Ok, I'm done banging my head against the wall for now. Facebook is making me crazy. First, I had to correct one of the local preserves about one of their caterpillar pictures. They had a picture of a "Pipevine Swallowtail" caterpillar that was actually a Polydamas. I called them on it and let them know Pipevine ST cats would die on the tropical pipevine in their picture. So far, I haven't heard back. Then, another preserve south of me (that I've never been to, but want to) posted a picture of the extremely endangered Florida panther on their trailcam. I was like, "Yay! Panthers!" And this woman starts posting about how the panthers have upset the "balance" and she doesn't see any wildlife in her yard anymore. So then, the preserve posts a picture of a hog and I post, "I hope the panther eats the hog." And she posts that it will. So I explained that hogs are not native to Florida and were brought by the Spanish. They actually do a lot of damage because they dig up many endangered plants. I used to work in the payroll department for the county and we had a contract with a hunter to go into the preserves and kill the hogs because they were such a problem. And then she comes back with how we brought in the Texas panthers and there's been an "explosion" in SW Florida. We did bring in a few dozen Texas panthers to breed with the Florida panthers because there were so few and they were terribly inbred. But the latest estimate of how many panthers there are is like 120. Dad says he thinks there are more than that because if you count how many are killed on the road each year and how many his hunting buddies have seen, he thinks there are more than they're letting on. But there's certainly no "explosion". So I tagged the preserve in the comments and asked them to clarify whether or not we're having some kind of panther explosion that's not being reported in the media. And even if we did have a normal amount of panthers (however many that is), isn't part of the "balance" that you have a predator at the top of the food chain - preferably one that isn't called "man"?
I get so fed up with ignorance!
Now that you've let me rant, I do have some cool caterpillar pictures to share. My Spicebushies have gut purged and one is in its sling and they're getting ready to make their chrysalis! Let's go through the process as it has happened so far...
First, we have the normal, green caterpillar. By the way, I've often suspected that Spicebushies from the north have a darker or thicker black line on the bottom of their secondary eyespots. Don't know if that's significant, but I've noticed it. FYI, these are my Spicebushies from WV so they are different.
Now, here's the other one as he was starting to change color. I was like, "Great, I get to clean up a gut purge soon."
When I went to bed at 2:15 this morning, I did a final caterpillar check. And he was making his sling! Just watching them do that gives me neck cramps.
Then, the other one changed color and wanted to hang out with the first one.
They both seemed to have settled on the lid. Now, another difference I noticed is that these guys don't turn orange like the ones in Florida. In the books and online I've read where people describe the color as yellow or golden and I'm always like, "What are they talking about? They turn orange!" But apparently, it must vary. I still can't figure out how changing color this drastically helps them blend in at all. It's one of those questions I need to save for when I go harass the entomologists at UF.
As for butterflies, I was having a Long-Tailed Skipper party on the porterweed around noon. I counted at least four on my two plants out front.
In sad news, my big Orange-Barred Sulphur cat died. That's the thing about Sulphurs - they up and die on you at any time for no reason. It's rather frustrating. I still have one Cloudless and two suspected Orange-Barreds left so I went to pick Senna for them today. I didn't find any caterpillars, but I did find this native anole (as opposed to the Cuban variety). So that's cool, I guess. I warned him about eating my caterpillars but I'm not fluent in anole yet, so I hope he understood.
