Saw this guy this morning at a local garden.

A surprise visitor to the Joe Pye weed this afternoon. I get so excited when I see these guys. Sorry for the number of photos. First Monarch I have seen this year. This one looks brand new as the wings looks as if they are still wet. The last two photos show it's mimic the Viceroy for comparison. Viceroy on the right in both photos. Sorry about the Viceroy's nectaring choice. His cousin the Red Spotted Purple does the same thing.















Monarch /Viceroy


Monarch/Viceroy

Beautiful! And the side by side photos of the Monarch and Viceroy are super cool.

Wonderful pictures, Cat and Dave, I have seen very few Monarchs this year, but the Tiger and Giant have been abundant.

Thanks, Frostweed!
I've only seen one Monarch in my garden so far this season.

Look who I found on my parsley this morning!

Very lovely Black Swallowtail cat!!

Too few this summer, so I'm glad to see him!

The Monarch is hanging around again today. Hope it's a female and that she can find the few milkweeds that I have in the yard. Couple of skippers today as well. One is NOID and the last one is a Zabulon.





NOID though it does look much like a Yehl skipper

Zabulon

Dave, I think that's a boy Monarch. Appears to have the black dot indicating a scent gland on the lower wing.

Well, I'm back from MOSI. Went early this morning and didn't stay too long as it started raining pretty good. And that was probably for the best since I've been in a bad mood this week and shouldn't be interacting with civilized people.

But on one of my better days last month, I apparently talked to a "secret shopper" (which I didn't even know we had at MOSI) and I got a certificate! It reads, "In the Butterfly Garden exhibit, Melanie - a MOSI volunteer, was in the butterfly enclosure and invited us to enter. She pointed out several different butterflies and described where they are from, what they eat, etc. She was so much fun to talk to. I could have stayed in there all day with her. My favorite exhibit was the Butterfly Garden. I am fascinated with butterflies and love the caterpillar, cocoon, and butterfly phases. I also love ponds and there was a really great pond in this exhibit." Apparently, I didn't have the cocoon vs. chrysalis talk with this person, but that's okay.



See, I'm certifiably awesome! But what's really awesome are the photos I got today. The Hickory Horned Devil cats (Regal Moths) are really big! Check out the prolegs on this guy. They feel really weird when they walk on you. And they really don't like to let go of their stem!



Here's some much smaller Pipevine ST cats I brought in. They're feeding them a different type of pipevine; I'm going to have to ask what species it is.



Gulf Frits just chilling.




Zebra Longwing. You can kind of see some pollen on the proboscis.



A few Julias still around.



Good Sleepy Orange population, but more on that later...



Lots of pretty Giant Swallowtails.



Orange-Barred Sulphur on the left, Cloudless Sulphur on the right. One or both of them laid eggs all over the cassia. I collected about fifteen tiny caterpillars and there are still more eggs waiting to hatch!



Polydamas don't like to pose. This was was just released into the flight cage so it was still in "freak out" mode.



Out in the garden, I saw a White Peacock.



And I saw a Great Southern White. Maybe an escapee from the flight cage? Last year was the first time I ever saw them at my house in the seven years I've been doing this. So it's possible to see one, but from my experience they live in the south part of the county. In the second picture you can see how it has turquoise antenna clubs - so cool!



Atala caterpillars! They're so cool!



Someone must have netted a Palamedes because there was one in the flight cage! They're easier to identify if you can view the underside or the body, but you can also tell them from the top. I find that compared to the Eastern Black ST, the Palamedes is bigger, but also the yellow on it has an air-brushed look as opposed to the precise yellow cells on the Eastern Black. This one doesn't have much blue on it, but they can have more blue so don't let that fool you.



This Buckeye landed on my leg and I didn't even know it until the girl I was talking to pointed at it. I picked him up and held him on my finger before I put him on the pentas.



I guess I took another Sleepy Orange picture.



Anyway, I saw a lizard with one of the Sleepy Oranges in its mouth and I happened to be sweeping so I beat at the lizard with the broom. The guests totally saw me doing this, too. But they understood I was mad at the lizard. Well, right before I left I had to release a butterfly so I had an empty chrysalis box with me. I saw the lizard again and there was a Sleepy Orange wing on the screen next to it. So now it was war! I managed to corner the lizard and it ran right into the box! I put the lid on and very nicely released him in the garden well outside the flight cage. It's a stupid Cuban anole which isn't even the good native kind. I think they went after the Sleepy Oranges because they're small enough to fit in their mouth. Boo!



On a happier note, the Malachites are getting big and I think they should start making chrysalises soon. Pictures when they do because if I recall correctly, they have pretty chrysalises.

Wow Melanie, those Horned Devil cats are amazing, you always share so much

Melanie, I want to know if the HH Devil cats horns are stiff or soft & are the barbs on them soft or like thorns?

The barbs are fairly stiff. I mean, I don't worry about impaling myself or anything. I haven't broken any skin on them. They do have some flexibility but they aren't soft like the tubercles on Pipevine or Polydamas caterpillars. My bosses are really enjoying the Hickory Horned Devils, too. One of them posted a picture on Facebook of one on her jeans from the MOSI staff meeting and asked, "What do you bring to your staff meetings? Paper and pen?" Which I thought was pretty funny. Caterpillars are way more fun.

When the cats get in their final instar they're supposed to be able to make a rattling noise that scares predators, but I haven't heard them do it yet. I want to hear it! I keep wondering what they have that would make that noise in the first place? May need to Google that one.

Oh yeh, I want to know if you hear them rattle too Melanie. And am also curious what they have that would make that kind of noise.

Oh, & thanks for answering my questions.

I was just Googling them and a Google Book entry came up. It's a book from 1852 called "The Naturalist's Library: Exotic Moths" by James Duncan. (Edited to say this book was quoting an older book from 1823! I love old books about butterflies and moths!) I love this paragraph from the book:

"When the caterpillar raises its head, and draws the anterior segments together, as it is in the habit of doing when disturbed, it has a very formidable appearance, the spines forming a kind of crest over its head. At the same time it shakes its head from side to side as if preparing to make an attack on its assailant. By the natives of Virginia it is called the Hickory Horned Devil, and Abbot states that they are so afraid of it that he never saw one who would venture to handle it, people in general dreading it as much as a rattle-snake. "Nevertheless," he adds, "It is perfectly harmless, neither stinging by its horns nor any other part. When I have handled this animal in the presence of the negroes, to convince them it was innocent, they would reply that it could not sting me, but would them."

They've had that nickname since at least 1852! How cool is that? They are a fearsome-looking caterpillar.

Apologies to any African-Americans for the old-fashioned language. It was 1852 (could have been worse than the word he used).

Cool excerpt Melanie! And I have to agree with the holding them part. When I see you holding them I think, "I'm glad that's her & not me!" I would not hold one of *those* but would hold everything else I've seen you hold. The HH Devils are just a *bit* too much for me.

Somehow I forgot to say:

Melanie on the kudos from the secret shopper!

Thanks, Ann! I will admit, when I first heard we were raising these I went and got my books out to make sure they were okay to touch. My boss said they were but I just wanted to verify it on my own, you know?

flaflwrgrl said:Somehow I forgot to say:

Melanie on the kudos from the secret shopper!

Thanks guys! I didn't even know we had secret shoppers. I guess I didn't think that was a "thing" museums would do just for volunteers. But I'm glad to know someone appreciated my non-stop chatter about all things butterfly (and caterpillar). I've had guests tell me they'd been to the flight encounter before at MOSI but it was much more fun when I was there. I thought that was nice. That's why I'm always so quick to jump out of the lab when I see guests coming. The regular volunteers just don't have the specialized knowledge it takes to really answer some of the questions we get. Like when a 6 or 7 year-old asks me if we have any Viceroys that mimic the Monarch. Kids these days are getting smart! Honestly, I'm less worried about the fate of the future and more concerned about the adults older than I am that I have to tell not to touch the butterflies. If they missed these lessons the first time around, they're not going to learn them anytime soon.