Really nice photo's Melanie

all I have seen in a while is this Silver Spotted Skipper hanging on the Milkweed , Slow here , the sightings ,,

I haven't seen a Silver-Spotted Skipper in a long time. Not since I went to WV, I suppose.

My day got more exciting, if you can believe that! I took the hummingbird feeder back outside and there was double the Gulf Frit trouble on the Pentas.



I was standing around, waiting to see if the hummingbird would come out. It never did. So I'm standing there watching the butterflies chase each other off the nectar plants. The Monarch and the Gulf Frits seemed to have some kind of turf war going on. Then, I see a dark butterfly with a flash of blue go by. I thought, "Ooh, a Pipevine Swallowtail!" But it stopped on the ground and I got a little closer only to realize it was a RED-SPOTTED PURPLE!!! I haven't seen one in so long and they're my second favorite butterfly.



So the RSP hosts on my Black Cherry (Prunus serotina). I have the one main tree I planted years ago that's about forty foot tall, and then I have a few volunteers that have sprung up. I start searching, but no luck. When I have seen them laying eggs, it was way up high in the tree. But I see something else on my cherry tree. Something I've never seen in real life. A Saddleback Caterpillar! These are the ones that can and will sting you. And I hear it hurts really bad. I found four of them total, and naturally, I brought them in to raise. YOLO, am I right? But don't worry! I put them in maximum security prison cells. They're in a Gladware container that's inside a Critter Keeper. And the Critter Keeper has cheesecloth under the lid. So they're not getting out. The first one I found had just molted!

Nice photos Melanie! Saddleback caterpillar looks like a character for Disney What do they turn into? So interesting looking. I know I could look it up - guess I'm being a little lazy today. It's hot. How nice that you captured the Red spotted purple. I saw one flitting around today but it wouldn't land so I could take a picture for you.

Saw this one through the window earlier.

As usual, UF is here to rescue me with so much info about the Saddleback Caterpillar: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/crea...

More pictures at BAMONA: http://www.butterfliesandmoths...

I showed them to my family so they would know what they look like and not to touch. My brother said it looked like it had a wrapper on it before I could tell him the name. It made me think how common names are very much a product of their times. If we hadn't discovered them until recently, they might be the Candy Wrapper Caterpillar. Sounds a lot nicer to me!

Lovely findings Melanie and Christine

There you go again Jim, making me jealous with your milkweeds.

josephine ,, remember though , their weeds , Backyard smells like a perfume factory for 12 ft around those , A,, A ,,,ACHOO!!!

End of July or August as Zinnia , sunflowers May see more Butterfly ,, Snapdragons and Musrad and alfalfa blooming now ,, and hardly even a Cabbage White ,, I have seen the sighting slow like this before , only it has been at least back to the 90's ,, A few wasps and bees being regular and a dragonfly or two this past week , only really quiet out there ,,

Found this little guy taking a breather on my maypop vine. It was so hot and humid today I found myself taking a few breathers also.

Daniel. now that's a male Pipevine Swallowtail.

My first eye on of the season here
A Mourning Cloak did a quick bounce fly through while I took this , I feel better
My first Monarch of the season ,, A pair no less

Wow Jim!! that is sooo neat!

it is cheery josephine
The Monarchs the Mourning Cloak All probably second Generation ,
The Mourning Cloak I saw earlier this season ? was small from Hibernating , The second like today are really large ,
I know their making more of theirself ,, Good
Silver Spotted Skippers and a Couple Cabbage Whites doing their ritual had been there at noon hour also ,
Really hot sunny evening , I saw another Monarch flying past High over the garden ,, There Here

Great news jimard!!

Thank you Melanie, very interesting info about the saddleback caterpillar. Even the cocoon is neat looking!

I have been the victim of the saddleback sting & I can tell you it's extremely painful!!! You be ULTRA careful Melanie!!! I got it on the underside of one arm & it felt like my arm was on fire literally ON FIRE and there were these excruciating, many forked lightning strikes that ran along the arm besides the fire pain. It will take your breath away. Keep some vinegar handy in your room while you have those things okay?
I called the Poison Control Center when I got hit -- this was years ago. They said use packaging tape & put it on the places & rip it off. That's in order to pull out any spines out that might have been embedded in the skin. I was told to take Benadryl or any antihistamine I had on hand as well as Tylenol. I did all these things but after I did the tape, I used ammonia & just poured it down my arm. That was before I knew vinegar would also work. The ammonia made a huge difference in mitigating the effects.


Love your red spotted purple! I was just thinking about them before I read your post & wondering if you'd had any. I haven't seen any here this year yet.

My they are mean little things. Good info to know, Ann

One of the Saddleback cats made its cocoon! I slept nearly all night and day so I can't say when it happened. But it has two of the Cherry leaves silked together and is between them. I did see what I thought was the remains of a cocoon on the tree, but it was hard to see. To reach the leaves these guys were on, I had to walk into a plumbago - and they're kind of dense. Not easy. I read in that UF info page that predation occurs largely when they're in the cocoon phase so I wondered if a bird got it. The birds really like the cherry tree for hanging out, but it's got fruit on it now so I imagine it's a popular spot.

Released a male Spicebush today but no pictures because he was ready to go! One of my Tersa Sphinx moth pupa is getting dark so I might have one of those soon. Moths work on their own schedule.

Well, my Tersa Sphinx Moth emerged. It was sitting quietly for a while but then started flying around the tank. It was still dark outside, so I figured I'd let it go. Plus, the sound of it was getting annoying. The pictures are a bit blurry due to the low light level.

Wow, what a neat color it is. The one that we disturbed in the school garden was mottled grey-ish so it must have been a different variety. The hornworms we get there are tobacco hornworms (only reason I knew that was because of their red horn).

Fly away Tersa, fly away!

They can get really huge, I recall seeing some giants.