Please share your nursery pictures of eggs, cats, and chrysalis ...be sure to name them.


The egg here and the tiny caterpillar are both Black Swallowtails.

very good Sheila!!!

I found an egg on my Hop Tree today! Yippee! Maybe GST?

Congrats Sheila!

Linda, that looks like a GST egg on your hop tree...unless ya'll get Ornythion or Broad-banded Swallowtails?

The Red Admiral eggs are about ready to hatch. They've gotten darker :o)

Yippee to me too!!!

~ Cat

Good...hope those make it so you can share pics of their lifecycle! I'm still not sure the RA's breed here...if they did, you'd think I'd spot some cats. And yet the butterflies are still here!

Hoping for a Two-tailed Tiger with the second egg I found on my Hop Tree! It's green!

Now there's 3 cats that hatched! Only the first egg found didn't hatch. And here's one of the cats:

WOOHOO!!! Congrats!!! I just bought a hops tree - it's still a sapling :o)
Don't guess we'd ever get Tigers this far south - but I can always hope!!!

~ Cat

So I am guessing the cat in your picture is a Tiger ST Linda?
Did you get the RA Cat?

Since the TST just seems to use the Texas Ash Tree or Escarpment Black Cherry around here, I think they're all two-tailed tigers. I've seen tigers fairly often lately...today, for instance. But with the black and yellow TST so similar, I can't always tell the difference on the butterflies. Once there was a tigerish butterfly I watched through some tree foliage hovering around the Hop Tree...I assume that was a TTST, since I found an egg that day on that Hop Tree.
It's a darn shame, but a Hop Tree that was across the street from my place appears to be dead. It was larger than any of mine, but damaged in a flood a few years ago which caused a couple of branches to die. Then the severity of the drought last year may have finished it off. Almost all my black cherry trees returned.

Yes, I have lots of RA cats now. Once I learned what to look for on the pellitory plants it was easy to spot the nests :o) So far two have formed chrysalids...still lots of cats growing and eating like little pigs.

~ Cat

Cat, I'm pretty darn sure I've got one also! Today I was on my way to water something I'd just planted and something on the stinging nettle caught my eye. A leaf looked like it had been folded a bit. Nothing in it, but obviously had been! Another larger leaf had a cat! I'll look for more cats later! And also I think I have an American Lady cat! Well, I cat-napped a cat I saw on a wild plant when hiking. Might have been cudweed...not sure. Anyway, I dug up the plant so I could take the cat home! There were a few more cats, but I didn't want to run out of food for them!

Congrats Linda!!! Am so thrilled for you! You've got those awesome Tigers and now some RAs and ALs!!!

I've not noticed any cats on the stinging nettle that grows rampant at the ranch but then again - I've not gotten too close. It literally grows everywhere!!! And dang - it sure smarts something fierce. I'll stick to the pellitory in my yard :o)

It's funny about that cudweed because a few years ago I never saw any cudweed at the ranch - but did find a small patch and was able to raise several American Ladies. Now this year there are gobs and gobs...and did I say gobs of cudweed all over the place. Lots of fresh ALs flying around too. I didn't collect any to raise this year but had some butterflier friends come over and gathered cats. They laughed because I told them to check anything that looked like a leaf nest - but to be careful because they could be opening up a nest filled with a spider. Sure 'nuff said - the first one one guy opened was a spider!!! I'd never seen a guy jump back and yell so loud! It was hilarious!!!

Mom called to say we got three inches of rain at the ranch!!! We needed it!!! Yet now I'm wondering how all the caterpillars are - there were dozens of pipevines on the aristolochia erecta - and that is a ground cover type plant. Guess I'll find out this week when I drive out there for a looksee.

~ Cat

American Lady cat with nest on cudweed. Doesn't that plant like sandy soil? The plants were growing in sand that had been dumped along that area.

Question, anyone know what this odd moth might be? Don't know where to begin seeking an answer, so, Hi, Y'all!

Congrats again on those ALs Linda. The cudweed out here grows in sandy soil as well as hard as rock dirt :o)

~ Cat

Looks like some kind of Scarlet-Bodied Wasp Moth but not exactly what we get out here. Maybe some other type of species or could actually be a wasp? I only see one set of wings but no pointy stinger butt?

~ Cat

Definitely a moth. Here's a blurry shot that shows the second wing.

Thanks for the name, something to start with. edit: I found this moth on a google search, and yes, it's a color variation of a wasp-moth. Fooled me, normally a diurnal critter. I have other photos of one with brilliant blue markings mixed in with the black. Cute website, whatsthatbug.com

Bumper crop of Black Swallowtail eggs! I have been checking the rue, dill and fennel for the past couple of weeks and there was never a sign of butterfly activity.

Never saw a single egg - but yesterday when I was outside checking on the plants I found a dozen or so eggs!!! I looked over those plants daily - have no idea when a BST snuck in and left presents!!! What gets me - is that today they all hatched!!!

Now I swear I'd not seen an egg before yesterday - I know I looked over those plants thoroughly the past few days!!! How did I miss so many eggs???!!!

Same goes for the passion vines - I'd not seen a single Gulf Frit egg but when I looked yesterday there were several third instar caterpillars. Again I swear I looked for eggs - I wanted to find a butterfly egg with some texture to try out my macro reverse adapter ring - but never did see an egg! There are even some first instar and second instar caterpillars today that I did not see yesterday.

I must be losing it!!! I need new glasses!!!

Oh well, only got to try out the reverse macro adapter ring on the BST egg - they are smooth so really can't tell how good it works just yet. How does this BST egg look to ya'll? Mind you, I was outside on the back porch and it was about 8pm - the sun was set and it was a bit dim on my back porch.

By the way, a reverse macro adapter ring is just that - it's an adapter ring that allows you to mount your existing lense backwards on your camera. It allows you to take photos up to more than 3x life size depending on the focal length of the lens you use. Am still trying it out - it works well enough on flat surfaces like photographing the details on a dollar bill or coin - but I've noticed anything three dimensional tends to leave the edges or ends out of focus. Practice! Practice!

I also ordered an extension tube - that has yet to arrive. Am using a Canon XSI - and I reversed the 55mm lens. I really haven't used that camera in the year I've had it - just got so used to using the Sony H9 - but now with these new gadgets - I'm taking it out of the box again!!!

Oh, and I paid less than $5 for the reverse macro adapter ring about $7 for the extension tube - which again, I am still waiting to receive.

~ Cat

Had a Clouded Skipper lay an egg on grass on 04-10-10 - the caterpillar emerged today.

Here's the little bugger getting his first taste of the world.

~ Cat

ps...I really do like that reverse macro adapter ring :o)