Ohhh, thanks! You all have eagle eyes.

I like to think of them as butterfly eyes. After all, I am attracted to brightly colored flowers and foods filled with sugar.

I have something eating my tomatoes I suspect is a hawk mother caterpillar? Is this too late in the year for that? I can't find it. I don't want to spray my plants with anything, but I want it to stop eating them! It stripped of a bunch of leaves over night. If I find it, can I relocate it? (read, put in the woods behind my house) Is there anything I can plant in my yard that they like to eat, so they will stay away from my tomatoes? I have seen some hawk moths in my daylily beds so that is why I suspect those. It could be something else I guess.

Tomato Hornworm probably, Hummingbird Moth or aka Sphinx Moth / Hawk Moth (like my avatar). I think that's their preferred (if not only?) food before they chrysalis into a moth.

I think they'll eat anything in the nightshade family. A lot of people grow brugmansias (Angel's Trumpet) as a distractor plant.

A Sulphur (so hard to photograph--the light reflects off so much) enjoying my Zinnia.

Some variety of Duskywing skipper? Perhaps a Sleepy Duskywing?

Gulf Fritillary on Lantana

Beautiful Fritillary photos, Dave!

I had to do a double take this morning when returning to the house for breakfast as I stumbled across this HBM in the daylight.

Sulphurs this afternoon -
on Dahlia in the pur coneflowers

Beautiful, JMorth!

Jack, do you know what kind of Sulphur that is? The pattern of spots that runs along its wings is so unique and something I don't think I've seen before.

I'll post my museum pictures in a while. Gotta call Dad up in WV and check on Grandma first.

Just look at that proboscis on that HBM would you?!

All the better for drinking your nectar, my dear!

Okay, first a couple of pictures from yesterday. The Pipevine ST finally laid eggs on the native, Wooly Pipevine. I still took the eggs to MOSI, though. Not enough good pipevine left. You can see the dark spots where the caterpillars are forming and getting ready to hatch.



I sent these pictures to BAMONA to find out what kind of skipper this is. I'm trying to learn some of the skippers.



At the museum, the Atalas are still laying eggs and producing caterpillars. I tried to take a photo of the butterfly and got photobombed by an Eastern Black ST!



Here's an Atala!



I didn't realize this picture was so blurry but check out that glob of pollen on the Zebra Longwing's proboscis! I still find it fascinating that they eat pollen. They actually secrete an enzyme that liquefies it and allows them to slurp it up through their proboscis.



Malachites are proving that it is easy being green.



Still lots of Giant STs. I love that their tails have that yellow spot in them.



Orange-Barred Sulphur.



Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars are back!



My trainees wanted to try and net butterflies so I took them to the side garden where people were less likely to watch us make fools of ourselves. But they're pretty good! They tag-teamed and got a Tiger ST! I told them it was worth ten points, but then I saw it had a damaged wing so I declared it a disabled butterfly and only awarded five points.



One of my volunteers is a teenager and she told me to be quieter when I yell "butterfly sex" in the middle of the garden. I told her I was happy to explain it to anyone who hears me. I also said a word that rhymes with "duck" when I accidentally stuck a pin in a chrysalis instead of its silk. Sometimes I think I might be a bad role model.



But my teen volunteer caught a Sleepy Orange!



We have a few Great Southern Whites in the flight cage.



The Hickory Horned Devil cats (Regal Moths) are getting big and changing colors. They don't seem to like when you touch their horns.



Back at home, I released three Polydamas butterflies. But I only took pictures of one because they all look the same.

Sounds like a good day, Melanie! Let us know what you hear from BAMONA. Those are great shots of the skipper!!

In response to your query Melanie -
I think they're both Orange Sulphurs, however, the one on the Dahlia may be a special designation, the Orange Sulphur alba form.

I looked in my book and it says Orange Sulphurs are "infrequently encountered" in Florida. I don't know that I've ever seen one but that row of spots is pretty distinctive. At least if I ever see one in the future, I think I'll know that it's different from the usual suspects.

Hummingbird Moth (HBM) Night - the best ever...
Day started a bit unusual w/ a HBM sighting this morning before breakfast (see earlier post), worked in the garden all afternoon staking giant sunflowers (Kong) which often top out over a dozen feet. As evening approached I thought I'd wait till dusk hoping I might get another opportunity to photograph some HBM's...
WOW! HBMcity it turned out to be. There were 4 verified, and I think a 5th all nectaring exclusively in my lily patch (specifically, where I grow Scheherazade and Beauty Queen (OT lilies that are tall W/ big downward blooms). I took around 90 shots starring maybe 25 or 30 of them after downloading. I'll post those w/ great lily shots complemented by the HBM presence over in the lily thread; that still leaves me a boatload for here.











As I prepared to go in, I checked the Flowering Tobacco plants on the way and to my utter amazement found them there too...



Here's comin at ya...