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!
