@GrammaChar Love the pics. Every singe one of them .

Thanks, Mac.

Never, ever too many Char, never!!!!!! Each is a work of art. I gasped when I saw the 1st one of the Queen. Just stunning! Thanks so much for sharing with us!

Fantastic, stunning photos! Not too many. It looks like a fantasy world!💜

At the risk of boring you to death with an overload of photos, bear with me while I attempt to answer a question I received about yesterday's post. It's not about butterflies but rather the plants that attract them. One word: Mistflowers.

Blue Mistflower (Eupatorium greggii)
The ultimate butterfly magnet, especially during fall migration. A favorite of queens and monarchs. Prolific bloomer with serrated leaves that spreads by underground roots. Once established it will naturalize and attract clouds of butterflies through late summer until frost.







White Mistflower (Ageratina havanensis)
A large shrub - to 6 ft. that blooms in late October into November. Tiny white clusters of flowers have an intense fragrace. Tends to self-seed, but young plants transplant well. Another nectar source that butterflies can't resist.







Purple Mistflower Eupatorium (E. Odorata now Chromolaena)
I still call it Odorata because I can't pronounce the new name. Truthfully, this is not a very attractive plant; it tends to get leggy and sprawl into pathways. Narrow leaves with small flower clusters and it, too, self-seeds. But once again, it is loved by pollinators. Good for "natural" settings if you have the space.








If I could only have one mistflower in the garden, it would be Gregg's.



Of course, no matter how many flowers you have - sometimes the butterfly just prefers to sit on a rock.



Thank you for your patience. Hope this answered the question.

Char, please, bore me with your photos!

Absolutely stunning photos @GrammaChar! Some warrant enlargement and framing!

My cousin who lived in Texas for many, many years used to have the blue mist flower. She used to send me pictures often of the butterflies on it and she called it butterfly crack. I finally got some for myself here and it certainly is. It's everything that GrammaChar said.

Thank you, Char, for the exquisite photos and info about the mistflowers.

My pentas out front were drawing this little guy today. He'd fly off everytime I moved to get a shot. But he wanted that nectar BAD, as he kept flying right back in despite my presence. His wings were pretty torn up on the edges, but the orange-ish color band sort of looks a little like Silver Spot Skipper? But I saw no white-ish light, silvery spot anywhere, so not really sure what he was.

Peggy, the wide red band and white spots lead me to think your little butterfly is a road-weary Red Admiral. Several butterflies show the effects of long-distance travel this time of year. Their color fades and the wings get damaged. Yet they carry on!



Here's a Red Admiral who had better luck.



Hope this helps with the identification.

Sometimes it seems impossible that they can still fly. Amazing endurance. Here's a battered Bordered Patch (I think?) Who visited me a while back

GrammaChar said:Peggy, the wide red band and white spots lead me to think your little butterfly is a road-weary Red Admiral. Several butterflies show the effects of long-distance travel this time of year. Their color fades and the wings get damaged. Yet they carry on!



Here's a Red Admiral who had better luck.



Hope this helps with the identification.

Yes, it appears as though he may have been a Red Admiral. The second photo is a close match of what I saw. Thanks for your help with an ID @GrammaChar.

My pleasure, Peggy. Forgot to mention that your pentas are lovely, such a vibrant shade of pink that I haven't seen here. I have a few other colors in pots that I'm going to put into the greenhouse this winter in an attempt to keep them alive until spring. Don't know if I'll be successful, but nothing ventured nothing gained. My goal for next year is to sow more seeds and buy fewer plants - especially annuals. The price of 1 gallon pots has nearly doubled - and 5 gallon are out of reach due to the difficulty in planting them in my rocky soil. Gone are the days of the 50 cent 4" starters. Seeds seem to be the only economical solution.

If anyone has suggestions on over-wintering pentas, I'd love to hear about them.

Thanks, Char. I noticed after my last application of fertilizer, the blooms got deeper pink, but I've always been bad about forgetting to fertilize my bloomers. Must work on that persinal deficit.

I've never tried to over-winter pentas. I've always treated them as annuals as I only need two at the foot of the front steps and two small ones are pretty cheap. Last year I did two lavender pentas in large pots out back: They always manage to fill my 21" pots pretty quickly, so there's only 1 plant in each of my pots. My nurseries never seem to stock the red ones, or maybe it's just that I get there too late in the season and they are all sold out. Never have been able to get a red one. I make do attracting hummers to red with all my Turk's Caps bushes front and back yards.

Gorgeous pic, GranmaChar! I'm so glad to hear about the most flower. Pentas are still pretty cheap here, and I do the same thing and buy two. They do fill out a large pot quickly. I. Never without pentas; after I discovered how much butterflies love them, I have them every year. I always get the red ones, I've tried the other colors, but they seem to prefer red.

Does anyone know what would cause the... skin to come off of a 4th/5th instar swallowtail caterpillar? He was fine yesterday and this morning, gone.

YIKES!

I have no idea.

YIKES!

I'm going to have to buy one of those screen things for the caterpilliars next year. I had losses this year from things beyond my control.

I really don't know, either, maybe some kind of disease?
I lost several large BST cats to spiders las summer, notably Black Widow spiders. Some just disappeared, birds or other predators, I guess. I'm still not bringing inside, though. They were outside for years before we took an interest in them. As far as I know, BSTs aren't in dangerous going extinct like the Monarchs are.
Now if I were raising Monarchs I would probably get them some kind of tent enclosure.