Thank you Melanie. You have some pretty good shots there yourself. Your butterfly garden is looking great!

Just a couple things from today. First, my hornworm molted and I can now see an eyespot behind the head so I'm pretty sure this is a Tersa Sphinx Moth! I've never gotten one so small before. Good that they have the "horn" on the back or I would have thought they were some generic green caterpillar. I currently have some kind of generic green caterpillar making leaf shelters all over my bougainvillea. I don't know what they are but there are a lot of them!

So here's the Tersa caterpillar. You can see the black spot behind the head. They get even more eyespots as they grow, but like I said, I've never gotten one this small before. Hooray! Also, you can see the discarded head capsule from where it molted. It's on the leaf directly below the eyespot.



I saw a Long-Tailed Skipper the day before yesterday, and then this morning. And I thought, "Too bad I didn't see one when I was gardening yesterday and had my camera out." But I saw one this afternoon and managed to get a few pictures. Not my best, but you can see the thing. It was on the Salvia 'Mystic Spires' and then the porterweed.


In related news, my Long-Tailed Skipper caterpillar made a chrysalis the other day. I should probably move it to the chrysalis container because the one it's in is kind of messy and mold is starting to grow. I hate to tear open the super neat leaf shelter it built, but I've got lots of sticks in the chrysalis container where it can grab on when it emerges. The container it's in now is kind of small and I like to make sure the butterfly has plenty of room to expand its wings.

In sad news, it looks like I'm going to lose the second of my larger, green Spicebush cats. In good news, the brown one I have molted and is growing bigger. He even stinkhorned me so he's a feisty one. A feisty caterpillar is a healthy caterpillar. Also, I found three more Black ST eggs on the rue today. Unfortunately, one fell off when I picked the leaves off the plant. I swear, some of these butterflies need better egg glue.

Speaking of eggs and glue...so I have the eggs in the container with the Black ST cat that hatched already. I was checking them this morning and looking for the three eggs I had. I could only find two, though! I thought, "Oh no! Maybe the caterpillar ate one!" This generally is not a problem so I kept looking. Turns out, the leaf had wilted and folded a little and I just didn't see it. Then, I added the two eggs I found this afternoon in there. I was checking them again, and this time one of the eggs was clearly missing! And the leaf it was on had been really chewed up! I searched all over and there was no egg. I was so bummed. But then I saw something in the corner - a loose egg! Apparently, the caterpillar ate around the egg and must have "unglued" it so now it's just rolling around loose in the container. This won't affect the hatching process, FYI.

I was wondering if a loose, rolling around egg would be okay. Now I know.

I heard thunder a while ago, so since I had discovered that there's more caterpillars and eggs outside I was out trying to gather together some and bring them in. Lots of Pipevine Swallowtail eggs (wish they'd do single eggs, too many out there!) and one cat, and also little Giant Swallowtail cats on Hop Tree and Rue!

Go Linda!

I do have some pictures and stuff to report, but I'm just dropping in to say, "Look at my microbadges!" As soon as I saw Dave made a microbadge that was a Tiger ST you guys knew I had to get it. So I went crazy this past week, celebrating Peony Week. It wasn't just to get the microbadge; I had fun, too. But you know there was no way I was going to let that one go. So now I have a Tiger ST in my microbadges! Woo hoo!

And Linda, looks like you're having a lot of real-life butterfly action! Send some of those Pipevines my way! Heck, I'd take the Giant STs, too!

Well, let's see. I've got a few things going on tonight. First, a little catch-up from yesterday. Speaking of Tiger STs, I spotted a real one flying around, but only managed one bad photo of it. Dad thinks he saw a dark form female and said it was flying around one of the yellow ones. Could I see eggs soon? Fingers crossed!



I still have plenty of Zebra Longwings around.



And the Monarch is still enjoying the Mexican Flame Vine. You can see the street, sidewalk, and the pole that holds the street sign in the background. I really do live on the corner, folks. Made it easy to walk to the bus stop in high school.



The Gulf Frits are still flying around trying to egg anything in sight - including the stucco on my house! I know butterflies often lay eggs near plants, like on the fence post where a vine is growing. And the passion vine is sort of close to, but does not touch, the side of my house. Stupid butterfly.



So my Tersa Sphinx Moth is growing really fast. You remember that I just posted that it molted. Well, I was checking it yesterday to see if I needed to pick more food before it got dark. And I thought it had enough. This morning, I noticed it hadn't eaten much and that was because it was molting again! And when I checked it a few minutes ago, it was done! They molt so much faster than butterfly cats! So I went outside to pick some penta leaves because I'm nice like that. You can definitely see the eyespots better now, but they'll get even bigger. FYI, these caterpillars come in green and brown, although I'm not sure if they're born that way and stay that way, or if the can molt and change color (like Zebra Swallowtails do). So far this one is staying green.



At least three of my Black ST eggs have hatched so while I was outside picking the Pentas, I picked some Rue, too. Now, this was a few minutes ago so all I had was the light from right outside the garage door which is not very bright. I even muttered that I should have brought a flashlight. But I could still make out the shape of things so I picked one piece of Rue. And I'm so good, I managed to find a Black ST egg. That's right folks, I can now find butterfly eggs IN THE DARK!



But wait - there's more! As I was walking back to my room to put it in the container, I noticed I actually picked TWO eggs. (Fun fact - there's a town in Florida named "Two Egg". Don't know how it got that name.) My thumb was hiding it in the first picture.



Sadly, there is one thing I cannot control. And that is parasites eating my butterflies! My second Palamedes hadn't emerged but Swallowtails are known to take their time so I wasn't too worried. Until last night when I heard something and I looked over to see a wasp in my chrysalis container! Let's just say I went outside with a shoe and the wasp is no more. I forget what kind of wasp it is; I looked it up once. They have blue bodies and orange-red wings. And only one wasp comes out of the chrysalis. They're about as big as paper wasps. Here you can see the hole it made coming out of the chrysalis. FYI, I don't have too many problems with these wasps at my house but I do tend to get them when I "borrow" caterpillars from that place I plead the Fifth Amendment to ever going to.



And in "my Friday night is more exciting than your Friday night" news, I had a confused female Orange-Barred Sulphur emerge. She's spending the night in my bathroom (I keep my lamp on in the bedroom so it's darker in the bathroom) until I release her whenever I wake up tomorrow. I swear I looked at that container yesterday and no one looked close to coming out. I hate when they surprise me like that. I mean, it's a good surprise, but I like to be prepared.



And finally, I'm still celebrating my microbadge! You can't buy this one, folks. You have to earn it! By participating! There are still many weeks of plant celebrations this year so get yours when we have our next celebration which will be all about Clematises! Check out the full calendar and start plotting how to join me in the microbadge club here: http://garden.org/barn/events/

Melanie I love the pics and updates! I had the chance to do a butterfly walk after a meeting with the state parks folks - saw a red admiral, common Buckeyes, lots of eastern tailed blues, pipevine, Zabulon skipper, sleepy orange, snout, and the friendliest hackberry emperor! I was channeling my inner Mellie buttefly whisper skills for sure! only thing was I didn't have a good camera and only got this phone pic - which is dorky for me but the hackberry is awesome.

Woo hoo! Hooray for Meredith! Not dorky at all and the Hackberry is awesome! You saw a few butterflies I've never seen. I've never seen a Snout and I'm trying to remember if I saw a Hackberry. I think I saw one in Kentucky. The BAMONA website appears to be down right now or I could go check because I know I report everything I see in KY and WV since I imagine there aren't too many reports in those rural areas. It's been years, anyway. If I recall, it kept landing on my dad's truck. I've only ever seen Eastern-Tailed Blues in KY and WV. They're so common up there but we don't get them down here.

I'm not much of a traveler, but I do like seeing different butterflies when I go somewhere. And you don't have to travel too far in some spots to really see different species. A lot of it depends on the habitat you're in because that, of course, affects what plants will be growing. That's why it's very important we preserve certain types of habitat. For example, the Bartram's Hairstreak was listed as endangered last year due to the pine rocklands habitat disappearing. There's a big controversy going on down in Miami where the Univ. of Miami sold some pine rocklands to a developer who now wants to build a Wal-Mart and other businesses on it. I've been following the story through the various environmental groups I'm friends with on Facebook. Let's just say I might end up chaining myself to a tree at some point. Dad said he would bring snacks, though.

And for those of us who don't travel or don't travel often, we can come on here and get a virtual tour of wherever you guys are! Seeing all the recent blooms on ATP is giving me total bulb envy right now. But I get to taunt everyone through the winter, so I guess it evens out. If I get a decent night's sleep, I might do a little gardening tomorrow. I still have some bromeliads to move. And I guess I better check the Rue. If I can find two eggs in the dark, I'm somewhat afraid to know what I'll find in the daylight. I suppose I better tell Mom to get some organic parsley next time she goes to the store.

Well, I just picked twenty-three Black ST eggs off my Rue plants. I did a little research into native host plants and I think I could find some but I'd have to go collecting in the place where I plead the Fifth Amendment to ever collecting anything from. Or I have to find someone with wetlands. My neighbor behind me has six acres of wetlands but ever since he died and the granddaughter moved in, well, you know things aren't going well. Mom saw a truck carrying a bunch of furniture out of there yesterday. Let's hope they sold the house to some nice people. Anyway, I can always donate my caterpillars to the museum or buy tons of parsley from the store. I've still got some time to figure things out, but not too much time. They grow so fast!

Wow, Melanie, that's a lot of mouths to feed! Do they have a preference in the parsley, like flat leaf or curly?

Margaret, they are hungry beasts that will eat it all! I have heard people say they prefer the bronze fennel to the green fennel, but I think they will destroy anything in their path (and in the Apiaceae family). I've picked eggs off the parsley at Home Depot (because you know most people won't appreciate them) and the only preference they have is what Momma butterfly could reach.

If it was permitted, I'd tell you to send some along black swallowtail eggs my way - I've got 3 big fronze fennels, dill, and parsley waiting for them, but they are so rude and haven't come to eat - don't they know dinner is waiting?!

You all may get a kick out of this --- so I collected an "egg" that I was hoping was Spicebush off a tree I thought was sassafras - Mellie pointed out she didn't think the tree was sassafras, and she was so right - it was an oak tree. Went on a nice field trip with the Georgia native plant society to help learn tree ids, and now I can (hopefully) tell an oak from a sassafras. Anyway - I was curious - so I kept the egg. It was darkening, it didn't seem like a dud....so I check it, the egg is clear, it's hatched. I look and look and I finally find the bug that hatched - this is not my pic (didn't have camera handy), but it looked like this:
http://scarthphoto.com/wp/wp-c...
I freed it and let it go on its way.

My most recent butterfly visitors were skippers, silver spotted and whirlabout. My sole spicebush cat, appears to be ok, but I would have thought he or she would be green by now. Still looks like birdpoop.

Looking good, Meredith! That thing that hatched looks pretty scary, though. One of my Spicebushies is about the same size as yours. Sometimes you can see the secondary eyespots developing under their skin. The molt to green seems to take longer than the other molts - maybe because they have to change to a whole new color scheme? That's cool that you took the field trip and learned some new plant IDs. It's always helpful to know what host plant something is eating.

Not too much going on here. I've been inside a lot because it's super hot, the rainy season is starting to kick in, and AMC is running a "Jurassic Park" marathon. Also, ABC Family is doing a "Harry Potter" marathon. So I've been enjoying some old faves. And getting excited for "Jurassic World". Watching it this time around definitely made me think more about GMOs and even raising caterpillars. Nature really only seems to need our help when we've messed it up to begin with. Except pandas, maybe. I don't know what's up with them.

Anyway, here's a few pictures. Two Gulf Frits were laying eggs on my passion vine and they're back at it today. I'm not sure how there's any room left to lay an egg. I couldn't get a good photo, but I thought this one had a unique perspective.



Zebra Longwings still float around. Seriously, if you've never seen a Zebra fly, it's so cool. They float a lot and fly real slow like they know they're poisonous and are mocking everyone else.



There was a Long-Tailed Skipper flying around. My camera was kind of blurry. Sometimes in the summer I have problems with it fogging up with all the humidity. More #FloridaPeopleProblems. At least you can see the turquoise in the wings. Fancy!



I'm pretty sure this is the same male Monarch I've been seeing. He has a damaged wing so it's easy to identify him.



And I guess I'm going to raise some Zebra Longwings because I brought them into the house. See how they look orange when they hatch? But they turn white, eventually. They must have hatched sometime between yesterday and this morning. They haven't moved far from their eggs so it was probably a few hours ago.

Meredith! You look too young to have kids the age you do! Nice to "see" you. Very cool things you've been doing lately.

I'm enjoying everything you're reporting Melanie. I promise to *try* to post photos tonight. I have to make some coffeecake first though or the dh is going to go into withdrawals & turn into a bear - a grumpy bear. It takes a while to make the coffeecake as it's not like normal coffeecake. We have celiac disease so have to eat & that means cook & bake gluten free. Baking is a whole different thing than it used to be. For one thing it takes a whole lot longer to mix up & the baking time is generally longer too. Okay, enough about that. Melanie, I am distraught. I haven't seen but a few zebra long wings this year & that was early on -- I haven't seen one at all in at least 2 months solid. I don't understand why. they are usually so abundant here.
Oh, fun fact to add to Two Egg -- there's also a town in FL named Scratch Ankle. Now just imagine how they came up with that name.

Wow, with 23 black swallowtails you're going to be one busy girl!!! We seem to have a lot of black swallowtails here this year although I haven't gotten many photos of them. Today I also saw a Giant Swallowtail flitting around but I didn't have time to go flitting after it to get a photo.

Ann, the Zebra Longwing populations can really vary from year to year. I once went an entire year without seeing one after a pretty severe (for us) winter. They should make their way back north eventually, but it may take time. I'll try to aim them in that general direction, but no promises!

Keep in mind, I found 23 Black ST eggs, in addition to the ones I already had. I counted it up and I think I have a total of 29 or 30 when you count the already hatched caterpillars. So, lots.

Oooo Ann you made me smile, love to hear I look young - My eldest girl just graduated high school, and I was feeling quite aged fretting about what was next. Luckily all is well, she's off to Mizzou in August, and her sister, my baby girl starts high school then, so 4 years till its back to a kid-free zone.

Melanie/Mellie (is Mellie ok, or do you prefer Melanie?) - you must have done your whispering because (drum roll please) --- today I saw my first gulf frit - - I know they are year round residents there, but we only get them in Atlanta in summer and they just make me so happy (of course all butterflies make me happy...). Which is actually not the best, because they don't migrate back south, so come frost in fall they just dwindle away. But the adventurous ones push north and come to us anyway. So of course I got WAY too excited, and started trying to creep up on he or she with a camera, and off it goes... I so hope it comes back because my passionvine has turned into an unruly monster, and needs to be eaten before it takes over the air conditioning unit. It keeps putting up shoots yards away from the main plant, and I've got a second passiflora that is an offspring of the main 2 plants going strong, and still have a couple of pots going (so if anyone wants a passiflora start, let me know - when I see the offshoots, I just dig them up). So I need all those butterfly whispering skills saying "go to Meredith's, food is waiting....."

Melanie, IF I lived close to you I could take some BST eggs or cats.Earlier, I had a few on Bronze Fennel a while back, but now there's none here that I know about.

Meredith, most people call me Melanie but Mellie is fine, too. I thought Gulf Frits were more common in Atlanta. Hmm...maybe they stick near the coast more than I thought? We have them here pretty much year round although their numbers do dwindle in the colder months. They've been chomping away at my passion vine but I noticed a lot of the caterpillars got that virus that "melts" them a few weeks ago so my plant actually still has leaves on it. Most of them have been chewed on, though.

Linda, the good thing about MOSI is that I can always take my surplus caterpillars there. And they're always happy to receive them. So I don't have to worry about thinning the herd, thank goodness.

Sending you a tmail Meridith. I would love some starts!

I ran late tonight. So now posting photos. In fact I'm off to bed in about 2 shakes.