You know, I've never found any of the Sphinx moths' eggs. I always find them as caterpillars. We grow some tomatoes at MOSI and I've got a huge Brugmansia at my house, and yet, I've never found hornworms on them. I always wonder why. Something eats my Brugmansia, but I know a hornworm could strip it so I don't think it's them. Not that I'm complaining! Their little "faces" kind of freak me out. They look like they want to attach to my skin and suck my blood like a leech.

This butterfly was in my garden today.

Ooh, a Polydamas Swallowtail! They're generally one of the last Swallowtails to emerge in this area since they're more of a tropical butterfly. I was seeing them well into January, though. Still blaming El Nino. Great photo, too! They flap so fast it's really hard to get a good picture of the top of the wings.

You are right Mellie ! It flapped so fast that I thought I would not be able to take a picture of it. But I got this one !
This monarch was another visitor.

I went to the province of Cordoba, Argentina, last week. I saw these small butterflies there. I don't know their names.

Nice, very nice indeed!

This afternoon I had a visitor. It seemed very hungry, looking in my plum tree for blooms! Unfortunately, there's barely any flowers left...it nectared a bit, but mostly the beautiful swallowtail soared around in desperation looking, checking all the trees. Don't know if it had already visited the Carolina Jessamine in the back yard, which still has enough blooms. There were other things blooming, but it was looking in trees. I felt bad that the plum tree didn't have more than a few blooms left...it bloomed early this year. I think some butterflies took shelter away from the rains and storms, now they're hungry. Couldn't get a very clear pic, best I could do.

Wow! International butterflies! And Monarchs and Swallowtails, oh my! I saw a Monarch yesterday flying over my neighbor's house. Mom saw it earlier in the day in front of our house but I was in bed. I also saw a Cloudless Sulphur but you know those things rarely stop. It's supposed to rain today so I'm off early to MOSI. No fun picking caterpillar food in the rain. The plants definitely need it, though. This is our dry season and while some of my plants have started to "pop", they're not really shooting up yet.

I've been searching in internet and I found the butterflies I saw in Córdoba.
The first one is "Mariposa danzarina". In English would be "dancing butterfly".
Here is the link
http://faunayfloradelargentina...

And this is the second. "Bella mapwing"
http://www.reservacostanera.co...

Nice, Cecilia! I like the names, too. Sometimes, I wonder about common names. The Spanish ones I've heard so far sound a lot nicer than some of the English ones.

Well, I got in and out of MOSI pretty fast today. Mostly washed the chrysalis boxes. I did find two Sulphur cats and realized on the way home I totally forgot to take pictures of them. They were pretty small; I couldn't tell which species they were.

I did get a few butterfly pics. I would have thought we'd have more butterflies in the flight cage, but they could have been hiding seeing as how it was barely daylight.

This Zebra Longwing was just hanging out.



As was this Monarch.



The Great Southern Whites emerged. Females are more grayish while males are pure white or a little yellow. But they all have those fabulous turquoise antenna clubs!



There was one Luna Moth in there. From what I could see of the antenna, I think it's a female. I didn't spy any eggs, but she would have needed a male for that. Too bad no one is there at night. We could have tied a string around her and tied her to a tree. Seriously, that's what people who raise moths do. Just sit back, wait for the male to do its thing, then put the female in a paper bag to lay some eggs. FYI, the sky really is that gray. Rain on the way.



I call this one, "Monarch Sunrise". Not as much fun as a Tequila Sunrise, but MOSI is a family-friendly attraction. Except when we host the "Einstein and Wine" fundraiser. But that one's at night after the museum closes.



Here's the Monarchs closer up, along with one that was above the door soaking in the sun.

Beautiful pics Mellie. I like Zebra Longwing very much. Perhaps because I cannot find one of them here in Argentina.

Thanks, Cecilia! They're the official state butterfly of Florida. They don't get too far north of our state. So most of the U.S. doesn't get them, either. In fact, when we had two bad winters in a row, I went an entire year without seeing one in the wild. Luckily, they spread their way back north.

Hello everyone! Love all your gorgeous photos! I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of butterflies. Two days ago I saw the first Cabbage White of the year, and caught a glimpse of a dark orange - couldn't get close enough for a positive ID.

Linda, my baby Mexican Plum bloomed this year! I didn't expect blooms for 2 or 3 years yet. I got it last year from Ron at dogwooderitter.net and it was just a 2' stick. Now it's 5' and lots of branches.

The Redbuds are blooming, and to my surprise, my Flame Acanthus has started to leaf out. Black and Blue Salvia is up, too. Things are way early.... I'm scared!

The news from Mexico has gone from good to bad. Apparently a surprise winter storm has hit the forest and devastated much of the remaining Monarch population. Some had already departed, but many had not. Gotta go check news reports and will get back to you.

Susan

Okay, I got bored and had to feed my Orange-Barred Sulphur cat, so I wandered around the yard. We got some sprinkles, but not the good rain I was hoping for. While I was out there, I was looking for caterpillars, and while I didn't find the ones I wanted, I did find one species.

So it's time again for "Caterpillar Hunting With Melanie"! In today's episode, we hunt the Cassius Blue. In case you forgot, I took a picture of one last month. Pay attention to where that butterfly is attempting to lay an egg.



So here in Florida, everyone grows Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) We actually have a native white Plumbago, but everyone grows the non-native blue one. You can find it at all the big box stores, and it's pretty hard to kill. You see it in a lot of parking lots, too. It's very tough. It's also a host plant for the Cassius Blue, so as long as you grow them, and you don't spray them with pesticide, you get butterflies nearly year-round.

I have this thing where I'm trying to raise as many species of butterfly (and moth) caterpillars that I can, at least once. A few years ago, I decided I was going to raise Cassius Blues. But the trick is finding them. They're a small butterfly, which means a small caterpillar. The real trick though, like I always say, is knowing the butterfly's behavior. See that first picture? The Cassius Blue only lays on the undersides of buds, blooms, and seedpods. That's what the caterpillar eats. So if you're looking at leaves, you're wasting a lot of time. For perspective, here are pictures of my plumbago taken today. That's my Black Cherry tree on the right, and the slightly darker green is my Passiflora 'Lavender Lady'. Don't worry, the caterpillars will be around to chew it back real soon. You can see why Dad doesn't like when it grows into the garage, though.



You can also see that our house is trimmed in blue so my parents thought the plumbago would match nicely. As far as I can remember, we've had them since we built the house in 1994 so I'd say they're long-lived, too. Okay, but that's a big shrub and they get bigger if you let them. Searching for a tiny caterpillar could take forever! Unless you know to only check the buds. These things...



And I found some! Because, of course I did! Now, they're greenish-gray and they're one of the caterpillars that look generally slug-shaped. I'll help you out. In this picture, it's right above my thumbnail, on the right bud.



This guy was the biggest and will probably pupate soon. He's the grayish thing to the right of my finger that's kind of twisted up.



And this one is sitting to the right of the stem, kind of on the leaf.



But to really help you out (and have fun), I busted out the microscope! And as I did, I found a fourth caterpillar. Oh, I also saw an egg when I was outside, but there was no way my camera was going to pick that up. So to the microscope we go!

Let me first say that each one of those squares is one centimeter square. So we're talking really small! This is the big guy. They keep their head capsules tucked up under them unless they're eating. It's that dark spot on the right of him.



You can see they have a wave-like pattern that helps to camouflage them.



Here's the egg I found. Even I'm not sure if it's hatched or not. This is the same piece I found caterpillar number four on, so he might have come out of it.



Speaking of caterpillar four, he's super tiny! The spiky things are part of the plant (the seeds stick to your clothes terribly). The cat is on the top of the bud between the first and third spikes from the right.



Just for some perspective, here's caterpillar four (the smallest) with the largest caterpillar above him! Just like all caterpillars, they vastly increase their size as they grow. It's just less obvious when they start out so small.



And because I couldn't forget my other friend, here's my Orange-Barred Sulphur cat sitting on the kitchen table. Don't worry, he's on the lid of his Gladware. Mom was sitting there reading the paper and drinking coffee - she's used to the caterpillars by now. I did quiz her about the new cats and she answered Cassius Blue correctly!

Oh Melanie, you really REALLY should have been a teacher! Wonderful pictures and 'lecture'. I'm heading out to my plumbago to see if I can find any tiny cats or eggs.

Thanks, Elaine! I just opened the container to check on everyone. I think I found a fifth cat. It's right below what looks like a hatched egg. I'm too tired to get the microscope back out right now.

Okay, I just touched it with my fingernail and it moved around. Definitely a caterpillar. I don't think it just hatched, though. Even as small as it is, it couldn't fit in the egg.

I need to get new lenses for my glasses, but I'm thinking I should wait until after I raise these guys so I can just mess up my eyes as much as possible first.

Hey, Melanie I got my birthday microscope working finally. Could this be a monarch egg about to hatch? I have lots and lots of them out in the garden now.

Elaine, you've got some kind of bug there. Or possibly where a bug molted. I see things that look like that around the aphids that hang out on milkweeds, and I've wondered what they are, but haven't researched it too hard.

UF saves me once again! The brown things appear to be aphids that were parasatized and those are the empty husks. That actually explains a lot. Check out this article here: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/crea...

Finally found my way here!

Neat stuff, Melanie.