Ive, I've noticed that there are a lot of White Peacocks right now. In the past, I've never noticed them to have a "peak" time of year so I'm not sure what's going on. But I like it!
Dave, you're killing me with those Red-Spotted Purple pictures! I'm so jealous! But I'm headed up to KY and WV next weekend so who knows what I might see? I've never visited during September so I have no idea what I might find. Hopefully, I'll see something new.
Well, today at the museum I saw some old and some new things. The old thing was my old friend Dominic. Dominic was 8 when I met him and now he's 12! He knows almost as much about butterflies as I do. I gave him a net and let him help me catch butterflies out in the garden. I also gave him some Polydamas cats and a Giant ST to raise. He got super excited about the Malachites but I told him there was no way he was getting one on those! My boss would kill me and I wasn't 100% convinced he had Green Shrimp Plant to feed them even though he said he did. I hadn't seen Dominic since I had to quit volunteering and even though I've been back almost two years now, I guess we just hadn't run into each other yet. So that was nice. I like to encourage kids who are really interested in butterflies, and honestly, I'm surprised he's maintained his interest this long. You know how kids tend to grow in and out of things.
Now, the new thing I saw was Malachite eggs! I found five total, but only four are in this picture. For some reason, I thought they laid on the underside of the leaves, but as you can see, they lay right where the leaves all meet up. Interesting!
We put some new sage plants in the flight cage and everyone was loving them, but especially the Monarchs.
The Gulf Frit likes them, too!
The Malachites still like the rotting fruit, though. Today, we had guava in the mix!
Someone caught a Queen but it wouldn't come down! I did have an interesting conversation with a man who thought I meant it like "Queen Bee", like she was Queen of the butterflies. I assured him, that was the actual name of the butterfly. I said, "Monarch, Queen, Viceroy - they're all royalty." Although, I guess the Viceroy is just an aristocrat, but whatever.
Female Orange-Barred Sulphur. We had a pale-form one in there, too, but I guess I didn't get a picture of her or I would have done a contrast/compare.
But you can compare to a Cloudless Sulphur, I suppose. By the way, our Cassia plants are covered in eggs!
This Giant ST has had it rough!
Atala close-up! Also, I found a couple dead ones in good condition so I took a picture to show you that the top of the wings are just as pretty as the bottom.
Look at all the Sleepy Oranges I got to release! When I'm not cleaning up gut purges or yelling at people not to freaking touch my butterflies, this gig is actually pretty awesome.
Pipevine ST caterpillar! One tubercle is shorter than the other. That happens sometimes, even to Monarch cats.
Here's another White Peacock for everyone.
Long-Tailed Skipper
I've got some Zebra Longwings in love, and some Zebra Longwings that love jatropha! I posted a photo a week or two ago with three on one flower cluster, but now I've upped the ante with four!
By the way, I love that people have smart phones now because they just pull out their phones and show me pictures of butterflies and caterpillars. I was talking with a lady about those puss caterpillars that have been in the news and she said she had one on her garbage can lid. She pulled out her phone and showed me, and sure enough, there it was! I've still never seen one. Must be my neighborhood. That's it for today, folks!
