Okay, first a couple of pictures from yesterday. The Pipevine ST finally laid eggs on the native, Wooly Pipevine. I still took the eggs to MOSI, though. Not enough good pipevine left. You can see the dark spots where the caterpillars are forming and getting ready to hatch.
I sent these pictures to BAMONA to find out what kind of skipper this is. I'm trying to learn some of the skippers.
At the museum, the Atalas are still laying eggs and producing caterpillars. I tried to take a photo of the butterfly and got photobombed by an Eastern Black ST!
Here's an Atala!
I didn't realize this picture was so blurry but check out that glob of pollen on the Zebra Longwing's proboscis! I still find it fascinating that they eat pollen. They actually secrete an enzyme that liquefies it and allows them to slurp it up through their proboscis.
Malachites are proving that it is easy being green.
Still lots of Giant STs. I love that their tails have that yellow spot in them.
Orange-Barred Sulphur.
Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars are back!
My trainees wanted to try and net butterflies so I took them to the side garden where people were less likely to watch us make fools of ourselves. But they're pretty good! They tag-teamed and got a Tiger ST! I told them it was worth ten points, but then I saw it had a damaged wing so I declared it a disabled butterfly and only awarded five points.
One of my volunteers is a teenager and she told me to be quieter when I yell "butterfly sex" in the middle of the garden. I told her I was happy to explain it to anyone who hears me. I also said a word that rhymes with "duck" when I accidentally stuck a pin in a chrysalis instead of its silk. Sometimes I think I might be a bad role model.
But my teen volunteer caught a Sleepy Orange!
We have a few Great Southern Whites in the flight cage.
The Hickory Horned Devil cats (Regal Moths) are getting big and changing colors. They don't seem to like when you touch their horns.
Back at home, I released three Polydamas butterflies. But I only took pictures of one because they all look the same.
