Well, Dad got it in his head that he was going to weed and do some trimming on Sunday while I was at the museum. As much as the butterflies love the Spanish Needles, they have to be controlled or they get way out of hand. And some of the bushes did need some trimming, especially the ones next to the house. Luckily, the sun and the heat chased him inside before he could do any more damage. I can't even talk to him. He should not be let go in my garden unsupervised. It's peak butterfly time and I have almost zero Spanish Needles in bloom, he chopped my porterweed, and cut back my false indigo for reasons I can't fathom. Amazingly, he has learned to recognize milkweed and left it alone. But he managed to tear up some firebush, pentas, and the coreopsis that was somehow making a comeback from last year! And that was just the front of the house! Thank God he didn't make it to my actual butterfly garden on the side. Needless to say, I've been in a bad mood for days due to that and other relatives ticking me off so bad I had to unfriend them on Facebook. So I haven't posted here because I haven't been fit for polite society.
But I'm hiding out in my room and taking lots of Klonopin so I guess I can post now. FYI, I see my therapist on Wednesday and he's going to get an earful. He's been on vacation so I'm sure he'll need shocked back into the world of psychology, anyway.
Well, my garden is lacking in butterflies but I did release a few. Here's a Cloudless Sulphur that took off flying but nicely landed in the ferns on Dad's Canary Island Date Palm. I'd take a hacksaw to Dad's palm for revenge but it seems to be mysteriously dying; the fronds are all falling off and the ones that are left are leaning to one side.
I also had another Polydamas come out.
Today, I went out looking for eggs on the pipevine because I have to rescue the Pipevine ST eggs that are laid on the tropical pipevine. I should have done it a few days ago but I've been busy and angry and depressed so it didn't happen until today. I found one clutch of eggs that hadn't hatched but another that had. But I think they had just hatched because some of the eggs were still eggs and the caterpillars appeared to have only eaten their eggs and not any of the plant. So good timing there! They are now safely inside with native Wooly Pipevine to eat.
There were tons of Polydamas eggs and caterpillars and sure enough, a female came along to lay some eggs.
She didn't have the best aim as she laid the eggs on the Spanish Moss and not the actual pipevine. Sometimes they lay eggs on the fence, too.
I was chasing a Monarch trying to get a photo when I finally gave up. When I turned around, two Polydamas were doing that tornado thing. Sorry the pictures are bad, but have you ever tried to photograph them doing that? Made me dizzy just watching it.
Finally, the one was like, screw this, I'm going to go hide in this oak tree. Polydamas don't often hold still or land unless they're laying an egg so this was weird.
In other news, I found three Sulphur caterpillars. Don't know which kind which is part of the fun. You just don't know until they molt and get bigger. By the way, when Sulphur cats are small, they really like laying in the seam of the leaf like in the second picture. So look for them there on new growth.
I don't know why this Gulf Frit was hanging out on this weed. From the tattered and worn look, I think it was just plain tired. I walked real close to it, unintentionally, and it didn't even move.
And I still have my Zebra Longwings. My Passiflora "Lavender Lady" has put out a lot of new growth, FYI, so I imagine I'll have caterpillars chomping away again soon. In the first picture, the Zebra is on Spanish Needles even though you can't see the flower. And in the other shot, the Zebras are apparently fans of my Mexican Flame Vine that I thought I killed last year but made a miraculous comeback.
And in a last piece of news, my final Viceroy cat made a chrysalis!
