We came from here: The thread "April 2014 Butterflies, Moths & Larva" in Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum

Is it May already? Where has the time gone? And where are my Swallowtails? I've seen a few flying while driving around the last couple of days but I'm still caterpillar-less. However, I got a cool surprise this afternoon!

I came home from finally seeing "Noah" and I was picking the Monarchs off the nearly completely eaten Tropical Milkweed so I could put them on the Giant Milkweed. I may not have an ark but I like to think I'm doing my part little by little. So I'm looking at the caterpillars and I kind of focused on one that was a little odd - because it was a Queen! Woo hoo! I hardly ever get Queens! I only found the one and it is now safely living in my bedroom.



And in further proof that Monarch cats (and most cats in general) will build a chrysalis anywhere...here's one getting ready to go into his J above my parents' bathroom window (I can tell these things, LOL).



And here's a chrysalis on the hose holder thingie. Once, Dad actually found a chrysalis on the hose itself. He made me take it off so he could use the hose.



And here's one on my False Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa). It's a host plant for the Silver-Spotted Skipper (which I have gotten rarely) and the Southern Dogface (of which I have only seen one adult in seven years). Apparently, it's also a good Monarch resting place.



Not to worry folks, Dad and I agreed that the house cannot be pressure-washed until butterfly season is over. And even then, he makes me go around the house and inspect it first!

Good for Dad!

My first BF this year, Painted Lady I believe.

Painted Lady, American Lady...it's one of those Ladies! You know, I don't get them too often (some years are better than others) but I do get both which I find weird. I always have to examine my pictures and count the spots on the under wing to determine which I have. I guess some areas probably tend to get one or the other so I always think it's weird I seem to have an equal chance at both. Mom is pretty sure that's what she saw the other day but I haven't seen one. But I'm trying to stay out of the sun after my weird sunburn! Plus, we have rain in the forecast so it looks like I won't be caterpillar hunting for a few days. Glad to see winter is fading and the butterflies are coming back for you guys!

That's a happy May day sign for you J!

Well said!

My first Monarch caterpillar has pupated! The other 3 caterpillars are very small. I wonder, really, if the eggs were laid by a Monarch that overwintered in Mexico, or maybe they were laid by the second generation.

PBS has started showing The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies again. It's beautiful and really great. It has occurred to me that it's a limited and incomplete story of the Monarchs in the Northern Hemisphere. I can't help but think there should be a second part that tells the rest of the story. The western migration and the year-round areas such as in parts of Florida, for example. And maybe more about why the Monarch population is becoming so extremely low now. Today I spotted a Monarch in the area of Helotes, Texas. So sad it's the first adult Monarch I've actually seen this year. In the past, I would have seen lots in the spring!
Hard to tell with the pic of the Lady, but it looks more like an American Lady to me.

'The Common Butterflies and Skippers of Ohio' from Div of Wildlife, Dept of Nat Resources in partnership w/ Ohio Lepidopterists published this super 50p. booklet some years ago, I got mine in 2006. It has great pics and descriptions of their selections; I think every selection they've included in their publication applies to the gardens and central plains of Illinois as well. It's my first source to check and verify what I've seen or pictured in the heartland.
Anyway, the pictured Lady in question therein is named American Painted Lady (Vanessa virginiensis). The entry notes 'it was once known as the American Beauty', entry closes well, further stating 'which it certainly is.'

Wow, you guys have better eyes than me! Seriously, I need to get my glasses polished or something.

Linda, if I remember correctly, Monarchs are found worldwide aren't they? I never see any documentaries that talk about their population health in other parts of the world. I get that the North American migration is an important phenomenon, especially since we don't even understand it all yet and there's probably more knowledge to be gained from it. But at the same time, it might be nice if those shows could at least highlight other parts of the continent or world where things are okay. Give us a little hope, maybe? Or even explain why the migrating Monarchs are so important versus the non-migrating ones. It is a little odd that the other side of the coin gets ignored all the time. Someone should crowdfund that; I would donate to the cause.

Waiting to see what I have this year ...

Hey, someone else has caterpillars on their house! And a Black Swallowtail, too. And from that bendy position it totally looks like he's in his sling. I bet he's a chrysalis tomorrow. What are they doing in TN and not FL? Maybe ours are late...or avoiding the torrential rains we had today. All that mess that flooded the panhandle is now here but at least I got to sleep through it. The pictures on the news were horrible. And my boss at the museum says the water feature in the flight cage has risen so much the turtles are escaping. So I expect a weekend of caterpillar-hunting and turtle-wrangling. Sounds like fun!

Oh, those are last year's photos. I guess I didn't note that.

Well, I guess we'll keep waiting then. No butterflies today as it rained all day. I just watched the local news and the whole thing was about the rain and flooding. Hey! While I was typing that we just made the national news! Cool! Well, not so cool. My boss at the museum said not only are the turtles escaping, they got 8 inches of rain in 45 minutes! Which is so weird because this time of year is the dry season in this area. In bad news, when I went outside to get the mail, the one Monarch chrysalis high up on the house looks to be parasatized. I'll have to get the step ladder to get it off the house. But the caterpillar I pictured yesterday had made his chrysalis, although he did move a few inches down so now he's in the frame of the window.

I saw a Black Swallowtail here a couple of weeks ago. The first of the Painted Ladies emerged today and was released. We have nothing but dry sunny days here, so it had no problem!

Beautiful, Linda! My parents are in Ft. Worth tonight as they are on their way to see the Grand Canyon. So far their only butterfly sighting was Dad reporting a small sulphur. I hope they see some butterflies out there! I told them I didn't care if they brought me back any souvenirs, pictures of Western butterflies would be sufficient.

Linda, great photo of the Painted Lady.

Me too!

More rain this morning but it slacked off this afternoon and the butterflies were out probably because they were really hungry. I don't think they had a chance to eat at all yesterday.

Here's a Zebra Longwing on one of their favorite nectar plants, Jatropha. Look close and you can see the pollen on the proboscis. Zebra Longwings eat pollen as well as nectar so they live 6-9 months! That's almost immortal for a butterfly.



Lots of Duskywings out front today.



While I didn't find the empty chrysalis, I'm pretty sure this Monarch just emerged based on its location and the way it was acting.



Still lots of Monarchs but they're going into their Js!



And I found another chrysalis right below the blue stripe on the house. I wonder if caterpillars see color? I've aways read they see only light and dark.



And in case you're trying to picture all of this, here's the Giant Milkweed in front of my parent's bathroom window. This is where nearly all the Monarchs are at this point.



That's all folks! Time to watch some horsies run around in a big oval for two minutes!

Nice ones; those zebras are always cool!