Okay, after a nap and a shower, I almost feel human again. At least it's August which means I only have to wait until October for it to cool down. Tampa set a record the other night for warmest night temperature on that day. It only got down to 84! And the all-time record for all days is 85 so we were only one degree away from matching that! It's the heat, it's the humidity, it's the fact that it doesn't even cool down at night. No wonder I can't keep up with the butterflies!
Well, I had a Viceroy pop out last night so it spent the night on the couch and I released it this morning. I had another Viceroy come out while I was napping this afternoon and Mom yelled through my door to let me know. That one flew away immediately so I only have pictures of the morning one. But they look the same. Also, as I was coming back inside this morning, I spotted the hummingbird again! I chased it from one firebush to the next but those things are so fast. And every time I would raise my camera it would fly off. I did notice this one seemed to have a very white belly, but maybe I'm just not used to seeing their bellies? Anyway, here's the Viceroy.
After a stop at Panera for my usual Sunday breakfast treat, I made it to the museum. And it was time to play with the caterpillars! We have two tanks of skippers - Dorantes and Long-Tailed. They eat the same thing but you can tell them apart. As adults, they also look very similar, but the Dorantes lacks the turquoise color on the top that the Long-Tailed has. But try getting them to open their wings, right? Here's the Dorantes caterpillar. I like their pattern.
And here's the Long-Tailed. I brought a few from home to add to the tank. When I was looking through these pictures and I saw the different angles I took on the Long-Tailed caterpillar, it made me think I was posing him for a "Wanted" poster. You know, front and side view.
We don't have too many Atala butterflies left, but we have plenty of caterpillars. They're so cool! This butterfly almost went extinct in the last century due to people digging up its host plant, coontie. You can make a flour out of it and the Native Americans used it as a food source but of course, once the white man found out we took it too far like we usually do. Fortunately, coontie has become a very popular landscape plant because it's native, low-maintenance, drought-tolerant, and has that cool palm-like look people in Florida want. I mean, you find these things planted outside Wal-Mart and McDonald's now. I hear coontie are still hard to find in the wild, though. Sadly though, this butterfly will never come up my way as it is more of a tropical species. But like Dad says, with global warming, who knows? I planted four coontie just in case!
And I did find one of the Atala butterflies in the flight cage. I can't remember that plant it's on but they sell it at Home Depot. My boss redecorated the flight cage so we have a lot of new plants right now.
Okay, back to the lab. The Hickory Horned Devils (Regal Moths) are earning their name! My trainee was like, "I knew you said they were going to get big but they're so big!" Yup, I wasn't lying. There was one in the tank that was a little bigger than this guy and I picked him up and his prolegs were so long! It felt really weird walking on me; I actually got a little creeped out and put him back in the tank. Despite the smaller size, I still think Polyphemus Moth cats have a stronger grip, though.
I was also showing my trainee how Spicebush ST cats turn yellow or orange right before they pupate. This guy made his chrysalis within a half hour of me taking this photo and we both missed it! But at least he made a healthy chrysalis.
In the flight cage we had some Long-Tailed Skippers that someone must have caught in the garden. As I said, the Long-Tailed has that turquoise on the top whereas the Dorantes will be plain brown. But from the side they look the same to me.
We had a couple Buckeyes.
Still Zebra Longwings everywhere.
I think this Julia is preparing for takeoff.
I "think" this is an Orange-Barred Sulphur but sometimes the lighting fools me.
Someone must have netted some White Peacocks in the garden because we haven't had those caterpillars in months. This is Dad's favorite butterfly. They are really pretty, especially when they're fresh. They tend to lose a lot of their color as they age.
Back in the lab I checked the Malachite cats and they are big enough to see now! I think their antenna are very reminiscent of "The Jetsons". Can't you just see them on a robot?
Outside in the garden there were several Pipevine STs. This has been a really good year for them. Not sure why.
We were getting more parsley from the shade house to feed the Eastern Black ST cats and this skipper stopped in to say hello.
Okay, not a butterfly but always a welcome sight. A native, green anole! The brown ones are from Cuba and are far more numerous. So I always like to see the native guys. He's sitting on passion vine so I hope he doesn't try to eat one of the Frits. That could end badly.
And speaking of Eastern Black STs...
We didn't see any more Malachites in the flight cage so we took the rotting fruit out. But then a couple hours later, we saw two of them so the fruit went back in. Where do they hide?
My trainee caught a Sulphur outside and I was thinking it was an Orange-Barred at first but the markings were a little different. Too much black on the top of it. I'm going to get the book out and see if I can decide what I think it is. I couldn't get a great shot because whenever we catch a butterfly and put it in the flight cage, its natural reaction is to freak out and fly to the top. After a while, they settle down and it's like, "Oh, free nectar!" But that takes a while.
We also missed a Tiger ST somehow! No idea where this big guy was hiding, but happy to see him.
Love was in the air for the Giant Swallowtails! This is actually two different butterfly couples. And as you can see, the one is missing a significant amount of wing, but that doesn't stop them!
And apparently this has been going on for a while because our Kumquat tree was covered in eggs. Giant STs don't usually lay in clusters but they went crazy in the flight cage! I hate to think how many eggs we collected. At least we cleaned off the tree so those mating pairs can lay eggs when they're done.
And finally, while we were collecting eggs this Cloudless Sulphur came and posed. It has a bit of a messed up wing, but it was still getting around.
