Hi everyone. I had a really bad day yesterday so if you want to send me those little hug emoticons, I'll happily take every one. As most of you know, I have fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. The fatigue is worse than the other. Also, I volunteer at MOSI on Sundays (note to self: add signature). So you can imagine that I spend Saturday taking it easy and tend to go to bed early. Well, my brother (who I really don't get along with anyway) and my dad kept me up past midnight because they were watching boxing (my room is right off the family room). Then, my brother couldn't sleep so he got up at 5:30 and started banging around the kitchen. This, of course, woke me up. FYI, I set my alarm for 7:30 and allow myself three hits of the snooze button so I usually get up around 8:00. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn't so I waited for it to get as close to sunrise as I could and just left for the museum. I already "had a good mad going" as my grandmother would say, so I figured it was probably best to avoid people in general. I was nice to the lady at Starbucks because I didn't want her spiking my latte with something gross.
I spent about an hour at MOSI and then came back home. Since I had a lot of rage, I figured I'd take it out on my garden and get rid of the plants I've been meaning to eradicate. I also killed two invasive Cuban Tree Frogs. Note: I don't like killing them, but if I don't, they kill off the native species. So I'm cutting my Sweet Almond Bush which I thought was native, but recently found out isn't (failed to do my research and that's my fault). I got rid of some Firebush which are native but I just have too many of them and I want to diversify. All was going well until I was raking some of the weeds in the butterfly garden. I leaned the rake against the garbage can I was using to collect the weeds. And - you know what's coming next - I stepped on the rake and the handle bashed me in the left eye. This would have been hilarious if I was a cartoon character, but alas, I am human so instead I fell to the ground clutching my eye. You know how sometimes things hurt so bad you can't even cry, you just sort of whimper? Yeah, that's what I was doing. I guess I'm lucky that the distance from where it was leaning to my face was fairly short. If It had gone all the way from the ground to my face I would be in much worse condition. So I'm laying on the ground thinking, "Do I need to go to the ER?" Then, I hear a car go by so I get into a seated position because no way am I going to let my neighbors see this (social anxiety mixed with a good dose of pride is a powerful thing). Then, I realized my contact wasn't on my eye anymore. It was in my eye, but on the white part, not the brown part. But that's okay because at least I didn't lose it completely. (FYI, I wear rigid gas permeable lenses, not soft contacts.) I eventually managed to get inside, get my contacts out and my glasses on and inspect the damage. Surprisingly, I do not have a black eye. No idea how. I once got a black eye from running into a garage door (totally not kidding). I think I was spared this time because I hit the bones and not the fleshy part of my eye? I do have a red spot under my eye where I busted a bunch of capillaries and my lower lid hurts to the touch. So yeah, bad day all around. Sometimes I think I just shouldn't get out of bed.
I did take some pictures for you guys at the museum and around the house. Because it was so early, and cool outside, I turned on the heat lamp in the flight cage. So if the lighting looks different, that's why. Most of the butterflies were still dormant, too.
The Zebra Longwings were roosting, as usual.
I don't know if Julias roost, although they are Longwings like the Zebra. But they've been congregating in our kumquat tree for weeks. Not only when they're "asleep", but they also bask there in groups during the day.
I had a dead Giant ST but I also released one. We still don't seem to have any eggs, though! I even added rue to the flight cage last week since the kumquat has this fungus or mold that's attracting ants. But still, no eggs! It's like they're not even trying! That's it, I'm bringing the iPod and playing Barry White until I see some progress.
Also, released a Monarch.
This other Monarch perked up when I turned the heat lamp on and was enjoying these purple flowers. I need to find out what they are because the Monarchs have been all over them.
The Malachites were all dormant. Most of them were hanging on the concrete walls, but this one picked a plant to hide on.
I wonder if this is one of the Gulf Frits I caught last week?
So you know how I found the Polydamas chrysalis the other day when I pulled the pipevine? When I was taping it to the side of the critter keeper I did a census and found I only had three (including the new guy) that hadn't emerged! That's insane for a species that is supposed to overwinter. Then, on Saturday afternoon Mom tells me one had emerged. I thought it might be the one I brought in and that the change in conditions sparked it to come out, but it was one of the other two! It was too late to release it so Mom put a towel over the cage. I decided to release it at MOSI because it would have a better life. Plus, we had one in the flight cage last week so I thought there might be a small chance for it to mate.
And now for some caterpillars because I feel like I've been neglecting them. I found seven Sulphur cats two weeks ago and we had four yesterday, although one was in its sling. It amazes me sometimes how fast they grow. They were my little babies two weeks ago. By the way, when I first found them I couldn't tell what species they were, but this being January, I thought they must be Cloudless Sulphurs. But last week they were big enough that it was clear they were Orange-Barreds. In January! Last year I had Orange-Barreds in February and was freaking out about that! I get the feeling we're in for another weird year. That, or global warming is progressing fast!
And if it keeps up, maybe we'll get Malachites in the Tampa area without ordering them from a farm! This guy is a little shiny because he got a bit wet when I was adding food to the tank. By the way, this is one species I don't recommend handling too much because those spikes do get a bit prickly after a while. It's not like a sting or even an allergic reaction. I had the same thing happen when I held the Imperial Moth for a few hours. I guess it's like if you kept rubbing a hairbrush across your skin, eventually it would be abrasive. Anyway, here's a prickly Malachite with it's space age antenna.
So back at the house I was doing the rounds, ripping up my other non-native pipevine, killing Cuban frogs, and just causing general destruction while listening to the best alternative hits of the '90s. (In case you guys were curious, I'm 35 so I think I'm a bit younger than the average user on here. But I totally still live with my parents.
) I walk by the pump thingie for our well and notice someone didn't tighten the spigot all the way and it's dripping. So I fix that. And I notice there's a lot of activity going on. Now, the pump often gets covered in tussock moths in the spring due to its location directly beneath a very large Live Oak. But yesterday, I had an inchworm or looper caterpillar. (I hate when people call caterpillars worms. Two different species, folks! Heck, two different families, for that matter! I had to correct my grandma that a "Catalpa worm" was in fact a Catalpa Sphinx Moth. Plus, I have this conversation nearly every week at the museum.) So here's a looper caterpillar, so-called because they don't have the usual amount of prolegs as other caterpillars and make a loop when they walk.
He was doing a pretty good "I'm just a piece of a stick" impersonation. If I didn't have superhero-like caterpillar spotting abilities, I probably would have overlooked him.
Then, I saw something that looked like a bunch of dirt, but the shape was strange. I found some kind of moth!
And just to show that I love all Lepidoptera and "I ain't 'fraid of no moth", I did this.
I also put him on the top of the pump thinking it might be warmer up there in the sun. Plus, I wanted a good picture to send to BAMONA. When they get back to me in a couple of months, we may find out what this guy is!
By the way, this pump thing is about the size of a propane tank. Okay, maybe a bit larger. But it still wasn't done! Well, to be fair this thing was on the post with the spigot; you can see the blue pump thing in the background. But there was a lot going on for one little piece of yard. I found this bagworm, which again is not a worm because there's a caterpillar in there. Just trust me on that one, because I try not to mess with things if I don't have to. After raising caterpillars for so many years, I've found that my intervention usually just makes things worse. Also, if it can't make it on its own, it probably wasn't meant to be.
Well, thanks for listening to my tale of woe. I hope the pictures made up for it. And call me crazy (my psychiatrist and mental health counselor don't like that word, but if I wasn't crazy, why would I be paying them), but I think I'm going to go back out there after the sun comes up and do some weeding. Since I had to cut yesterday short, there is still much to be done. Oh, I think I forgot to mention this but I ordered some native milkweed seeds from Everwilde Farms.
http://www.everwilde.com/ They have milkweeds for all over the country so it might be worth checking out. But do it soon because they were already running low on one kind that I ordered!
Edited to say: Look, I added a signature! This is a link to the bosses' blog. It also has info about the exhibit and the museum. There's lots of good butterfly and plant info so check it out if you get a chance.
