Wow again, Melanie! Neat pictures! Congrats on your Tiger swallowtail cats!!

I will have to look for the black swallowtail chrysalis, I've never seen one before but I do get the caterpillars on my dill and I love the butterflies!! All ST's are pretty though.

Thanks, Christine! The chrysalises of any butterfly can be hard to find. Not only because they're meant to blend in, but because when the caterpillars enter their wandering phase, they can wander really far! The ones I tend to find are Monarchs and sometimes the Gulf Frits because they like my white, stucco house. Kind of makes them easy to spot. But if you have a lot of other plants around your dill, it could be hard to find one. Sometimes I find empty chrysalis where the butterfly has already emerged.

mellie,
Yesterday there were 3 Black Swallowtail caterpillars in my garden, they were getting kind of sluggish. One was taking a walk along an onion plant. Checked again today after a downpour and I can only find one caterpillar, so either the other two wandered off to 'do their thing' or they have disappeared.

Greene, I'm going to think positively and assume they have wandered off. Because nothing bad happens to caterpillars in my world! Oh, Mom released the Black ST that was all wrinkly after it dried for a few hours. I went to the movies so I left her in charge.

These are from a couple weeks ago
they ate my pink pussytoes till it was gone then disappeared


this is what was left of the flowers


I hope they become something beautiful I really liked the pussytoes.
Of course I purchased another ....Maybe I should have gotten two < One for me and one for them

So excited for you Melanie on the tiger swallowtail cats

Yes any cat news lately is great news ,
Today I saw my unidentified Butterfly in the garden , three times now without my camera , Size of a snout , and looks a lot like the the snout except , There is red , where the third inside white dot stripe ,should be , you know the rough shaped coloration , This is with the wings closed , open it looks just the snout ,

I got a good look and it is not the swamp metalmark it is not pearl crescent ,
it is not copper , or Baltimore , not tortoiseshell
I am wondering if there is such a thing as a red Snout Butterfly ?
I went through a lot of files , that is as near as I can get , Red Snout , but there is no such thing as I know ?

Because I do not have picture evidence I feel out in left field , like when I saw the Bee Tailed Hummingbird , the little brown camoflage male , 4 inch long beak the size of a ruby Throated Hummigbird , females are the only picture I ever saw here but the info is not there anymore , females are five times the size of the male and green with blackish wings and the white tail feathers run opposite with the black tail feathers , other way then white tipped Ruby tail feathers
other is the Fletchers dove Hawk an all white hawk with Black ivory Rhino talons and black leopard rings with the white in between them on an all white feathered body . I have only seen one , wild that is ,
well anyway , any local Butterfly watchers for this region keep your eyes out there for the Red Snout , somehow a pic is must have ,,

Well, I'm going to have to think on Jim's mystery butterfly. At least you're not colorblind like my Dad. Sometimes he comes in describing the most amazing butterflies that don't actually exist except in his head.


Cinda, you have found American Painted Ladies! And good job! They do eat pussytoes and build nests in the fluff. I had some this spring. If you check out the thread from maybe March or April we had some pictures of the nests they build. You should probably find frass in there and maybe a head capsule if they molted! Those plants were something you bought? They just come up as weeds here in the spring. But they don't last in the heat which is why Painted Ladies are pretty much spring-only butterflies here. Those plants have been gone for at least a month by now. I'll have to dig up my old photos from earlier this year when I'm more awake.

Thanks everyone for the thumbs up, acorns, and congratulations on my Tigers. I think they may be about to molt as one has been sitting on the same place on a leaf and the other has taken up residence on the side of the container. They've been there since I got home yesterday so I'm thinking it's molting time! Which means I get to post more pictures after they do their thing.

Jim, I've never seen a Snout so I went to BAMONA to look at some pictures. Looking at the Snout, one butterfly that would look similar to me might be the Red Admiral. Have you ever seen one of those? There aren't too many butterflies with red on them so I'm a little stumped. You could always check BAMONA and look at the species in your area to see if you can find a match.

Cinda, I checked and it appears that in my area the American Painted Lady uses Pennsylvania Cudweed (Gamochaeta pensylvanica). There seems to be some debate over whether it is native or introduced. It's also in the Aster family with your Pussytoes. I thought the fluff was what was left after it went to seed, like the milkweed fluff from the seedpods. I never looked that close, though, I suppose. But it's so cool that you found the caterpillars!

I saw a Snout yesterday while in the garden but I think this one's called American Snout.

Millielong I started here with the Red Admiral , I see them everyday truly ,

Look at Wildflowers post just above mine (this one ) and beneath your last one , American Snout Like Wildflowers, I get them feeding on mints , They are just about the same size as a mature Gray hairstreak ,maybe a tiny bit larger ,
Same as the American snout , except that third white inner wing marking , is Red ,

anyway Those of you that get them (American Snout) keep your eyes open for the Red Where the White Dot would usually be ,
and there are two Snout Butterflies that are are Extinct , One was Gray I believe , went extinct about 1970 , ? I remember a few , I was there .

Red admirals are the Size of painted ladies or larger , that is 10 or 12 times larger (about ) than the American Snout

Red Admirals and a Spangled Frittary (mis-spelled) I think.

Having trouble with my spotty WiFi internet connection...

No photos right now but there are 4 Black Swallowtail Cats in the garden bed; before today I had seen only 3 of them. Two are just hanging out getting ready. The other two are in position to make the change; of those two one is on the Garlic Chives and one is on a pink Salvia.

I took some photos but can't get them uploaded just yet (they may be totally out of focus ). I'll check back later.

I will keep a look out for the ''Snout'' a name like that would make me feel a bit self conscious


As for the painted ladies I do remember seeing several earlier this spring , guess now I know what they were hanging around for...my pussytoes.
When I lived in Michigan there were a lot of wild pussytoes living in the lawn but I never see any here. I think they like more sand my lawn area is rather wet . The ones I planted are in a rock garden with good drainage.

Here are the best two photos of the caterpillars. These are the two that have found their spot; the first on is on Garlic Chives; the second is on the Pink Salvia. Are the Swallowtail cats?



A third is still on the Slender Celery...


The fourth is on a piece of wire shelving...


It is really difficult to take photos of caterpillars that are not moving; I can only imagine how much patience y'all need to get the great pictures of the butterflies in action. My hat is off to y'all!

Happy Friday. Feeling happy. 8 gulf frits munching away. Two grass skippers visited today. I know the one with spots on the wings is a little glassy wing. You can't tell from pic but it was really clear looking when watching. Not sure about the other.

Wow, lots going on today! We had a lot of rain here today so I went to the movies and then napped. Greene, those are all Black ST caterpillars. After they gut purge, they enter a "wandering phase" where they roam around looking for a suitable place to make a chrysalis. This is why you often find them far away from their host plant and on totally different plants, like the Salvia, for example. Apparently, the caterpillar thought that was a good place to make a chrysalis and settled down and made its sling. They should be chrysalises within about 24 hours.

When I was about 10 years old I watched a butterfly emerge from a chrysalis. Just that one time.
I hope to watch these two as they go through the change. :hurray:

Tomorrow I will hunt for the other two to see if I can find out where they decided to hang out.

Greene! Fun!