Linda, that Crimson Patch is awesome!
This is going to be a long post (seriously, go get a drink or a snack or something) because it's a Sunday and I went to the museum and then went caterpillar-hunting in my neighbor's yard. My brain is a little over-heated at the moment so if I don't make much sense, blame it on that. Let's begin!
Ok, my Orange-Barred Sulphur never came out yesterday so I decided it must be waiting until today. I took it to MOSI thinking if there was a female I could release the male in the flight cage with her. When I got to the museum, there was an Orange-Barred Sulphur that had emerged and I thought it was female but after looking at my pics I think it's a male and I'm so confused. Good news is that several of the Orange-Barred chrysalises at the museum look about ready to pop so hopefully we'll get a good mix in there soon. Here's the chrysalis from home this morning before I left.
I actually got a little busy and forgot to take pictures of it after it emerged at the museum. Because by that time I was ready to go home. Seriously, I was just hanging out in the flight cage talking to folks (and educating new volunteers) while waiting for this thing to come out. But here's the one that was already out when I arrived at the museum this morning. I think it's a male, too, now that I look at the pictures.
And the last Polyphemus Moth emerged! And then went into hiding until tonight, I suppose.
Zebra Longwings and Monarchs were getting along in harmony.
But the Zebras were laying lots of eggs. See those yellow dots? Eggs!
I thought my Orange-Barred would come out quicker in the heat of the flight cage (I crank the air conditioning in the lab) so I set it on the bench. And when I got up this Monarch pair decided it wanted to mate on my critter keeper.
And The Gulf Frits were outside doing it on the decorative wind chimes!
Back inside, the Giant ST is one week older and showing its age.
We had a Black ST in the flight cage, too.
And I found about fifty caterpillars and eggs on the parsley and the rue. Shoot, I just remembered I also found a Giant ST on the rue and I forgot to take a picture. Look forward to it next week, folks. For now, here's one of the several dozen Black ST cats I found. Seriously, it was out of control. I told my boss she better have a LOT of parsley.
I was happy to see some of my Pipevine ST cats still alive (and much bigger than mine?). However, I worry about them because when I was trying to demonstrate the stinkhorns (which they wouldn't do), I squished them and they felt very empty. Your caterpillar should feel like it's full, for lack of a better way of putting it. Like, if you squish it, the indentations should go away right away and not stay for a second or two. This had me worried. The ones at home continue to eat but are not as big as this guy.
But in good Pipevine ST news, I netted an egg-laying female! I know this because she was laying eggs on the wrong pipevine. I rescued the eggs, as you can see.
Now, occasionally when you hit a host plant with a net, you not only get the butterfly, but you get a bonus caterpillar. This Polydamas came along for the ride. I also found some other Polydamas cats on this plant.
The Pipevine ST I caught eventually stopped freaking out and flapping around. Hope she lays some eggs for us!
Here are a few pictures I just liked. Zebra Longwing.
Gulf Fritillary. Don't know what those flowers are, but they're pretty.
I always go in the shade house to collect caterpillars and see if the plants need watered. While I was in there, I saw this Hummingbird Moth (I think it's a Snowberry Clearwing?) that couldn't figure out how to escape. So I used my net, caught it, and set it free in the garden.
Ok, so I head back home and pick food for the critters. Not much is flying but I find more Polydamas cats on the pipevine.
After re-hydrating and resting, I head over to the neighbor's yard. His buttonbush has almost finished blooming so there wasn't a lot of action back there. And I guess it's a good thing most of his small camphor trees had mysteriously disappeared (they are invasive, after all) but I found it really odd. I did see this Black ST which was also odd because there are no host plants for it back there! It should be in my yard! I also saw Spicebush STs flying and maybe a Palamedes (big maybe).
This Long-Tailed Skipper (still with tails!) was nectaring on Spanish Needles.
Then, I saw this butterfly I didn't know! Shocking, I know. It looked like a Tropical Checkered Skipper, but it didn't have the blue on it like they do. So I thought, maybe a regular Checkered Skipper? My book also says there is a White Checkered Skipper that is very prevalent in Florida. Take a look and feel free to give me your two cents. I think I'm going to submit this one to BAMONA
http://www.butterfliesandmoths... for ID verification.
This Checkered White was all over the frogfruit.
This Buckeye was pretty tore up.
On the way back to my house I stopped and looked at a little camphor tree I had checked already. But I always recommend checking twice if you can, because...you find things like Spicebush Swallowtail cats! Check it out, he's like...going, going, gone! But in the last picture you can see an egg I found. I found two more on other leaves.
Here he is in his full glory. He's currently in the critter keeper silking up every inch of the sides. Some caterpillars just aren't comfortable unless everything is silked. I switched out his camphor for Sassafras, by the way.
Just to show you exactly where I found this cat, here's the "tree". Just because a caterpillar uses a tree doesn't mean it has to be a full-grown, big tree. I set the critter keeper next to it for size comparison.
Proof that milkweed is really, really easy to grow. I'm going to have to have Dad take that down because if I see a caterpillar up there I will go insane and demand a ladder rescue to commence immediately!
Before I found the Spicebush cat I did find two Long-Tailed Skipper cats back at the neighbor's. But they're really small so I guess that's why I didn't take a picture? That or the heat exhaustion. Take your pick. Now, back at my house I was going to pick some food for everyone. I stopped to check my False Indigo because I swear something is eating it. It's the host for the Silver-Spotted Skipper (which I've had) and the Dogface Sulphur (which I haven't). But today I found another weird thing because the caterpillar I found I am 99% sure is a Long-Tailed Skipper. Granted, their host plants are pretty much the "bean and pea family" so I guess it could use this, but it's very weird that it would when I have butterfly pea planted five feet away! Anyhow, here's what a Long-Tailed Skipper's home looks like. If you pull back the flap, you find the caterpillar (I forgot to take a picture of the caterpillar - heat exhaustion).
And yes, I mean, I've only ever found the Silver-Spotted Skippers when they were nearly full-grown. So you may ask, "How do you know that wasn't one, Melanie?" And to that I say, because Long-Tailed Skippers have a distinctive orange stripe near their rear-end that makes them different. It's how I tell the difference between them and the Dorantes Skipper which we also get here. When they get a little bigger, I'll totally show you. Anyway, when I was picking butterfly pea for the skippers, I found a few eggs which is weird because I totally checked that plant earlier. Which is again why you should check plants more than once! The darker eggs are about to hatch while the yellow ones are fairly new.
Whew! Writing that is exhausting! Oh, I'm already exhausted. And I have less than three hours now to emotionally prepare myself for "Game of Thrones" (big battle on today's episode). I'm going to eat and take a shower and try not to collapse before my show comes on. Happy butterflying, everyone!
