Well, I got brave and wandered out into the yard today. That's brave of me because it's about a million degrees out, mosquitoes now have a new virus that's spreading to the US (Chickungunya), and my brother was mowing the lawn at 30 mph. I would have posted earlier but I needed a nap after all that excitement. Here's what I got!
A Cloudless Sulphur that seemed to be taking a break. I guess even butterflies have to rest every now and then.
And I've got Monarch cats munching away.
And speaking of Hairstreaks, I got a Gray Hairstreak in the yard today! Hairstreaks are nice because they tend to sit still for long periods of time. And yes, they sit and rub their wings together like we discussed. I'm going to post a lot of pictures of this guy because I don't see them in the garden all too often. I used to see them pretty regular back when I went hiking, though. Notice how the tails on the back end resemble antenna and the eyespots would lead a predator to think that was the head. I've seen many Hairstreaks missing tails and with chunks out of their hind ends, but they were still alive so the ruse worked!
In the last picture (the second one below this text), you can see his proboscis is semi-curled which I thought was cool.
The Duskywings are still out in force. This one started on the Spanish Needles but I now have tassel flower among my weeds so it hit that up, too. I like how the butterfly is so heavy it's bending the tassel flower. It's weird to think of butterflies as heavy. The third pic is a different Duskywing on the porterweed.
Ever since BAMONA identified a Whirlabout in my yard, I'm tempted to call all orange skippers Whirlabouts. So this may or may not be a Whirlabout. I think I just like that name. Sounds like a carnival ride.
Since I'm headed to MOSI tomorrow, I cleaned the pipevine of eggs and caterpillars. There were so many little caterpillars that I must have missed a ton of eggs the other day. And I found more Polydamas and Pipevine eggs. Here's a couple of Polydamas cats I found. The one had just finished molting and the other is HUGE (and was semi-stinkhorning me). You can't get the sense of size from the photo, but trust me. He's joining the other fatty I still have from the other day. I might keep them since they're almost done eating. And see how the big one is lighter in color and sort of stripey? Apparently, that's from being exposed to the harsh Florida sun. People get darker, caterpillars get lighter. Weird.
I had a Swallowtail sighting and it might have been the dark form female Tiger ST but I can't be sure as it flew across the street. Still no action on their host plant, the Sweetbay Magnolia.
However, it didn't take long for the Pipevine ST to realize I cleaned the plant as she was right back at it. I couldn't get too many pictures because I was melting and attracting bugs and didn't have time to wait for her to find the perfect spot to lay eggs so this is all you get.
And back in the house all those Pipevine ST eggs I collected the other day are now little caterpillars that are headed to MOSI. But check them out! Aren't they cute?
