Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! Go hug a veteran (ask first if you don't know them). But at least thank one. And thanks to you if you are one! I just thanked my parents who are both Vietnam Vets. They met in the Air Force in Washington D.C. Dad got sent to Vietnam, Mom ended up in England. They got married when Dad got back from Vietnam, then Dad got sent to MacDill AFB in Tampa, Mom followed him and that's why I live here! That, and it's awesome.
Hey, the banner today is a Zebra Longwing! That was super cool to see when I woke up!
The museum was busy as usual today and lots of weird things going on. One bad thing was that I almost passed out in front of a guest. And I was sitting on a bench and drinking water at the time! But it is very hot outside today and the humidity is up there. I mean, the butterflies were already flying when I left at 8:30 this morning! That's crazy! I went to the air-conditioned lab and stayed there until I left. There was lots to clean so I had plenty of stuff to do. One of these days I'll learn I'm disabled, but until then, I guess I'll continue to push myself.
This is the view from the lab and the first thing I do each Sunday - release the butterflies! Okay, I totally ate my Panera breakfast sandwich first but I didn't need low blood sugar on top of all my other problems. There were two Monarchs to be released, but as you can see, it was mostly Zebra Longwings today. And after they come out, guess who gets to clean all those little boxes? Me!
And the tanks take up the rest of the wall. Each species gets it's own tank although some have multiple tanks. Like, there are three Monarch tanks because there are so many of them. Guests aren't allowed in the lab; they just look in the window. Sometimes it gets weird because I feel like I'm the one in the cage and they're looking at me! So I try to look busy whenever there are people around. I usually am busy, but sometimes I got to sit down and take a break, you know?
And we have Zebra Longwing chrysalises on the lab table. There was another one to the left of this one but it had already emerged. I pinned this one up in one of the little boxes so he can come out and not fly around the lab and annoy my bosses. We have nets for that kind of thing, though.
And the Zebra Longwings were in love today. Seriously, at one point I counted five couples mating which is the most I've ever seen at one time. And the other males still wouldn't leave them alone!
All the butterflies are loving the orange Cosmos in the flight cage. I just looked at the photo closely and realized there's another Zebra Longwing flying through the bottom of my picture! We have so many in there, it's nuts!
There was one Gulf Frit in the flight cage until I went out and caught five more. That was kind of the reason I was tired and overheated and about to pass out. Catching butterflies is hard work - people just don't realize!
I found an Orange-Barred Sulphur outside and I was wondering why his pattern looked weird until I realized he was molting!
Here's a Monarch just for kicks.
And here's what gives caterpillars a bad name - web worms! I don't know what kind of moths these are but I thought it looked cool so I took a picture.
And for fun, here's a little update photo on my Pipevine Swallowtails. A lot of them molted in the last two days.
In other caterpillar news, I lost a couple Spicebushies, but I had a few hatch. I counted seven caterpillars and I still have a few eggs to hatch so hoepfully they'll all become happy adult butterflies.
Now for some weird news, I'm about to post a cool bird sighting on the bird thread. So check it out if you're into birds!
