Oh Melanie, when I first read that I thought your DAD was in a sling. Had to read it again and realized you meant the caterpillar. We need a "Whew" emoticon.

It did get cold 60F but they were inside , the Variegated Frits are suppose to migrate.

just great spangled and meadow are suppose to hibernate so they say

The Variegated Frit cat looks fine and will hopefully make a J somewhere soon. And then fly southward!

Picture post dump and run sorrrrry

No idea on Sage
Its the same type of caterpillar but the smaller ones are not red....hmmmm

<--They were sitting this way --so closely---why?


<-- 2 diff types of Frits
<---Yet another type of Frit (I think) They're like Skippers, such variety!! Sulphur on lower left corner photobombing the picture.

Speaking of Skippers....
<--Flew on my finger while I was taking pics. Here's another-->

AND>>> a first for me. The elusive Checkered Skipper I was trying to photograph for 2 days! Sneaking up to him...
<--it's a boy the body is bluish grey

Blurry but strange Sulphur positions:

GrammaChar said:

Reminds me of that old airline joke...lady getting off of the plane politely asked the pilot, "Did we land or were we shot down?"

I used to fly a LOT. Millions of miles over close to 30 years hard traveling. Anyway, my attitude was that of many military pilots...any landings a good landing.

nativeplantlover said:
<--They were sitting this way --so closely---why?

A bit of chit-chat after a wonderful meal I would guess.

mellielong said:The Variegated Frit cat looks fine and will hopefully make a J somewhere soon. And then fly southward!

Really?? i thought they all overwintered.. Then I have both Meadow and Varigated here. They're so confusing. I need to sort out which is which when it comes to the caterpillars!! When I looked online for a photo of the Meadow Frit, I only found the Varigated's bright red and white stripes. I need to go look at one of the books I have here. Thanks Kurt and Mellie !

Well I am sad again.

Monday I brought in 2 cats and put them in my new pop up laundry thingy from Walmart. In a matter of hours they started wandering around and were soon in J. By early Tuesday morning they were in chrysalis.

Checked them this morning and one had 2 filaments hanging down. [Squished in kleenex and flushed it.]

Another outdoor chrysalis I been watching on some Swan plant has been black now for days, so it too is a goner.

Another 3 I have found were also goners.

I have one chrysalis I am still watching on a Rugosa rose of all things. So far so good.

The numbers of outdoor Cats I had been observing and disappeared (long before 5th instar) is multiple dozens - rain in one case (3 inches in 20 minutes washed away nearly a dozen) and birds I take it.

I have also found many of the black upside down V formation dead Cats.

Next year I WILL be bringing in eggs as soon as I find them cause nature is too rough on them.

Great photos everyone!

jmorth said:
Pawpaws attract certain BF, I guess you could call them the Fruit Eaters. So far I've noted the Red Spotted Purple, Red Admiral, Viceroy, Question Mark, and Comma.

I too have seen all those with the exception of Viceroy on my fruit tray (flat hanging bird feeder) which recently has included:

Banana
Paw Paw
Tomato
Apple
Peach

I also have had Monarchs on it.

My biggest continuing attractant for Monarchs is Tithonia and Tropical Milkweed.

I have seen no swallotails of any type for over a week.

Yippee - My wife Linda and I went to Squaw Creek National Wildlife Reserve (Mound City Missouri) Saturday for Monarch tagging.

Final Tally - 393 were netted. Only 300 tags available :(

What a BLAST!! Certainly a life time experience. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Monarchs were observed. One MWSU student came in with one net that had > 30 Monarchs. I personally only netted about 25 (over a 3 hour period) that made it to the collection cage - I easily lost 3 times that.

I observed many on Field Thistle. There were other thistle near by that were similarly covered! They also were found in abundance on wild sage and of all things hemp. They were also found in lesser amounts on primarily several types of Aster and Goldenrod.

The tagging was done by ~ 30 people of all ages and took place in the northern most area of North Woods just East of Squaw Creek and South of Rte 118 and the area where we found the most Monarchs was ~ 5 - 10 acres.

Other observations ...

Just based on my rough calculations and observations which I was doing a lot of, my guess is that we were only netting maybe 1 in 10 or so. I spent roughly 50 % of my time observing - not netting.

I know for 3 thistles, I observed 10, 12 and 17 butterflies within the span of 1 minute. I only netted 3 total from one plant. Of those, I lost 2. At 3 netted, that would be a ratio of 3 to 39 roughly < 1 in 10. I observed the MWSU students near the Hemp/ditch area and there were easily 10 - 20 Monarchs flying around them for each they were netting.

My hunch is the totals we actually saw was well over 1,000. Now that I have the final tally numbers, it could easily have been several thousand. None that we netted were previously tagged.

I counted less than 10 observed milkweed - all common over an area of maybe 40 + acres. I was looking close. I saw no indication of Cat activity on most of these plants. With that in mind and given that the area is known as a roost area, my hunch is that most of these were migrators.

Will post some pics later.

Question Marks like tomato -



< Skipper >


Cabbage Whites -
2 whites >











Looper Moth >

Question Mark, Commas & Red Spotted Purples all like fruit. I used to put out watermelon rinds out for them. Grapes would draw them in too. Not lots of people like to have rotting fruit setting around. Fortunately my husband tolerated all the stuff I did to draw them in.

Man, you guys have been busy!

Let's see. Cheryl, I can't see your whole plant, but I think they're congregating where the food is. Or the freshest food is. Also, those two photos are both Variegated Frits. One is just oranger than the other. Yes, oranger is a word! The other one looks like a Meadow Frit, but I can usually only tell those by size comparison. I've only seen them in West Virginia.

Remember David, just like we're seeing an increase in butterflies near the end of summer / beginning of fall - other things have had all year to breed, too. Things like viruses, OE spores, things that parasitize eggs and caterpillars. With the higher humidity, things can get really gross down here in Florida. Keep fighting the good fight! The percentage you raise will still be better than those left in the wild.

Jack, I think we all need a field trip to your house! Love those Question Marks. I got so excited when I saw one at Silver Springs and I was super bummed that I didn't get a photo. I even walked headlong into a patch of Spanish Needles to follow it! I swear, one of these days, someone will yell at me. I'm also loving the pattern on that moth!

I put out rotting fruit all I ever get is flies I had enough of those around this year with out fruit

I did catch one or two butterflies on my puddling dish this year , but I think most mainly used my wet garden beds.
no large groups either way... yet

Earlier in the year

I never get any of the butterflies that come to fruit, either. I've even tried making butterfly brew. I just don't have that many of those kinds of butterflies around. I guess I'll just have to settle for my subtropical species like the Polydamas Swallowtail and the Zebra Longwing.

maybe when I release my 29 BST I can get them all to pose for a family puddling portrait

A few Queens came to the mist flowers yesterday before the rain began.

Lovely!