Viewing post #1284758 by nativeplantlover

mellielong said:Woo hoo! to Kurt!

I took a few pictures today and have an exciting find to report. I first went out before my Starbucks run and this male Spicebush was flying around. There was another male Spicebush, but he wasn't interested in pictures. As you can see, this one is a little torn up.



This Gulf Fritillary seemed to be trying to find the passion vine because I never saw it nectar on anything.



And my faithful Duskywings were on the porterweed.



I didn't find any new caterpillars, but I did see evidence of chewing. I'd say it was already there on the Wild Lime, but the Pipevine looked newly chewed to me. I didn't find any cats or the remains of eggs. So I went back inside, did my workout, cleaned the bathroom, and other fun stuff. I went out to fill the bird feeder and decided to check the Sweetbay Magnolia on the west side of the yard since I had only checked the two on the east side. And I found eggs!

Now, the sucky part is one of them looks like it was already parasatized. You can see the hole in it. A caterpillar would have eaten the egg. Or even if it hadn't, the hole it would chew would need to be bigger to squeeze out. A second egg looks like a dud to me, but it didn't have a hole. It's the one behind the green one in the first pic. I did isolate it in its own container to be safe. But the other egg looks healthy and green so let's cross our fingers!



So then I figured I better go back and check the Sweetbays on the east side again. You could tell I hadn't had my caffeine this morning because I found two more eggs! And they were actually down pretty low on the tree. Again, one is a healthy green and I'm not sure about the other one. They will change color as the caterpillar develops, but Swallowtails usually turn gray. I'll continue to monitor them here in my bedroom turned lab.