mellielong said:Elfrieda, there are several members of the Sphinx Moth family. Only one of them is the Tobacco Hornworm that eats tomato plants and other things in the nightshade family. (Note: the Tobacco Hornworm is found on the east coast, the Tomato Hornworm is found on the west coast. This is why we use Latin names.)

We have both here in Missouri - lotsa tobacco and lotsa tomatoes.

For those who simply must know more about the Tobacco and Tomato Hornworms, I once again defer to UF: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/crea...

Just keep a sharp eye out for denuded branches on your tomato plants, then look carefully for the caterpillar. They're not hard to find since they're so huge and bright green. If you don't get them, they can completely de-foliate a large plant in a few days. Mind you, tomatoes are so resilient, at the school garden we left one plant for the hornworms, as a learning experience for the kids. Then when they went underground to pupate that completely naked plant sprouted new leaves and went right on to produce tomatoes. (we did help it along with some extra fert and TLC) So moral of the story is, they don't always kill the plants. But they are voracious.

I always donate one or two plants. We ALWAYS end up tossing tons of tomatoes away even after donating to friends, relatives and the local food bank. I love hummingbird moths.

I have left a plant or two for them to chew on ,,
I am seeing a few ,, A red Admiral bouncing off the window
And Today I saw a Sulphur I have some Alfalfa I hope they find ,

I accidentally posted my bird post here. Good thing I'm moderator so I can edit and delete posts!

Butterflying was pretty good today. Lots of Gulf Frits, of course. They even chased the Monarch away so I couldn't get its picture.



Moth. BAMONA couldn't ID the other one I sent that looked like this.



This Monk Skipper was just relaxing on my Senna for a while.



Duskywings like Blanket Flowers, too.



Zebra Longwings



Probably a Brown-Shaded Gray moth.



In exciting news, I saw another Great Southern White. But this one was female! Notice the gray shade.



Skipper



Female Spicebush was back. Didn't find any more eggs, though.



Duskywing enjoying the sun on the Rue.



I went and checked the Virginia Peppergrass since I saw that female White. I found a caterpillar, but I suspect it's a Checkered White.



Surprisingly, I found two Checkered White chrysalises! I rarely find chrysalises.



And the Spicebush found my discount Pentas! Told you, you can never have enough Pentas!

Wonderful shots, Melanie and I've been wondering what all the white butterflies were. Caught this guy on my porterweed this morning and the light really shows his colorful antenna clubs.



Now, when I say "caught" well here's the tale. I was taking the camera c/w tripod out again this morning. As I opened the screen door to the pool cage there was that Great Southern White on the porterweed right outside the door. I plunked down the tripod and was struggling to get the camera started up and aimed at him when he flitted through the door into the cage ALONG WITH a Gulf Frit. Well, long story short, I spent the next hour chasing the poor things back out of the cage again. Ever tried "herding" butterfiles? I finally went out front and took some cuttings off my Pentas out there, put them in a jar with some water and stood that outside the door.

Here's the poor freed captive Gulf Frit, he was so exhausted that he stayed still for me to get my pictures before he limped off to better things.

I am so excited! I got to tour Monarch Waystation Number ONE today at the MonarchWatch Open House and plant sale at Kansas University - Lawrence KS. Loaded up on numerous plants that I did not have including 5 or 6 milkweed. I think my species count is now > 15 species of Milkweed. C'mon Monarchs! Do I have a smorgasbord (sp?) for you! They will not want to leave once they stop here!

Most importantly, got to meet Dr. Chip Taylor (on right in photo) - Founder & Director of MonarchWatch - what an honor!



Shot of Monarch Waystation Number 1 - an absolutely lovely garden with a zillion plants



It was such a privilege to get to visit there as I recently was awarded a Grant for 428 Milkweed plants for the Nelson 10 acre restoration/Waystation project. My group, Missourians for Monarchs - Naturalists & Gardeners - NW Missouri region is the first (of our state-wide group) to receive a grant from MonarchWatch. Funds were provided by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the plants were grown by Applied Ecological Services.

In addition to the 428 MW, we planted > 125 nectar plants. We also started seed for 100 Little Blue Stem and 50 Sand Dropseed.

Here are some pictures of the Project

Melanie, Elaine & David all had a big day today.

Elaine, sorry but it's rather hilarious to imagine trying to herd 2 butterflies out of your pool enclosure. I'm glad you finally managed.

David, it's so nice to see you. What a great day! That project looks fantastic. Congratulations on getting the grant. I know you must have worked hard to accomplish it. Please post photos of the project as it progresses.

Thanks Ann

I plan to take pics of the same bed every 3 - 4 weeks. We also have a drone Given that our planting area covers ~ 3-4 acres, that should be kinda cool. The entire area planned for restoration is 10 acres - planned over a couple of years. The property owner and I are members of MO Master Naturalists - Loess Hills chapter.

I submitted a ton of pics to MonarchWatch and they were very appreciative and the person in charge of their Restoration grants thanked me today when I introduced myself to her.

If anyone is interested in seeing more, check out the 4 albums I posted on my group's Facebook page here:

http://getmw.me/MO4M-NG-NWMO

Yes, well done David. That's going to be an awesome project going forward. I sure hope you have some sort of irrigation system for those plants you're pictured planting - or I forsee a lot of schlepping of watering cans to keep those little plants alive until they establish . .. Even a temporary irrigation system with some poly tubing and micro sprinklers would make a huge difference to get them going, and not cost a lot.

Ann, you're right it was hilarious trying to herd the butterflies. They really wanted to fly up to the top of the cage and they needed to fly down to get out the door . . . hence the Penta cuttings were used as bait on the walkway outside the door. I really don't know if that was what finally worked, but they both did fly back out again. I never realized how many spider webs I had cultivated up in the top of the cage either . .. . poor spiders had a rough day, and some of them went swimming, too.

David , that is a nice project to be much appreciated . Lot of effort, only the heritage it represents to everyone makes it well worth doing .

Elaine, butterflies generally try to fly up to escape. That's why when I net them, I put the net over, and then hold the tip of it up with my fingers so they fly up further into the net! Some of them are pretty smart and know to fly under the rim, though. Gulf Frits are amazingly good at it. Even when I've held the net against the ground they manage to squeeze out.

I once volunteered replanting natives in a preserve and since there's no irrigation, the county brought out fire trucks to irrigate it! They did it after we left so I didn't see it, but I thought that was a neat idea.

David, all of this is so exciting! Thanks for the pictures and thanks for sharing! I'm so jealous you got to go to Monarch Waystation Number One!

Yup, I really needed a butterfly net, and the Gulf Frit was definitely harder to corral than the white one. I was using my big, clumsy pool cleaning net, and trying not to touch the butterflies, just "direct" them but finally gave that up and just baited them with Pentas instead.

I have a whole lot of bridal veil netting so I think I could make myself a net for emergency use - could you post a picture of yours when you get a chance?

dyzzypyxxy said:Yes, well done David. That's going to be an awesome project going forward. I sure hope you have some sort of irrigation system for those plants you're pictured planting - or I forsee a lot of schlepping of watering cans to keep those little plants alive until they establish

Nope.

Takes 2 peeps working for 1 1/2 hour to water them all. We are sposed to get rain off and on for next 4 days so that will help.

I will be helping out a lot as this is my baby and the first and largest of 9 projects I have going. I do have my hands full and only came on board in early February and hit the ground running. While there are areas of the state with much bigger projects, they also have hundreds of helpers and big bucks. I have neither.

My entire area is 12 counties with less than 200 K people.

And I have I-35 running right thru the middle.

Elaine, I bought my net from Monarch Watch: http://shop.monarchwatch.org/p...

David, the I-35 corridor is very important to the migration from what I've read. That's great that you're in a place where you're really making a difference. I know it's important to have Monarchs here in Florida, too. But since the ones this far down in the peninsula don't migrate, I feel so helpless sometimes when I read about their plight. Thanks for helping them!

I was out tromping around in our wildflower meadows this morning & look what I spied!

Eastern Black Swallowtail cats!!
There were several of them of this size that I saw. Here's a photo of another one:
I had to shade it with my hat in order to get the photo.


I have wondered for a long time what this plant was & tried researching before but it was darn hard to figure it out. With the new information of knowing it's the host for BST's I was able to nail it down and have now added photos and data details (as much as I could find) to our db.

Nice one, Ann. Good to post to the Database with the caterpillar in the picture, too. That way people get to know more plants that are hosts.

I got one good shot today - is this a Duskywing on the porterweed? He sure was holding still nicely for me, well sometimes anyway. I wanted a shot of the undersides of his wings which are much darker and might have some red markings too.

Thanks Elaine.

It's so hard to distinguish those duskywings! I just tried to figure it out on BAMONA & got lost. Great shot though! So nice & crisp.

Even BAMONA can't tell the difference between male Juvenal's and Horace's Duskywings. That's what they said on one of the last pictures I sent them. So I just call them Duskywings.

Ann, that's so great to see Black Swallowtails on a native plant! Thanks for adding to the database. The Black STs still haven't found me, but I'll be busy with Spicebush cats soon, so I'll just deal with one thing at a time.