten. And they must have been eaten by a fairly large caterpillar judging from the amount eaten. I said, "I feel like there's a big one in here that I'm missing." And no sooner than the words were out of my mouth than I looked up and found him!

Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/d58c02

I came back inside and was sorting everyone and found a bonus Sulphur on the leaves! Bonus caterpillars are the best. It's like, I'm not even trying and I can still find them! Rolling on the floor laughing

Thumb of 2015-05-01/mellielong/8b6a9a

I checked my Palamades today and boy has he gotten big. But I cold barely manage to open the lid on the container because he must have stinkhorned. I didn't see it, but I sure did smell it and they're as bad as their Spicebush cousins. You would think caterpillars that ate a plant that smells so good wouldn't smell as awful as they do. I wonder if they can smell it and does it bother them?
Image
May 1, 2015 5:37 PM CST
Name: Philip
Ireland,.The Midlands. (Zone 8a)
Amaryllis Roses Lilies Hostas Dog Lover Dahlias
Cottage Gardener Clematis Cat Lover Garden Photography Cactus and Succulents Seed Starter
During April and May we see the first of the Orange Tip Butterfly here and the day before yesterday i spotted one,..i was mad with myself as i had no camera with me not even my camera phone,..today in the same location i again spotted one this time i had my camera phone but had to creep up as there is no zoom,..below is the best i could produce.

Orange Tip,'Anthocharis cardamines'.

Thumb of 2015-05-01/glengarry23/357ddb
Image
May 1, 2015 8:47 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
Ooh, pretty! I wonder if one of its host plants are in the area you spotted it, Philip. I see that it's in the White family and eats crucifers. I prefer Brussels Sprouts, myself. Even as a kid. Hilarious! I always say butterflies will stay if you have their host plants. People think you can just plant a bunch of flowers and that's it, but building a good butterfly garden requires host plants! It's one reason I'm being bombarded by Gulf Fritillaries right now! Not that I'm complaining, but man, there's a lot of them.

I have a male Orange-Barred Sulphur butterfly that decided to come out while I was napping. I guess I better throw a towel over the container so he stays calm until tomorrow morning when I let him out. I admit, I've been bad mouthing the Sulphurs for not posing for pictures so I suppose I have to apologize since that female was very cooperative today. Well, not so much cooperative as at least giving me about a half second to take a shot. And it just happened to turn out pretty well, if I do say so myself.
Image
May 2, 2015 8:44 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
Well, I said I was going to get out of the house and I did. I wasn't sure I would. I didn't get much sleep last night and I know I'm going to hit the wall soon, but it hasn't happened yet. Believe it or not, Melanie went to the Daylily show. Yes, those people I always poke fun at. It wasn't a big show but I took over 400 pictures! That includes plant tags, though. Then, since it was still early, I went to USF Botanical Gardens. I totally should have remembered that graduation was going on today since one my high school friends posted a picture of herself in her gown on Facebook this morning, but I forgot. Luckily, the gardens are on the edge of campus so I only had to navigate one intersection. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to understand what the red, octagonal sign meant.

But I started the morning by releasing a male Orange-Barred Sulphur. The one that came out last night. He stuck around for a few seconds, probably because it was in the 60's this morning. It felt soooo good.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/8f578d

No butterflies at the Daylily show since it was inside, but there were plenty at USF. The only ones I couldn't get pictures of were the Buckeye, the Pipevine Swallowtail, and the White Peacock. I began my quest near the plant shop where a big pipevine grows. I looked for caterpillars and found some Polydamas Swallowtail cats. Then, I found a big one. There's always a big one. Rolling my eyes.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/72bd4b Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/6353e6

There were a lot of Zebra Longwings around which was nice to see. Here's one on porterweed.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/e8864b

This plant didn't have a tag so I'm going to post it over on the ID forum. Because this Giant ST was all over it. Therefore, I must know what it is.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/8e25f4

A Gulf Frit was chilling nearby.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/774742

You can't go wrong with the red sage. This is a Spicebush all up in it.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/945e2a

The Gulf Frit was all up in it, too.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/762754 Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/c08284

The wind was blowing this Cassius Blue around.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/fc5743

This Phaeon Crescent was basking.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/d28402

I could only get a side view on this Eastern Black Swallowtail. I tried sneaking up on it and it flew away. I think my stealth mode function is out of order.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/b53ace

This Monarch was trying to lay and egg but this annoying woman kept bothering her. Hilarious!

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/0d46dc

A Polydamas held still! Shock!

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/b264ab

I saw a Monarch that I thought was basking but he was actually trying to get a little "some-some". I think I accidentally broke up the party. Or maybe the female wanted rescued? All I know is when I got closer, they broke apart and one of them flew around and hit me in the back. It was super weird.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/1d23cc Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/ce41cd Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/892c64

But this Monarch male was only interested in the geraniums.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/580a72

There were all these Willows near the retention pond so I went hunting for Viceroys. I only found this egg, but that's more than I've seen so far this year.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/4d3102

I saw a Checkered White! Haven't seen many this year.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/298fbf

Female Orange-Barred Sulphur on the non-native coral porterweed.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/c529ca Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/4919b0

Couldn't get a good photo of the Tropical Checkered Skipper so here's a bad one.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/61e573

I think it's funny when butterflies hang upside down. Zebra Longwing on Spanish Needles.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/05ca48

Another Checkered White. And it's on Virginia Pepper Grass which is their host plant. You can see more of it in the bottom right corner.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/70d585

Back home, I drank copious amounts of fluids and then fed the cats. I checked the Spicebush again and found three more eggs including this rare double egging!

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/9587f3

Two of my three Spicebush cats molted today and turned green. They're more of an army green than bright green when they first molt to the green stage. I'm not sure why he's stinkhorning me, but he still didn't smell as bad as the Palamedes.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/37d339

And in case you didn't know or just haven't seen it in a while, the Spicebush inspired a Pokemon character. He evolves from Caterpie to Metapod to Butterfree. I LOVE that they kept the osmeterium.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/26f178 Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/7f4258
Image
May 3, 2015 8:50 AM CST
Name: Kyla Houbolt
Gastonia, NC (Zone 7b)
Composter Plant Identifier Organic Gardener Herbs Daylilies Sempervivums
Frogs and Toads Container Gardener Cat Lover Plant Lover: Loves 'em all! The WITWIT Badge Winter Sowing
I zoomed through the beauty in this thread in order to ask for help identifying this guy:

Thumb of 2015-05-03/kylaluaz/ce8058

I just saw another, too, on a similarly inedible surface: the plastic chair back!

I tried putting the first guy on various leaves to see if I could find a match, but, nope, not eating that stuff!

I'd love to be able to connect him with a foodsource if I can.....
Image
May 3, 2015 1:14 PM CST
Name: Dave
Dayton, TN (Zone 7a)
Blessed beyond all merit.
Houseplants Lilies Birds Native Plants and Wildflowers Dog Lover Container Gardener
Butterflies Hummingbirder Tropicals Cottage Gardener Foliage Fan Aroids
Not sure what this is. Too big for Eastern Comma. Color pattern a bit wrong for the Question Mark and from the profile shot I didn't see , or ?. Exhibits the same behavior as the two aforementioned. What do you guys think?
Thumb of 2015-05-03/TennesseeDave/922023
Thumb of 2015-05-03/TennesseeDave/3c0970
Thumb of 2015-05-03/TennesseeDave/3067f6
Thumb of 2015-05-03/TennesseeDave/f64b52
Thumb of 2015-05-03/TennesseeDave/53f394
Image
May 3, 2015 1:27 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
Dave, looks like a Red Admiral to me. I'll be back when I'm done sneezing my soul out through my nose.
Image
May 3, 2015 1:48 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
Kyla, if they've wandered off of plants, they may be in their wandering phase and looking for a good place to make a chrysalis. So they would be done eating, anyway. I don't recognize that as one of the butterfly cats, but maybe someone up your way can help out.

I'm going through tissues and Zyrtec at an alarming pace, but I still had to go fetch food for the critters. Outside, that Monk Skipper is still hanging around.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/fd87fe Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/4d05e2

Duskywings on the Spanish Needles. What else is new?

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/2ea25f

Went looking for my Zebra Longwing cat on the P. lutea and found out it had a Gulf Frit friend. The Frit got moved because, as I showed you guys, that plant isn't big enough for the both of them! Zebra is the white cat, Frit is the orange.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/767e7b Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/fd031e

Had to pick some Spicebush and found another egg! What's even cooler is that I found an egg on the Sassafras, too!

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/441b12

So many Gulf Frits.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/329775

Zebra Longwings definitely have a preference for the native passifloras. They totally ignore my cultivar, 'Lavender Lady', but I can't keep them away from the P. lutea and P. suberosa. This one was checking out both but I got her picture on the latter. She's blurry because she was still flying when I took the shot.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/fd6676

I saw some interesting butterflies on the edge of my neighbor's property but didn't want to wander over there for reasons we've previously talked about. What drew me over was I saw some kind of Sulphur. It was too big to be a Barred Sulphur and way too small to be an Orange-Barred. Normally, I would say it was a Sleepy Orange but it's way too early in the year for them. But this has been a weird year so what do I know? Anyway, I did manage to catch this Spicebush resting on the ground.

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/828b8a

My Monarchs are not doing so well out on the Giant Milkweed. I found a dead caterpillar, and then I saw this bug (which the nice folks on the Insect ID forum told me what it was a while ago but I can't remember) sucking the life out of a chrysalis. I stepped on both to put them out of their misery. Thumbs down

Thumb of 2015-05-03/mellielong/f41b9a
Image
May 3, 2015 6:53 PM CST
Name: Kyla Houbolt
Gastonia, NC (Zone 7b)
Composter Plant Identifier Organic Gardener Herbs Daylilies Sempervivums
Frogs and Toads Container Gardener Cat Lover Plant Lover: Loves 'em all! The WITWIT Badge Winter Sowing
Thanks for the reply, Melanie, I knew it was a long shot.
Image
May 3, 2015 8:03 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
You can always submit photos to BAMONA at www.butterfliesandmoths.org They're very good; if they can't identify it, I don't know who can! Your caterpillar reminds me of the Forest Tent Moth cats we've recently had although the colors are a bit different. I've heard they can vary or it might just be something in the same family.
Image
May 4, 2015 3:32 AM CST
Name: Kyla Houbolt
Gastonia, NC (Zone 7b)
Composter Plant Identifier Organic Gardener Herbs Daylilies Sempervivums
Frogs and Toads Container Gardener Cat Lover Plant Lover: Loves 'em all! The WITWIT Badge Winter Sowing
Thanks, I'll bookmark that. Turned out this was a tent caterpillar! http://www.fcps.edu/islandcree...
Image
May 4, 2015 12:32 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
Well, I'm glad you found out what he was. Tent caterpillars aren't the most popular caterpillars but they certainly are populous!
Image
May 4, 2015 1:34 PM CST
Name: Kyla Houbolt
Gastonia, NC (Zone 7b)
Composter Plant Identifier Organic Gardener Herbs Daylilies Sempervivums
Frogs and Toads Container Gardener Cat Lover Plant Lover: Loves 'em all! The WITWIT Badge Winter Sowing
I had read about them somewhere last year, that they do actually make a positive contribution -- pooping out all the leaf material they eat, turns it into excellent fertilizer! -- and only rarely become so numerous as to denude and kill trees (which is what everyone freaks out about a course.)

I thought the "snout moth" was kind of cute! Lovey dubby
Image
May 8, 2015 3:21 AM CST
Thread OP
Name: Melanie
Lutz, Florida (Zone 9b)
Butterflies Enjoys or suffers hot summers Hummingbirder Birds Bee Lover Bookworm
Region: Florida Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Bromeliad Native Plants and Wildflowers Plant Identifier Salvias
I'm awake and I'm trying to decide if I should go back to sleep or just give in, go to Starbucks and do something useful today. I do need to get my allergy shot...

I've been asleep a lot lately; it's also time for my B12 shot. Yes, lots of needles in my life. Lots of caterpillars, too. The Spicebush keep visiting me and I'm not complaining. I was going to tell you all I have the three green caterpillars, and eighteen eggs. But one just hatched so now I have four cats and seventeen eggs. I think I'm going to take some to MOSI. My boss is feeling pretty down. You see, the guy that owns the Tampa Bay Lightning (the hockey team in the playoffs!) has been trying to revitalize downtown for a while. This is all well and good, I suppose, except two weeks ago he starts talking about moving MOSI downtown. And then in yesterday's paper it comes out that the Hillsborough County Commissioners (the county owns part of MOSI) want to use the land it sits on to possibly build a football stadium for USF (they currently play at the Buccaneers stadium). Now, you may wonder how one would move a butterfly garden, historic tree grove, back woods area, IMAX dome, zip lines and rope courses downtown. And the truth is, I have no idea. There's also the whole problem that people in Tampa don't actually go downtown unless they work there (like I used to) or have to go to court. So my boss is really bummed out and likely fearing the future of her job.

Maybe some Spicebush cats would cheer her up? Here's some eggs I found on Spicebush and Sassafras. So far only two eggs on Sassafras and the rest on Spicebush, if you're keeping count.

Thumb of 2015-05-08/mellielong/d3952b

My Zebra Longwing molted.

Thumb of 2015-05-08/mellielong/3b3740

It also has a smaller friend.

Thumb of 2015-05-08/mellielong/6c0104 Thumb of 2015-05-08/mellielong/ad827b

My Palamedes got big, turned yellow (bad lighting in the picture) and made his chrysalis last night. Some idiot (me) dropped the container he was in and it pulled the silk away from the side. I tried taping him but he came loose when he made his chrysalis. I'm waiting for him to harden up and then I'm going to go in there and see what I can do. I've got an American Lady that didn't silk enough and is laying on the bottom of the container. I put lots of sticks in there for them to grab on to. That always helps. Okay, here's Palamedes.

Thumb of 2015-05-08/mellielong/aedeb4 Thumb of 2015-05-08/mellielong/15c8f4

I'm still releasing lots of Orange-Barreds but most of them fly away before I get a picture. Thumbs down But this one cooperated and check it out - it's flexing its proboscis. Not only do butterflies have to harden their wings, but they have to fuse their proboscis. It's actually two tubes that fit together - I've heard people say it's like a zipper or velcro. So when a butterfly emerges they sit there and furl and unfurl their proboscis until it fuses. I always think it looks cool.

Thumb of 2015-05-08/mellielong/bc6f8e Thumb of 2015-05-08/mellielong/a754de

My firebush is finally blooming so the Zebra Longwings are happy.

Thumb of 2015-05-08/mellielong/119385

I've got more Frits than I can shake a stick at. Although, the only stick I would shake at them would be the one attached to my butterfly net. And even then, it's more of a swooping motion. Hilarious!

Thumb of 2015-05-08/mellielong/0e2d61

And I keep finding Orange-Barred Sulphur cats which is no surprise given the ones I keep releasing. Not complaining; I've got enough Senna for everyone.

Thumb of 2015-05-08/mellielong/f7176a
Image
May 8, 2015 8:53 PM CST
Name: Ann ~Heat zn 9, Sunset
North Fl. (Zone 8b)
Garden Sages Region: Ukraine Native Plants and Wildflowers Xeriscape Organic Gardener I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
Garden Ideas: Master Level Butterflies Charter ATP Member Plant Identifier Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Dog Lover
That is too cool about their proboscis! I never knew that. You learn something new every day. I wonder why it isn't already fused when they emerge?
I am a strong believer in the simple fact is that what matters in this life is how we treat others. I think that's what living is all about. Not what I've done in my life but how I've treated others. ~~ Sharon Brown

Only the members of the Members group may reply to this thread.
Member Login:

( No account? Join now! )