Lafayette, I have returned! Or something like that, anyway. And I brought pictures this time! Not a lot today since our diversity of species is not exactly at its peak right now.
Somehow, this is the only Monarch picture I took. I got to talking as people showed up and forgot to take more pictures once it warmed up. So it was just hanging out on the screen catching some rays.
We're currently being overrun by Longwings - Julia and Zebra. Here's some Zebras, first. The one on the Delphinium was one I released and it must have been hungry because it went straight for that flower. They don't usually do that when I first release them, believe it or not.
And some Julias, now.
And here's some of both.
There are only a few Malachites left but they were definitely the favorite today.
Now for the educational part of today's post. Apparently, today was the day all the Orange-Barred Sulphurs decided to die because I found three of them in the flight cage in really good condition. Okay, one wasn't quite dead, but he was in the throes of death. I used the opportunity to show the difference between the male and the female. Males earn the name by having the "orange bar" across their top wings.
Females lack the orange bar and have orange on the bottom wings only. They also have black dots that the males lack.
I also had a Gulf Fritillary I had to put down. I had to get a little aggressive because it was trying to get out of my grip, of course. So I thought I'd illustrate why it's important not to touch a butterfly's wings unless absolutely necessary. You take scales off which appear like a powder on your finger.
I was cutting some fresh cassia for the Sulphur cats and happened to find an egg on the piece I cut. It's that tiny, football shaped yellow thing in the middle of the picture. People are always amazed by how small they are and that I can find them at all. But eggs are way easier to find than a chrysalis despite the size difference. You just have to know where the butterfly lays its eggs. It could be on top of the leaf, under the leaf, where the leaves meet. But it's almost always going to be on new growth.
I've said before we don't usually raise Gulf Frits (or Espejitos!) because they get that horrible melting disease. But we have a tank of them and they looked pretty healthy today. I took one out because not only did it have the black striping, it has some cream coloring near the bottom. I told you guys I was going to pay attention to them this year. So far, so good!
By the way, I totally used the Espejito thing on the Brazilian visitors. Sure, they speak Portuguese, but I figured it was close enough. I forgot to post this above, so here's the Gulf Frit, or Espejito, that I caught in the garden today. I think it's a female because I caught it as it was sitting on a passion vine leaf. Didn't give it a chance to lay an egg before I swooped in with my net.
That's all for today, folks! Hope you enjoyed the show and maybe learned something new!
