Okay, I'm back as promised. I've had some family "drama" going on around here that's been taking up my time. But I still got in a few pictures.

Here's a Spicebush visiting the magic red pentas. I didn't take too many pictures because it's so humid outside. Is it October yet?



I found three more mystery cats on the Desmodium. Here's a picture of the biggest one. He's in the middle of that chewed-up leaf under the flower.



And I told you I would have pictures of the Long-Tailed Skipper chrysalis. They make their chrysalises inside their leaf shelters, almost like a cocoon. It's thought that Skippers were the first branch of butterflies to break off from moths so that makes sense. I unwrapped him, though, and this is what he looks like now.



Speaking of chrysalises, my last Tiger ST chrysalis is looking pretty dark. Let's just hope it waits until morning to emerge!

Shall we call him moldy skipper?

Silver Spotted Skipper

On hydrangea

On sedum There were dozens there.

Summer Azure (I think)


Monarch
on New England Aster

I have had a blast this year observing Monarchs, which I have seen daily for over 2 months. Have observed all stages except chrysalis. Other day I literally watched one hatch. I was elated.

So sad though that so many disappear over night - 8 cats on Tuesday and today only one. Couple weeks ago, 3 cats likely 3 or 4 instar on a milkweed at 8 PM and gone the next morning.

yesterday, I came home from work to find a mass exodus going on from the bottom of the habitat to the top, in preparation for pupation. Makes sense, since so many of them were laid as eggs on the same afternoon. Here are most of them this morning:



So right now I have 5 chrysalises, 9 in J position or preparing for J position, and 3 still munching on milkweed. (Thank goodness only 3--some of my milkweed plants are beginning to look pretty bare! I used over 40 leaves in one day at the height of their consumption...)

One cat died . The housecleaner comes on Wed, and when I came home from work on Wed, I discovered that she had moved the rice cooker, which has been shielding the habitat, in order to clean the counter. So, a feline had apparently gotten on the counter and leaped on the habitat. A whole side of it was caved in, and one of the caterpillars was fatally injured. I guess I'm lucky it was only one... Next time the housecleaner comes I need to leave her a note not to clean that counter...

Ann, don't call my chrysalis moldy! I was reading the other day, and now I can't for the life of me remember where I was reading this, but I think it was actually about moths. Something about how they secrete a waxy substance that makes the chrysalis waterproof but still breathable. And it made me wonder if skippers do that, too. I'm going to have to research that. That "powdery" stuff on the chrysalis will come right off on your hands so I try not to touch them in case it's important.

Looking good everyone! I need to make a Starbucks run. Not totally awake yet.

So I put my Tiger ST chrysalis in the bathroom last night where it's good and dark. Before I went to Starbucks, I put it back in my room, next to the lamp. When I returned to the house, there was a Spicebush ST and a Gulf Frit on the porterweed, but they were being jerks and wouldn't pose. So I went into my room, and guess who was climbing out of the chrysalis! I've already taken some pictures, but I'm going to take more now that the wings have expanded and I'll post them all at once. Just wanted to build some anticipation on the thread.

No Monarchs last evening or this morning , so far , Patrolling male probably passed away , and the new ones have moved on , Added a dozen or two unto the Migration ,
Melanie , the Chrysalis reminds me of a small hornet or wasp pod . Looking forward to upcoming picture butterfly and larvae show
Many of the tiny butterflies are here , many get ate by cats and toads .

Here are 10 of the cats this morning:



4 turned into chrysalises overnight and only one is left at the bottom of the habitat now.

So now I have 10 chrysalises, 6 in J position or preparing for it, and one resting on a leaf. It should be pretty exciting around here in about 10 days!

Well, I have had a wonderful butterfly day! I hope everyone else is having a great day and a great start to their holiday weekend. But if you need some cheering up or just want to share in my joy, grab a drink, settle in, and let's talk butterflies!

The Tiger ST was just emerging when I came home so I threw down my breakfast sandwich and latte so I could take some photos. Butterflies (and moths) are all wrinkly when they come out of the chrysalis and have to pump fluid into their wings. They look pretty strange at first with their swollen bodies and shrunken wings.




As they pump their wings, they also furl and unfurl their proboscis. It's actually two separate tubes that interlock once the butterfly emerges. As you can see, it only takes a few minutes for the butterfly to start looking normal.



I put the Tiger back in the cage and went to pick food and clean the containers. There was a Polydamas ST flying around outside but I couldn't get its photo. I did, however, get its eggs.



Good thing I was checking because I found a Skipper egg on the pipevine. I don't know why, but Long-Tailed Skippers will get confused and lay eggs on Wooly Pipevine. I put this one in a container with another egg I found later on a correct host plant, Desmodium.



Just when I thought I was done with Black Swallowtails, my Rue gets egged. I found eight all together; here's a few of them.



I went picking Desmodium for the Skippers and the mystery cats. And I found three more mystery cats! Here's a couple.



When cleaning out the Skipper container, I found three mystery cats in there that I had to move over to their container! Now, I had this one mystery cat that had been sitting on a leaf for days. I poked it and it would move. But it never moved off the leaf. Finally, the leaf started getting moldy and I thought, "I can't leave that in there." So I took a close look at the caterpillar and I realized it had pupated! I tore most of the leaf away except where it had attached. Look how small this thing is!



What's weird is I saw the size of it before it pupated and I have caterpillars that are bigger than that in there right now.So I'm still arguing Blue vs. Hairstreak in my mind. I know both can be highly variable and I have green cats and I have pink cats. Some have a stripe, some don't. I really want to end up with both kinds because that would be awesome. It's like waiting for Christmas!

Dorantes Skippers also vary and they tend to turn pinkish before they pupate.



Usually the Dorantes is green.



Outside, I think I have an adult Dorantes. I didn't see the turquoise on the body like the Long-Tailed has.



I finally get back inside and decide the Tiger should be ready for releasing. And was she ever! Went straight for the Cedar tree. But don't worry - we'll see her again!



The big butterflies all ignored me today so I decided to go over to the neighbor's side of the road to see if all those Phaeon Crescents are still there. And they are! I must have seen at least twenty which is crazy. Except not so crazy because there's a big patch of frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora), their host plant. That's frogfruit in the picture.



It's also a popular nectar plant with the smaller butterflies and it hosts the White Peacock, too! So I'm having fun taking pictures of all the little Phaeon Crescents.





And in the middle of all this is a Dainty Sulphur, just chilling. Seriously, I put my camera like an inch away from it and it just posed.



But I'm looking at all the Crescents and if you know me, you know where my mind went. I thought, "There has got to be some butterfly sex going on!" And you know I was right.



Sometimes other males get attracted by the pheromones and try to interrupt. Zebra Longwings are terrible about doing that, too.



Don't ask me which one is male or female. No clue.



So my next thought is that with all these butterflies, there has to be eggs and caterpillars, right? I've never raised Phaeon Crescents before. I've never found anything on frogfruit before. I pondered going inside to reference my books, but I was like, "Nah. I got this". And I totally did.



I must have found over 100 eggs and caterpillars. No joke. I offered some to MOSI since I'll be going by on Monday so they can have Labor Day off. When I asked my boss if she wanted some she said, "Hell yes!" So she's pretty excited, too. They've raised them before and she said it was a lot of fun. I've never seen them at MOSI though, so maybe it's been a while. I always like to feature the smaller, overlooked butterflies. People are always about the Swallowtails and Monarchs. Can't a Skipper get some love?

So I went back in, hydrated, got a container, and filled it with Crescents. I was right by the main road in my neighborhood and only got one honk. I must be losing my touch.

I go back out there and this time I see a Barred Sulphur in the neighbor's yard.



I kept seeing this tiny orange moth that I've seen before but I can't remember what it is. It kept landing on the underside of plants so I couldn't get a great picture, but I sent it to BAMONA for ID. In the second photo, look at the size of the ant on the leaf above and to the right in comparison to this moth. It is TINY!



I walked back over to my yard because I thought I saw a Monarch flying in front of my house. I didn't see it when I got over there, but there was a large black snake sunning right in front of my house. It slithered into the porterweed. I told it where I had last seen Little Bunny Foo Foo. I also alerted Mom; she is terrified of snakes. Doesn't matter what kind.

Around the side of the house I see my Tiger ST on the plumbago but I scare her off accidentally. She lands in the grass near the shed and it takes me a minute to find her, but I do.



I alerted the parents that if they saw my neighbor mowing to tell him not to mow down by the road so as not to affect the Phaeon Crescents. Well, I was sitting on the couch talking to Mom when I heard a mower start up. I ran to the garage where Dad was and told him to go warn the neighbor. Turns out, it was the neighbor's teenage daughter mowing. Dad asked if she was going to mow down by the road and at first she was all, "Yes, I am!" Probably thought we were complaining about the weeds. But then Dad told her about the butterflies and asked if they could wait a couple of weeks to mow it. She said sure and I told Dad she was probably just glad to have less of a chore to do!

So that was my awesome butterfly day! I hope you enjoyed sharing it with me!

Wow! Melanie, that was some butterfly day you had, I would love to see that many in one day. Thanks for all the awesome photos.

Enjoying Melanie Photo's all the more
A few smaller butterflies here today , the orange mint moth still about ,
unusual not to see many with sunshine and 90 degree temperatures like today .
Those caterpillars last week
should still show as butterflies in a few more days .

Woweeee, Melanie! You sure did have an awesome butterfly day!!! --- Frogfruit.

Thank You for sharing your awesome day with us.

Thanks for sharing your great butterfly day. I hope that teenage girl grows up to be a butterfly freak...um, I mean a serious butterfly enthusiast.

greene Brings to mind the Kindergarten Ballet play , with the Butterfly wings and make up .

Oops, I forgot to look up 'Frog Fruit'. What a cute name for a plant.

Nice pics Melanie...quite the scoop for a single day's adventure.

I got one of a blue, probably a Summer Azure, on Boneset.

That's a nice photo J.

Wow Melanie, I'm still trying to digest all this. I can't wait to find out what they mystery cats are! Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait! And talk about itsy bitsy teeny weeny cats! Those ones on the frogfruit just about turned my eyes inside out. I din't know how you could see them. I know the photos are enlarged b/c frogfruit leaves are pretty small.
What a great butterfly day you had!

Now when you see the new owners moving into that house ?out back? that just sold, you have to make sure to go over & introduce yourself & tell them you're a butterfly freak & ask if they wouldn't mind you traipsing around their place taking photos & studying the butterflies.

Well, Dad saw the neighbor (his name is Dale) and Dale said he wasn't planning on mowing down by the road ever again and that the county could do it. I don't blame him; it's dangerous when people are going 45 mph (the speed limit is 45, anyway) and you're mowing on the edge. My dad says the county only mows like once a year so I'm all

We don't know much about the sale of the property behind us except it was to an LLC owned by someone in Georgia. I bet they're going to try and build more homes back there.

In better news, BAMONA said my super tiny moth is a Red-Waisted Florella Moth. What a name! You can check out the sighting page here: http://www.butterfliesandmoths...

And since it ain't over until the Giant ST emerges...the Giant ST emerged. When I saw it hadn't come out by 6 pm or so, I put it in the bathroom. The very dark bathroom with no windows. I had to stop in a few times during the ball game and the Giant was still in the chrysalis. But when I just went in to brush my teeth and get ready for bed - there it was. I have pretty decent lighting in my bathroom. I'll have to remember that. Anyway, I took pictures while its wings were still floppy and it couldn't fly. I once had a Zebra Swallowtail get loose in the house and Dad thought it was hilarious watching me chase after it. This Giant will be spending the night in the very dark bathroom and I will let it go when I wake up in the morning - or afternoon. Whenever.



Oh, and Phyla nodiflora has lots of fun common names. I call it Frogfruit, but some people drop the first R and call it Fogfruit. It also goes by Turkey Tangle. And I found those itty bitty guys with my glasses on. I didn't even have my contacts in! I really need to start wearing my contacts more when I'm outside because it is hard to wear glasses when you're pouring sweat.

Ann, what gave the caterpillars away was the wear and tear on the leaves. It was easy to see the leaves that had been eaten. So I just turned them over and there were the cats. Didn't know they were gregarious like Polydamas. I wonder if they stay that way? It's weird looking them up in my book because of course, the picture is magnified and they look nothing like that to the naked eye. It's cool to see all the detail but it would be more useful to see a picture of what it looks like when you find them! And that's one of many reasons I like this thread! We can share real-world photos of things we find; not the picture perfect specimens you see in the books.

Congrats on your newly-emerged Giant Swallowtail--it's beautiful!
And that's really cool about the BAMONA ID.