Okay, I slept the vast majority of the day which I guess I needed because I had to catch up on the sleep I haven't been getting. I'm taking things super easy this week because I'm going on that Orchid Walk on Saturday over in Orlando. Mom's coming, too. The guy leading it went and did a scouting walk this past weekend and listed the various species he saw, along with plants like some native milkweed and other host plants. He also saw a Pygmy Rattlesnake and I was like, "For God's sake, DO NOT tell my mother!" But it was too late - she had already read it! Mom is unreasonably afraid of snakes.
Thunderstorm passed through during my afternoon nap and I didn't even care that the thunder woke me up because first of all, I fall right back asleep. But most importantly, I didn't have to get out there with the hose tonight!
So in the last post where I posted pictures, I said I might go to MOSI. So I did. That was on Friday so we mostly just hung out, although I did help change some of the tanks and find the chrysalises so we could pin them. But before I left, I had my own Zebra Longwing to release!
We had lots of Great Southern Whites to release at MOSI. The gray ones are female; the white ones are male.
Female on the left, male on the right.
Julia Longwings
This Gulf Frit was posing so nicely.
Since I pulled my old Senna ligustina plants and transplanted the babies (which are coming along nicely), I've been missing my Sulphur butterflies. I got my fix with these Orange-Barred Sulphurs.
Common Buckeye way up high.
And they have Atala Hairstreaks again!
Native to South Florida, these little guys almost went extinct due to over-harvesting of their host plant, Coontie.
The usual suspects hanging out in the corner where the sun comes up.
Monarch up in one of the hanging baskets.
Julia Longwing caterpillar in the lab.
Just hatched Polydamas Swallowtails in the garden.
Buckeye cats in their holding cell while the tank was cleaned.
So Saturday I wake up and Mom had just come in from her walk. She tells me there are a ton of Zebra Longwings in the butterfly garden and a couple of them are mating. Mom literally put her two index fingers together to simulate what they looked like.
I grab the camera and Mom follows me outside to show me where they are. Turns out, they're on the trellis with the Corkystem Passionvine. It's a little unusual to see them mating right on the host plant, but not totally unheard of. Except, as I get closer, I realize they're not mating at all.
Remember the two chrysalises I took pictures of on the Corkystem? Two Zebra Longwings were sitting on it. I've read about this behavior, but never seen it before. You see, when a female develops in the chrysalis, she sends out pheromones that attract males even before she emerges. So they lay in wait for her so they can be the first to mate. In some cases, males have been known to break open the chrysalis and mate with the female. Some refer to this as "pupal rape" but I don't believe in placing human morals on wild animals. I explain what's going on to Mom and asked her, "Do you want me to let nature take its place, or should we protect our gal?" In the spirit of sisterhood, Mom said to protect our gal. I brought her in and she's still in my bedroom. What's weird is when I looked at the chrysalis, it was dark, but I thought it still had at least a day before it would emerge. That was on May 28. It still hasn't emerged but it doesn't look diseased or anything. It just made me wonder how the males were so attracted to it. I thought they only did that shortly before the female was going to emerge. Anyway, here's some pictures. You'll also see the other chrysalis in the pics, but it was far from turning darker.
The Giant ST made an appearance and seemed to only want to eat my Magic Red Pentas. It also must be male, because I still don't have any eggs.
Long-Tailed Skippers are coming around pretty often. They love porterweed which is what this one is on.
And in more Corkystem drama, I had a female laying eggs on the same vine those chrysalises are on.
The Polydamas ST has been spotted but they move so fast it's really hard to get pics. They also flutter their wings much faster than the other Swallowtails which makes for lots of blurry photos.
There were about five Zebra Longwings flying around which is a lot for one little area. They weren't just flirting and laying eggs. They had to eat every now and then, too.
The male Spicebush has been a regular visitor. Notice he's on the red Pentas.
I forgot to mention that when Mom knocked on my door, she said "Egg delivery". She brought me Polydamas eggs so at least one of them was female. I need more Pipevine because I found more when I went outside. There's always more!
