All right, butterfly lovers - let's look at some pretty pictures!
Zebra Longwing. This is at MOSI, but I saw my first one in the wild when I got home this afternoon. I was so afraid the freeze we had knocked them back south, but they're here.
In fact, I found an egg on the Corkystem Passion Vine. Only one egg, though. What's up with that? I'm sure I'll find more soon and then I'll be cursing them for laying so many eggs.
But back at MOSI they're also in the mood for love. I posted this in the FL forum. This is not a threesome. In the last year I've seen what I'm assuming are males sniffing around, possibly lured by the female's pheromones.
Monarchs were also in the mood for love.
We don't have as many Julia butterflies but we have lots of caterpillars. It's a cycle, folks.
This is a bad photo of a Queen caterpillar. Our lab has terrible lighting; I don't know why I don't go outside to take pics. Anyway, I wanted you guys to see the bits of red on it because I thought that was cool.
I released a female Orange-Barred Sulphur today.
And a male Orange-Barred Sulphur. They weren't hooking up, though.
The Gulf Frits would not come down off the ceiling. Also
These are the Polydamas eggs I found on Friday. I found two more clutches today. It's actually kind of weird that our first Swallowtail eggs are the Polydamas. We could be in for another weird year, folks.
The Monarchs I'm raising at home are getting a lot bigger. Also, I got egg-bombed again. Proving Monarchs will use the native A. tuberosa if Tropical Milkweed is not around.
And this moth was on the back porch so I'm going to send it to BAMONA and see what they say.
