Ok, time for a few pictures. First, I was playing with my Spicebush Swallowtail because, why not? By the way, my aunt in WV posted a picture on her Facebook feed the other day of a Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly. She said my uncle reports they have spicebush growing along the river bank, but since lots of plants are called that I won't be sure until I visit next month. I can confirm they have tons of Sassafras in the area so the Spicebush ST is fairly common.
Outside to pick food there were the usual suspects. Zebra Longwing on firebush. They do eat other plants, but they prefer firebush. I wonder what it tastes like to them?
The Gulf Frit was liking those pentas I was complimenting the other day.
I found another Polydamas because (say it with me, folks), "There are always more Polydamas."
I was moving a Monarch over to the Giant Milkweed and looking around for the other cats I knew were on it. Instead, I found something bad, but educational. Some mysterious bug was sucking the juices out of my poor, dead caterpillar. If anyone knows what this bug is, I'd be grateful. I can't recall ever seeing one before. I took my vengeance out on him with the soles of my platform sandals. He won't be hurting any caterpillars ever again. (Sniff, sniff.)
To leave you on a happy note, my three Spicebush eggs hatched. Hopefully, this group will do better than the last. I still have that one left and while he eats and moves around, he still isn't growing. It's most odd. I'm thinking there must have been some kind of genetic problem. I collected them as eggs so I'm pretty sure they couldn't have been parasatized. I may have to google this...
