Melanie, I'm going to leave the desmodium until it blooms & sets immature seeds so I can get photos for the db but then it's getting yanked. So when I do that, how do I treat the cats, assuming there are any on it at that time? Do they need to make a J or need a stick in the container or what?

Okay, I may be missing a link in my brain but when you pull the cats, you have something to feed them until they pupate, right? As for pupating, Skippers "almost" make cocoons. They will silk several leaves together and pupate inside their little home so make sure to provide them with plenty of material to silk together so they can "hide".

Yes, I can just feed them the small Desmodium that's growing all over the place right?
Okay, second question.... They just need leaves to make cocoons in right, they don't have to be Desmodium correct?

Yeah, you should be able to feed them the small desmodium just fine. I've never had trouble switching foods and especially not when it's the same genus. The caterpillar is going to silk those leaves together to make a home anyway. They live in them at all points of their life. So I'm not sure you'll be able to catch one before it pupates or even know that it is about to pupate. So I would keep them on desmodium and let them pupate in the leaves. I wouldn't add different leaves in there because I'm not sure the caterpillars would use it anyway since they would not recognize it as a host plant. They're not like moths that will use any old leaf, for the most part. They're pretty picky.

Beautiful sulphur, Ann. I wonder if it might be an Orange Sulphur?
http://www.butterfliesandmoths...

Thanks Melanie! I will take good care of them. It will be a while yet anyway b/c I'm just going to let nature do her thing until the Desmodium blooms & makes seed. I'm only going to yank it before the seed matures so until then the skippers can do their wild thing like they've been doing for centuries. But at least now, I will know what to do & the right way to do it.

I don't know Cat; my photo is not clear enough or at the correct angle to be able to tell so good. I enlarged that photo so we could see it much at all. Darn butterflies, they never want to pose at the correct angle.

Have you ever seen on TV where a photographer talks to models? Because I totally catch myself doing that to the butterflies, especially the ones in the flight cage at MOSI. "Beautiful! Now turn a little! Aren't you gorgeous? Look at that shimmer!" Thank goodness I do it before the guests arrive; the other volunteers already know I'm crazy so they're used to my antics.

Guilty of doing the same thing.

LOL--I do that, too, but they never cooperate!

Okay, here's my one attempt to photograph a Sulphur in my yard as it flit about:




I know, pretty sad, huh?

Been tormented because of the lack of butterflies in the yard. Still need to put out a birdbath for the birds, and the bees, and the wasps. Never saw butterflies at the birdbaths.

Anyhow, this guy couldn't concentrate on playing Hide-and-Seek, because he was obsessed with practicing his Batman impersonations.


Torment not so bad now. First butterfly picture since I moved here.

Nice photo, CKat! I love the way the sun shines through the wings, and the flower is beautiful, too.

Just lovely!

Okay, I took a bunch of pics yesterday but I've been a little distracted. I'm the family genealogist and belong to Ancestry. I swear you can go a year without getting any messages and then all of a sudden - BAM! Everybody wants to know something. It's nice; I've met some new cousins and I spent two hours talking to Grandma the other day which was fun. Grandma has a boyfriend! And he's younger (she turns 85 in four days and he's only 71). I told her she was robbing the cradle!

So the butterflies had to wait until Melanie got some free time. But don't worry - the caterpillars still got fed. The Polydamas are going to MOSI tomorrow because I've got a few billion of them right now and I keep finding bunches of eggs every day. And frankly, I think I'm allergic to Pipevine. Let's just say it's not helping.

Ok, let's start! Here's a Long-Tailed Skipper laying eggs on the butterfly pea. You can see an egg already laid on the top of the leaf. I'm taking these guys to MOSI, too.



In sad news, my Pluto Sphinx moth caterpillar died. He was changing color and stopped eating so I figured he was pupating. But then I noticed he had a lot of moisture on him and I didn't think it was from the plant. As you can see, I set him on a paper towel and dried him off. But this morning he was gray and dead. Perhaps something went wrong in the pupation process?



In happier news, I now know I'm seeing those Monk skippers. He looks darker in the one photo because of the lighting. But it's the exact same butterfly in both photos.



Zebra Longwing as usual



Pipevine ST laying eggs again. Picked a bunch of eggs yesterday and picked a bunch today. All going to MOSI. I'm going to have to pack a big bag to take all these caterpillar carriers in. I'm taking them in because I've run out of Wooly Pipevine. I have Trilobed Pipevine but they keep dying on it. I'm trying to unravel this, but it seems like there is an Aristolochia triloba and an Aristolochia trilobata. I thought I had the same plant as MOSI, but while they have the same shape, my leaves are 3-4 times as large. MOSI seems to have better luck with theirs so I'm giving them up for their own good.



And I found more Polydamas. There's always more Polydamas!



I was going to clean one of the Polydamas tanks before taking them to MOSI but everyone decided it was time to molt and I didn't want to disturb them.



In exchange for all the caterpillars I'm donating, I'm going to to steal some willow for my Viceroys. They've been really easy to raise. It's a nice break from the poor mortality of the other species.

Thanks for the update, Melanie. That is too bad about the Pluto Sphinx cat.

The polydamas is totally new to me! We definitely don't get them up here, and I had not heard of them before. That is such a cute photo of them all there molting.

Does anyone know what this is? He is really making a meal of my Brookwood Wow daylily flower. I only saw damage on this one flower. I've never see this, whatever it is, in my garden before.


Sue

That is definitely an unusual one!

Painted Lady came by and lingered in my garden this morning! Long enough for me to get a decent photo!



My Mentha spicata, just blooming now, was a big hit!

Sue, I believe that's some kind of a sphinx moth cat. You'd have to Google to find which one though.

A white, a sulphur, and a skipper