Yes J, the Zebras are cool and they seem to be back for sure now because I've seen them in my garden and several flying around MOSI today. Lucky for me, the water at the museum has receded and while one of the turtles seemed like he was looking to escape he wasn't high enough to do so. I did however, have a crayfish waving its claws at me on the sidewalk (he was right under the lab window). Fortunately, I was about to sweep the flight cage so I took the broom, swept him into the dustbin, and emptied it into the water. I should have taken a picture but when something is waving claws at me (no matter how small), my first thought it not to grab my camera.

Now back to those Zebra Longwings. They really seem to get along well. A lot of butterflies chase each other around but these guys seem to be pretty laid back. I guess if you're going to live like 100 times longer than the other butterflies you can afford to be patient.



And a side view!



Lots of Great Southern Whites in the flight cage right now. I think the one on the door was plotting its escape.



And this cool skipper was out in the gardens.



But back in my garden it's lots of Duskywings!



And it's so funny that as I was looking at all the Duskywings I was staring real hard to make sure that's what they were. Because they're similar in size to the Buckeye (Buckeye is a little bigger) and they fly in the same erratic fashion. And wouldn't you know, one of them turned out to be a Buckeye! I get them in my yard pretty regularly which makes me wonder if I have a host plant they're using and don't know about it. Buckeyes eat lots of different things so it's entirely possible that either me or my neighbors have something they're eating.

That must have been a monumental deluge you received.
Great pics, as usual.
I've never seen a Great Southern White though I did note a Cabbage White fluttering around yesterday.

J, the museum got 8 inches of rain in 45 minutes! Tampa was even on the NBC Nightly News that night. It was pretty bad. And then it rained on Saturday, too but not as much. Luckily, today was bright and sunny so hopefully everyone can dry out now. This is supposed to be our dry season, too! Seriously, it normally doesn't rain in the spring. As a kid I never understood the whole "April showers" saying because even I knew it didn't rain in April. We get most of our rain in the summer from our afternoon thunderstorms (and the hurricanes). Tampa is actually the lightning capital of this hemisphere; some place in Africa has up beat for the world record.

I had never seen a Great Southern White in my yard until last year. It really surprised me! I'm pretty sure the museum orders them from a butterfly farm because we never get them there, either. I only live a few miles away so we tend to get the same butterflies. I used to think they were one of those butterflies in my books that "technically" live in my area but I never see them. But then Dad and I went hiking last year in the south part of the county (I live two miles from the northern border of the county so we're talkin some miles, here) and there were tons of Great Southern Whites in the preserve! We tend to get Checkered Whites up here where I live. And I've never seen a Cabbage White where I live. I've seen maps before that show their spread and I don't think they come this far south into Florida. Maybe it's too hot for them!

Cruddy photos but my camera wouldn't get a real close up w/o being blurry. I bet Melanie can tell what butterfly this cat will turn into. I attach a photo of what it was feeding on too.

Hmmm...looks like some kind of moth. I know most of the butterfly cats and usually the really furry ones like that are moths. Which can still be lots of fun to raise but don't touch unless you know what kind it is because many of them sting (especially the fuzzy ones)!

My Grandma laughed so hard at me when I was in WV and I wanted to raise a Catalpa moth (she called it a Catalpa worm). I was curious! And there were like hundreds of them! I thought it was cool, but Grandma was like, "You're raising fish bait." Moths can be cool, too.

Thanks Melanie; I kinda suspected it was a moth cat. I never touch unless I know what it is, even then I rarely touch as I don't have any reason to.

Yes, moths can be fun too! The story about your Grandma.

Grandma was kind of right. Even my caterpillar book talked about how Catalpa caterpillars used to be sold as fish bait which I thought was kind of neat (in it's own way). Bad for the caterpillars but I am a Florida girl and have caught my own dinner many times. We always used shrimp or fake lures, though. But I did have to explain to Grandma the difference between worms and caterpillars.

I found this one just hanging out today. It didn't appear to have hairy antennae but it did have a hairy body . I'm on the fence as to whether it's a moth or a butterfly. I'm posting both photos b/c the first one is the correct color. The second just shows more detail.

Polydamas seeing who can eat the most Aristolochia trilobata




We have a "NO MOW" zone right now where the Queen Anne's Lace has naturalized in our yard.
Eastern Black Swallowtails doing the trimming.

Excellent.

Ann, that's a moth. I've seen similar (or maybe the same) ones in my yard every now and then. Some moths are kind of cool, and some of them fly during the day.

MJ, are those pictures current? Like, you have Swallowtails now? Because if you do I am so jealous! At MOSI this past Sunday there was one solitary Black ST egg someone had found in one of our tanks. I hope it grows up to do well, but at the same time I was like, "What butterfly only lays ONE egg?" Weird.

Thanks Melanie!

No photos but I have seen today & yesterday, black swallowtails flying around as well as monarchs.

Melanie,
Took the photo's yesterday afternoon. I had seen her flying around laying eggs on the Queen Anne's Lace...and was thinking ...well, we won't be mowing there for a few weeks...so I took some stakes and marked off the area. It's a patch about 6x6.

No Monarchs to be seen tho....grrrrrrr. And a friend of mine who lives about an 1/2 south has already had her milkweed munched down.

MJ, we need to trade. My Monarchs are emerging and breeding and laying eggs on milkweed stems with one leaf on them! It's crazy! But no Swallowtails yet - sad.

I did have a weird Monarch thing happen. Last night, the chrysalis on the Spiderwort was empty and there was a Monarch on the brick pavers right next to it, so I'm assuming that's where it came from. I have a rule about no butterflies on the ground (stepping hazard) so I went to pick it up and put it back on the Spiderwort. It had a little trouble grabbing my finger and couldn't fly yet so I figured it had just emerged recently. It was 5pm at this point so I figured it would spend the night where it was, although it was basking in the setting sun quite nicely. So today I went out to get some lunch and there was a Monarch laying dead in the porterweed (which the Spiderwort is growing into). It died of natural causes from the looks of it (although I suspect maybe a parasite?). Anyway, as I was driving back I was thinking I should take a picture because a lot of you have probably never seen a butterfly die from natural causes. It's kind of weird. They're wings are ever so slightly rounded (not straight out) and they fold their legs all the way in. I see this a lot at the museum where we hope our butterflies always die of natural causes. But when I came back from getting my sandwich, the butterfly was gone! Apparently, in the 20 minutes or so I was missing, some predator came and took the dead butterfly away. Which solves the problem of what I was going to do with it, but I never did get that picture.

In case you're curious, at the museum we have a couple of options for dead butterflies. If they're in good condition, I save them for my boss who uses them in her educational programs. Also, we have a microscope inside the adjacent classroom where people can look at a butterfly close-up and see the cells on their wings and so forth. If they're in bad shape, I usually just sweep them up or hide them in one of the flower pots where people can't see them and the ants will take care of them. Because people will point out a dead butterfly to you every time. I'm never sure what they expect me to do about it (CPR?). I heard one of the volunteers was feeding them to the fish which I had to report because she shouldn't do that where guests can see and also (the biggie), most of the butterflies are poisonous and I don't know if that applies to fish and turtles, too. But let's not take that chance.

I was trying to spend all day in bed but eventually I got hungry so I went out to get some food. As I was heading to the car, I noticed an orange thing fluttering nearby. I thought it was one of my many Frits, but it was an American Painted Lady! And yes, I had to google images to make sure it was the American one and not the regular one. I still can't remember the difference because I don't see them too often. I guess Mom was right when she said that's what she saw a few weeks ago. Anyway, it seemed to love my porterweed. I'm just glad it stuck around long enough for me to go get my camera (my bedroom is in the very back of the house which means I have to literally run through the whole house). Painted Ladies never seem to stick around in one place for very long. I suppose this means I really do need to go see if I can hunt up some caterpillars. It's just soooo hot outside right now. We're in the 90's already. Warning to everyone - this is just the beginning of my whining about the heat. You want to enjoy my pictures, you have to put with whining about the heat all summer (and part of the fall).




I also managed to get a decent shot of one of the Cassius Blues. They do well in this area because their host plant is plumbago and all the big box stores sell the stuff. It's seriously everywhere. I've even seen this butterfly in a parking lot in downtown Tampa because they had plumbago planted along the sides. They're tiny little butterflies, though!



My Duskywings hang around most of the year. I'm never sure if I have Horace's or Juvenal's Duskywings. They use oaks for hosts so I think that's why I have them all the time. I know they're not the showiest butterfly, but they're loyal and I appreciate having them around when no one else is hanging out.



I've still got tons of Monarch cats munching away. I found one Monarch on the ground crawling away from the milkweed and he was nowhere close to being big enough to make a chrysalis so I picked him up and put him back on the food because I'm nice like that. I also think I may have some OE or parasite problems because I found one chrysalis on the ground that was black and I had one that was so malformed I took it off the plant myself. I also found pieces of Monarch wings on the ground which may explain what happened to that one from the other day. Yikes! But speaking of rescues, while I was typing I remembered I have one chrysalis that the cats have eaten around and is literally just hanging by some silk so I'm going to go get it now and bring it inside.

Ok, I wasn't planning on another post until tomorrow (MOSI day!) but I went out to get that chrysalis and stuff happened. You know, a few weeks ago Mom said she found a Monarch chrysalis just lying on top a a Giant Milkweed leaf. I thought that was really strange. But I see how it happens because that chrysalis I went to rescue just now was doing the same thing. Mind you, a half hour ago it was hanging by its silk. I think maybe one of the cats got stuck in the silk and dragged it on top of the leaf, maybe?



Pieces of wings on the ground. Bad times.



Chrysalises turn dark before they emerge but if that thing hasn't come out in 24 hours or looks kind of shrunken or just too dark you may have problems. Here's one that fell to the ground that is clearly not going to come out. Probably an OE infection.



I know I make fun of all the chrysalises on my house, but it's safer than on the plant where this happens. I might have to rescue this guy, too. And you know, I thought there were only two cats on this leaf until I saw the photo on my computer and spotted the third little guy there.



This guy wandered over to the butterfly pea (which is growing up and through the Giant Milkweed) to make his J. Hopefully, he'll do it safe and successfully.



You know, I had to pick up two more cats that wandered off the milkweed? One was on the grass right below and I thought he might be molting because they will find odd places to molt sometimes but he was just being weird. Both got relocated back to the milkweed. Here's a chrysalis on my Tropical Milkweed. I'm surprised there were any leaves left to hang from. That black thing is his skin that didn't fall to the ground.



About that time, a random Zebra Longwing came by to get a last snack before bed I suppose. They love Jatropha and seem to prefer red flowers in general. Firebush is a big draw for them, too.



Now, if you're ever thinking, "Melanie, I can't find caterpillars, but you seem to find lots. What's your secret?" Well, each caterpillar has its own behavior, but by and large, butterflies lay eggs on new growth. So look there to start because that's where the caterpillars start out for the most part and some of them seem to stay there. Case in point, my Gulf Fritillaries are laid at the tips of those curly-cue thingies and they tend to stay near the ends of the plant. I have a theory that the new growth is more nutritious, but I can't confirm that. But it's like, if you're at the salad bar and you see the worker coming with a fresh bowl of lettuce, you wait and let them replace it before you get your salad because you want the fresh stuff, right? Caterpillars really don't operate much differently.



But they build their chrysalises wherever they want. This is a Gulf Frit chrysalis, FYI.



But like the Monarchs, they seem to prefer the stucco on my house. Now, I took this picture to illustrate a point. Butterflies, much like humans, release meconium when they come out. Basically, since there's no bathroom in a chrysalis, this is when they release everything they've been holding onto. That's how I explain it to folks at the museum since they always freak out on me and think the butterfly is bleeding. FYI, I've chopped enough butterfly heads off (mercy kills) to know they don't bleed like humans; it's certainly not red anyway. So you may look at this picture and think, "Something killed your Gulf Frit!" I see it as a successful emergence. Dad's probably going to see another mess on the house. I guess I could take the garden hose to it; that should wash it off.



And I took one more Duskywing photo because I thought this one had a nice-looking pattern on it. I did have a Gulf Frit flying around but it went up in my cherry tree (maybe for the night?) so I decided not to bother it. Besides, the mosquitoes get really bad around dusk so I had to get back inside!

Melanie, I am learning so much. Thank you!

That's what I try to do! Speaking of that, I was posting some of these pictures on my Facebook page and I realized I forgot something I wanted to point out. In the first picture of the Gulf Frit caterpillar you can clearly see the difference in how caterpillars use their legs.

A kid I talked to at the museum two weeks ago was surprisingly educated about caterpillars. Like all insects, caterpillars only have six legs. You see, they have three pairs of true legs at the front, followed by several pairs (it varies) of prolegs in the middle and back. Prolegs are the ones with the little hooks called crochets that allow caterpillars to hang on to things. Most people like to think of them as suction cups. The three pairs of true legs in front are most often used by the caterpillar to hold on to their food as they eat. You can clearly see that in the photo. The cat is grasping the food with his true legs while holding on to the plant with his prolegs.

The kid and I were alternately explaining this to the kid's dad when the dad asked, "How do you know so much?" I didn't know who he was talking to so I said, "Books" at the same time the kid scoffed, "The internet". We laughed and I reminded the kid that there are these things called books that are also very informative. The dad agreed with me. It was one of those funny generational things. The internet can be useful, too but depending on the site, you sometimes have to take it with a big grain of salt.