mellielong said:I order from www.mailordernatives.com but I don't think I've ever seen them carry porterweed. Maybe because there is so much confusion. I was doing some reading about it last week and I think even I have the hybrid kind. Apparently, our native one mixes with the non-native one and create something in the middle. Mine has attributes of both. I know I once definitely had the invasive kind because the flowers were much darker (purple, not blue) and they got well over 6 feet tall. I've never seen one in the wild so I feel like I'm not even sure what the native ones look like. I'll have to see if the Florida Native Plant Society is selling them at the next USF plant sale. But one of the things I read was on their website where they were trying to teach all the chapters which one was the native kind because some of the chapters had been selling the non-native kind! It's enough to make you crazy! Well, crazier.

And yes, definitely plant in the fall. It's too hot for people in the summer, let alone people dragging hoses around! That's a big reason I don't do container gardening. Who wants to water every day? And I hate to say it, but I'm kind of glad Impatiens are getting that disease that's killing them. They require way too much water to look decent - even when you plant them in the shade!

It's downright crazy isn't it? I KNOW I had the native one & not even a cross at our last house. Gee, if I were there I could take cuttings off it but I'm not there even if the new owners left it. I had the entire yard xeri with not one blade of sod grass & the first thing they did was rip everything out & put wall to wall sod & plunked 2 coconut palms smack dab on top of the septic tank & drain field. At least that's the front yard which is the only thing anyone passing by can see so I have no idea what they did to the back yard. Oh well, it's their house & they have the right to do anything they want.

I can't stand impatiens for the amount of water they suck up. I didn't know they were getting a disease that's killing them. Suits me.

Beautiful butterfly photos Lin and Melanie!

Hey all my one and only spicebush baby is now green!

Too cute!

They really are cute looking!!

Meredith, mine molted to green last night! Ours must be on the same schedule!

Good news everyone! I'm typing this on my own computer! They replaced a lot of parts including the motherboard, but my hard drive is intact so I didn't lose any files. I had backed up all the important stuff on my external drive, but it's still nice to know nothing was lost. I had to do a lot of updates and it's still running a little slow so I'm going to test things out one at a time. And that includes uploading some pictures from today. When I get them uploaded, I'll be sure to share on here.

Well, today, June 5th, I saw a Monarch! So odd, but considering the butterflies were so late to start the spring season, I guess this makes sense. The heat didn't get up to near normal levels for the time of year until the rains & clouds were gone. Like a water faucet was turned off...not a drop since. We're back to sun all day long and hot again. Having to water again, not my favorite thing, but it was bound to happen! Still have a Giant Swallowtail around and I assume the egg-laying could continue.
Oh, and I miss the cute Spicebush cats! Hope a mom butterfly shows up here for my Spicebush.

Just a few things from today because I didn't wake up until after 4 pm. I went out to pick food for the critters and it was pretty cloudy. But this Zebra Longwing was hitting up the porterweed.



I found another Black ST cat which is good because I had another one die today.



You may remember I previously found large frass on my Sweetbay Magnolia and I guessed it was coming from a moth caterpillar up in my oak tree. Well, today I found some more on the Sassafras. I don't know which moth is up there munching away, but I'm happy to provide them habitat and host plants.

Melanie, here's a good guess. Promethea silkmoth. Both sweetbay magnolia and sassafras are host plants.

http://www.butterfliesandmoths...

Wouldn't that be awesome? Now someone rent me a cherry-picker so I can find out for sure! Maybe I should just try turning on one of the lights around the house and see what I attract. My butterfly and moth books describe how you can hang a white sheet up and illuminate it with a lantern or whatever and see what is attracted to it. Maybe I could get me a female to lay eggs and then torment my boss at the museum! FYI, moths aren't really "attracted" to light. They orient themselves by the light of the moon and our electric lights confuse them. Kind of like sea turtles trying to find the ocean. For those who don't live in coastal areas...baby sea turtles also use the reflection of the moon off the water to know which way to head into the sea. Electric lights confuse them, as well. Luckily, there's been a campaign for many years now to get people in those million dollar homes right on the beach (who are begging for a hurricane to hit them) to turn off their outside lights and try to keep the house dark. (Turtles hatch at night.) And they've been pretty cooperative about it.

Well, that was a little off-topic but I hope you learned something. Long story short - many animals use the moon and Thomas Edison ruined it for all of them. Now, I just woke up to the sound of my brother starting the lawn mower. I'm going to get some Starbucks to help ease the pain of whatever he managed to damage out there this time. More news when I wake up!

Okay, there are thunderstorms rolling in rather early today so no outside pictures for me. As I've said before, Tampa is second in the world for most lightning strikes. Seriously, at pre-school I learned not to talk to strangers, what to do in case of fire, and how not to get struck by lightning. It's just a thing around here. The weather lady said yesterday we had a chance between 1pm and 6pm but these are a little early. I guess it's better to get them out of the way since there is a Very Important Hockey Game going on here tonight and we don't want people getting hurt on the way into the game. But since our team is the Lightning, most locals see this kind of weather as good luck.

Anyway, some of you may know that there's a Very Big Movie coming out on Friday called "Jurassic World". FYI, NBC will be showing the original "Jurassic Park" on Friday night. I watched it on AMC last weekend. And that got me talking with Mom about whether or not there would have been butterflies hanging with the dinosaurs. Now, the Jurassic period was 201 to 145 million years ago. But many critics of the movie point out that several of the dinosaurs are from the Cretaceous Period which was 145 to 66 million years ago. Then, that whole extinction thing happened. Part of that extinction event was that a lot of plants died off (lack of photosynthesis due to particles in the air) which killed the herbivores which in turn, killed the carnivores. Remember that whole thing about nature being connected?

Well, the oldest moth fossil is dated 190 million years ago (Lower Jurassic Period) and was found in Dorset, UK. Apparently, early moths were similar to caddisflies. Butterflies came much, much later with fossils showing up about 40-50 million years ago. I have seen other sources say butterflies showed up about 60 million years ago. But you can see the butterflies came much later. It is thought that the Skippers were the first to break off the evolutionary chain to become butterflies. Looking at them, you can see why.

So when I'm watching those dinosaurs, I fully expect to see some moths, but no butterflies. Although, from the trailers these idiots were dumb enough to genetically breed a new dinosaur so I'm sure the park has lots of inaccuracies. How would they keep the butterflies off the island anyway? It's supposed to be off the coast of Costa Rica so I imagine there would be lots of butterflies. Can you imagine if they drank the tears of dinosaurs like some butterflies drink from cows and stuff these days? That would be awesome! But frankly, I'm just going because I want to watch some dinosaurs eat people. You know that's why we go see these films. Plus, I want to know how Chris Pratt's character manages to train a bunch of Velociraptors. I can't even get a caterpillar to obey and he can train dinosaurs? Sure...I'll just suspend my belief for that one.

This has been your daily lesson in butterflies from Melanie! I'm going back to drinking my latte and waiting for a male Orange-Barred Sulphur to emerge.

Well, I fed and cleaned the caterpillars and ended up going outside where it does not appear that it rained. I checked the radar and it looks like it went slightly north of us. Anyway, I have some pictures to share.

My Tersa Sphinx Moth started turning colors last night which made me think he was going to pupate. He also looks like he's got the sweats. I know the changing color is normal but I can't remember if the sweating thing is. They don't gut purge (thank God) so maybe the sweats are a way to get rid of excess liquid? If you recall, many months ago I found a Pluto Sphinx Moth (first one ever). He turned gray and started sweating but he died. But in good news, my Tersa is making a cocoon of sorts. You see, Sphinx Moths like to burrow in the soil under the plant. Lots of the larger moths do this, including those Hickory Horned Devils (Regal Moths) we raised at the museum. Well, dirt can get a little...dirty, so you can also put mulch or leaf litter in there. In this case, he's just using the leaves I put in there yesterday that he didn't eat. I tore them away to take the picture and clean it up a bit because there was soggy frass in there and that can't be healthy. In more good news, he's currently reconstructing his nest. It's funny because every now and then the leaves all raise up and it looks like I'm hiding some leaf monster in there. I've also got the lid off in hopes the A/C will dry him out a bit. I hadn't thought much about it, but this guy really didn't use his silk much until he was ready to pupate. Granted, I didn't handle him too much. He might have silked my hand if I had played with him more. Let's all hope he pupates because their pupa are super cool and I want to show you.



I started the big Black ST on organic parsley from Publix so we'll see how he does. He went right into it.



I also added three of the larger Black STs in there. The one on the end of this Rue stick went in. Basically, if they reached a certain threshold of orange, they went in.



I'm keeping the little guys on Rue for the time being until the parsley proves safe. I've never had problems with the organic parsley before, but you never know. Remember folks, the stuff they use to kill caterpillars (BT spray) is an organic pesticide because it is a naturally occurring bacteria that kills caterpillars! So don't accept that organic=safe for your caterpillars. Make sure your host plants are extra safe. I highly recommend growing from seed and buying from small nurseries who can actually answer your questions with competence. Or buying from butterfly farms that also sell plants. Okay, I forgot what picture I was leading in to. While I was picking the Rue, I found another caterpillar! I also have a lot of spiders which I'm trying to relocate. Nothing against spiders - just not on my host plants!



Now, I often get asked about damaged butterflies and can they still fly and such. So I was walking back to the house when I saw a Gulf Frit flying over what looked to be a leaf on the lawn. And I yelled, "What are you doing Frit?" Yes, I really do say these things out loud. My neighbors probably wonder why I don't talk to them but I talk to plants, but whatever. Anyway, the Frit flies away and I see this on the ground! Apparently, I had a female Frit on the ground and the male Frit was trying to "hit it" as the kids say. (He went on to chase a better looking female over by the passion vine, in typical male fashion.) As you can see, this butterfly is tore up! I've only seen one that was ever this bad and that was a Spicebush. I got real close to her to see if I could and she flew off and landed on my roof! So she could fly, although not as fast as the typical Gulf Frit. Still, you gotta be impressed. This girl's a survivor.



In sad news, the last of the three green Spicebush cats I had died. Something was just not right with that batch. I've been having trouble with the Spicebushes since last year. Next time, I'm going to experiment and feed them Red Bay to see what happens. Maybe break them into two groups - feed one food from here at the house, and the other Red Bay from...well, I plead the Fifth. Also, those four Spicebush eggs I had never hatched.

But in happier news, my brown one molted into green! And he seems to be growing at a decent rate and eating an appropriate amount for his size. Unfortunately, he stinkhorned me while I was trying to take his picture. Next time I need my sinuses cleared, I'm going to skip the Zyrtec and just poke a Spicebush cat. Now, since Meredith showed me hers, I'm going to show her mine!

Thanks for sharing Melanie! I saw some great cats on a butterfly walk. I let others take pic but our specie list was: American lady, Buckeye, silver spotted skipper, horace' s duskywing, variegated fritillary, azure, eastern tail blue, cabbage white, eastern tiger swallowtail, red spotted purple, pipevine, fiery skipper, Orange sulphur, pearl crescent, common checkered skipper, little glassy wing, and giant swallowtail.

Melanie, I can't tell you enough how much I enjoy your knowledge and sharing when it comes to butterflies, moths and caterpillars!!

Aww, thanks for the love, everyone. Meredith, that sounds like an awesome butterfly walk! Send me some of those Silver-Spotted Skippers. I love those little guys. They're super common around WV. I see them all over the place when I visit Grandma. But I'm right on the border of where they live. I have their host plant, False Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa) and I've had the Skippers on it about three or four times. But my last batch all died. And they all died within about 24 hours which makes me suspect someone sprayed something on the plant. I was super bummed. That plant is also the host for the Southern Dogface (a type of Sulphur) but I've never seen it on the plant. In fact, I think I've only seen the butterfly once. I have a picture from when I first started butterflying of one. I'll have to dig it up and see when that was.

Lin, I'm glad you're learning something. I wanted to be a teacher when I was young, but then in sixth grade I found out how much they made. I'd put a laughy face but that's actually a shame, isn't it? I do have a few teachers in the family, though. I think I'd rather be a librarian. I was contemplating getting my Masters in Library Science right before I got sick. It's like when they asked that guy why he robbed banks and he said it's because "that's where the money is." Libraries are where the books are! And now that we have internet, it's where the knowledge is. And as G.I. Joe taught me when I was little, "Knowing is half the battle!"

By the way, Elaine over in the Florida forum has as many Black ST cats as I do! Go congratulate her: http://garden.org/thread/view_...

I sure wish I had the brain for retaining all that I've learned over the years ... unfortunately the older I get, the faster things seem to disappear from my memory bank. I can ask a question and a few days later I'm asking the same question again. I must admit though, a lot of my problem is my short attention span due to not paying enough attention.

On the subject of how difficult a butterfly has it during it's life span; I went back through the photos on my computer and it seems that in 2010 and 2013 I was seeing a lot of damaged butterflies with chewed wings from predators. I know some birds will eat butterflies but I've watched little lizards stalking them at times too in hopes of an easy meal. I always try to catch the lizard and move it elsewhere in the yard or shoo it away and sometimes the b'fly takes off too but it makes me feel better that at least the butterfly had a bit longer to live.

Gulf Fritillary


Red-banded Hairstreak ........................ Sulphur ............................................... White Peacock


Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (I think) ..... Spicebush Swallowtail (I think) .......... Zebra Longwing

Well, remember Hairstreaks have those tails and eyespots there to fool predators into thinking the bottom is their head. Same for Swallowtails' tails and eyespots (as seen on the Eastern Black ST). Other species like Buckeyes and White Peacocks have prominent eyespots, too. Those tails break off pretty easy, as I've found out the hard way. The butterfly was fine, but Melanie was filled with guilt. But you can see from all your photos that the trickery worked and it afforded the butterfly a chance to get away. Score one for the butterflies!

And good job identifying those butterflies, Lin! Your Sulphur looks like a Sleepy Orange.

Lizards can be a problem as I've found out at the museum. I've managed to trap a few in the flight cage and remove them to the outside gardens. I'm always challenging guests and other volunteers to catch them and make my job easier. My brother could always catch them, but not me.

My Orange-Barred Sulphur looks like it's ready to emerge but it hasn't. Maybe my radio is too loud? If he waits much longer, I'll have to put him in the bathroom overnight.

Melanie, Thanks for the identity on the Sleepy Orange! I do have a folder on my laptop labeled Sleepy Orange but that picture was in a folder labeled Sulphur. I have a Florida Butterfly book but I still get confused with a lot of them and a few of my B'fly photos are probably in incorrect folders.

No problem! Back when I was on the other site Dave started, and I was new at this, I posted a picture of what I thought was a Queen. And everyone agreed with me. Well, years later I was going through my photos and I realized it was actually a Viceroy! I guess a lot of people don't realize in areas where there are lots of Queen butterflies (which I wouldn't say was here, but whatever) the Viceroy does the double mimic thing by copying the pattern of the Monarch and the color of the Queen. It's like a butterfly double agent! Honestly, now that I know better, I think it's weird when I see someone post a picture of an orange Viceroy.

I think it's fun to look back at old photos and see if you can identify patterns like when the first Swallowtail showed up, when you got the first eggs of a certain species, or whatever it is that's important to you. I often surprise myself when I look at my old photos. Like a few weeks back when I was trying to figure out how many times I had raised Palamedes Swallowtails and I found out it was more than I had thought - though still not enough!

FYI, Tersa has settled down and seems content in his leaf nest. As soon as he pupates and hardens up, I'll tear it apart and take pictures. Then, I'm going to put him in the pupation container (formerly known as the chrysalis container but I'm making allowances for moths) where he'll have lots of sticks to emerge on. Remember, butterflies aren't so good on slick surfaces like plastic so give them stuff to grab. Unless you have Monarchs because they will have already silked every square millimeter of whatever you've put them in. No, you should probably give them sticks, too.

Oh, I can't remember if I said this before or not so forgive me if I repeat myself. A while back I was taking pictures of a Spicebush caterpillar (which is possibly my most photographed caterpillar according to my photo files). And the camera picked up on the eyespots and put a little square around them like it thought it was a person's face! How's that for fooling predators? My own camera used the facial recognition technology on it! Have any of you guys had your camera do that? I thought it was really cool.