Yup, once you can see the wing pattern it's just a matter of time until that sucker comes out. Usually the same day or maybe tomorrow. Let us know!
I don't have any butterfly pictures today; it's going to be all about caterpillars and eggs. But hopefully, you'll learn a thing or two. First up is my mystery Sulphur which I'm beginning to think is an Orange-Barred due to the fact that he hasn't turned green yet and he's sporting that blue pattern.
I found two more Monarch refugees and moved them to the Giant Milkweed. Here's the bigger of the two.
Now, I recently admitted my mistake in mixing up Silver-Spotted Skippers (SSS) with Long-Tailed Skippers (LTS). Well, I had a Long-Tailed Skipper lay eggs all over my butterfly pea today (more on that in a minute) and while I was looking I found three fairly large caterpillars. Unfortunately, I dropped one somewhere along the line because when I came in the house I only had two.
I knew once I started collecting eggs that I should have gone back in the house for a container, but I didn't listen to myself. I also dropped the sassafras leaf I had picked for my Spicebush cat that won't grow. So note to everyone - if you're going to be collecting eggs or caterpillars, bring something to carry them with. Now, back to the Long-Tailed Skipper cats, as you can see from the picture, LTS also have red spots on their head but they are slightly different. Also, you can see what I mean about them having an orange booty, just like the SSS did! But, as you can also see, the LTS have horizontal stripes with a prominent yellow stripe down their body whereas if you look back at the SSS photos, they have green ringed stripes around their body. Very hard to see when they're small, though.
Now, LTS eggs are easy to find as they too tend toward the new growth, but their pattern of laying eggs can vary quite a bit. Most butterflies have a method - lay a single egg, lay a clump of eggs, etc. LTS do all of these things. My favorite is when they stack them in to weird chains like you see in the first photo. I always wonder how the eggs are sticking to each other?
And here's some that have turned gray which means they are about to hatch. FYI, I did bring in all these eggs and I put them in a Gladware container. Since it's airtight or at least water tight, the food stays fresh and doesn't dry out too quick. In the critter keepers it dries out too fast. And I've never had problems with caterpillars not getting enough air if you're ever concerned about that (I have gotten that question before). Even if you just open it once or twice a day to put food in that seems to be fine. I don't think caterpillars breathe as much as we think they do. I'm not even sure what elements they need to breathe, to be honest. I'm assuming oxygen is important but I don't know much about how they breathe. Something to research!
And speaking of eggs. I had a Gulf Frit cat on this very small piece of my Corkystem Passion Vine. The plant keeps trying to come back and the butterflies keep finding it before it can recover. I moved the Gulf Frit cat over to the other passion vine which is pretty chewed up. But as you can see from these yellow eggs, a Zebra Longwing laid some eggs, too. If they're still there on Sunday, I'll take them to MOSI, I guess.
And in a bit of chrysalis news, here's what my Spicebush looks like right now. Expect to see it in about 10-12 days.
