Viewing post #1160994 by LindaTX8

We've gotten the Common Mestra many years here. Never seen the cat on Noseburn. Glad to know the butterfly has shown up! Funny about how these butterflies showing up or not varies so much. I've seen one Queen this year, out by the road, otherwise none. And a single Black Swallowtail cat on Daucosma...now it's pupated, but that's it for Black Swallowtails so far, although I've got many host plants. Common Buckeye have been here, I raised one of the cats, waiting for it to emerge. Red Admirals, tons, and only found one cat on pellitory, released that butterfly later. There were other cats on Stinging Nettle, but I let them alone. I had quite a number of Gulf Frits earlier, but for some reason, they seem to be MIA now. Found 3 Pipevine Swallowtail cats, 5th instar, but they died when they all tried to pupate. I've got the Two-tailed Tiger Swallowtail chrysallises from this spring, waiting for them to emerge.

GrammaChar said:On a walk along the Guadalupe River, I spotted this little butterfly that led me on a merry chase. Not only to photograph it, but to figure out the identity. Finally decided it's a Common Mestra, although that name is deceiving because this was a first sighting for me. So maybe not "common" here. Learned that the host plant is Noseburn (Tragia neptifolia), and heaven knows I've got plenty of that. Locally we refer to it as firethorn because if you accidentally brush up against it, it hurts! But now that I know it supports these beautiful little creatures, I won't yank it out. At least not all of it.