Ok folks, I've been in a bit of a "mood" for the last week or so but I did go to the museum on Sunday. I'm beginning to believe it's my "happy place". How can you be sad or angry when you're surrounded by butterflies?
I had been up since 4 am so I left early, but before I did I checked the pipevine for any more eggs or caterpillars to take. And I have a perfect example of what I was saying a while ago - sometimes the butterflies lay eggs on the fence and miss the plant entirely.
At the museum, most of the butterflies were still basking on the screen as it was about 8 am when I arrived. Here's a Julia.
Still plenty of Zebra Longwings.
The Monarchs were hanging out in the corner where the sun comes up.
The Black ST population is still going strong. My Dad's friend Matt is over here today (Dad's teaching him how to woodturn). He sees me out in the yard collecting eggs and caterpillars and asked what would be on his dill and fennel? I told him those were Eastern Black Swallowtails and they were very pretty. He said his wife and him had left them alone this year and I applauded him. So many people with herb gardens have no idea they're raising butterflies until I tell them!
Lots of Giant Swallowtails this year, too. I'm not finding them so much in the outside garden but they've been laying eggs like crazy in the flight cage. We use a kumquat in there for them to lay eggs on, FYI.
A Buckeye along with many of the snails in the flight cage. They're becoming a real nuisance. Do you guys know if koi would eat snails? I could throw them in the pond exhibit but I don't want to endanger anything.
Giant ST with Julia.
Closeup of Julia pretending to be a leaf.
Cloudless Sulphur
Out in the garden, a Gulf Fritillary.
The past two weeks there has been this huge sulphur flying around - just massive. Well, I finally got a good look at it and it's a male Orange-Barred Sulphur. I know that because he was flirting with the female in this picture.
So I know Zebra Longwing and Gulf Frit cats look prickly, but feel more like a hairbrush. But I'm going on record as saying Malachites are kind of prickly. They don't sting, but those bristles can be a little bit ouchie. Love their antenna!
My trainee, Leda, is still in Costa Rica. Every week she keeps lamenting the fact that she hasn't seen a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. Naturally, since she wasn't there, I caught this Monarch in the act. I thought about her as it was coming out. She's going to be so bummed when I tell her. But eventually, we'll see one!
Malachite butterflies were coming out, too!
Some of you may know that certain species of moths like to pupate underneath the soil or leaf litter. Well, our Hickory Horned Devils are that kind of moth so we put a tub of loose soil in their cage for them. I have to admit, they kind of freaked me out. They would move ever so slightly so I knew they were still alive. But all I could think about was the body farm at USF. You see, USF has this field where they bury people and body parts from people who have donated their bodies to science. They're well-renowned for training all kinds of law enforcement like the people you see on "CSI". They have to learn this somewhere, I guess. Every now and then the local news will do a story on it. I think they even train cadaver dogs out there. Anyway, when looking at these caterpillars, that's all I could think about. Caterpillar cadaver farms. And the one that has just his head sticking out is going to give me nightmares.
In happier pictures, here's a not-yet pupated Hickory Horned Devil caterpillar.
And here's a bunch of Atalas! Aren't you glad they didn't go extinct? I am!
Back outside in the garden, I think I found one of those Monk Skippers I see at my house.
In the flight cage releasing a Spicebush Swallowtail. I believe this is a male as females have more blue scaling while males are more silvery-gray, in my opinion. But they used to be called the Green Swallowtail or Green Cloud Swallowtail, probably by some scientist that's color blind, like my dad (he doesn't have true color blindness but he can't differentiate certain colors). I've certainly never seen a Spicebush ST I would call green.
We've been raising Long-Tailed Skippers and Dorantes Skippers which are very similar. I don't know how you tell them apart from the side, but the Dorantes lacks the turquoise color on top.
That's it for now. I took a couple of pictures today but I haven't downloaded them off the camera yet.
Haven't had a chance to look carefully over the whole plant, but brought in a few leaves that I saw with eggs. 
