I didn't stay long at the museum today because I am super sore from trying to do some gardening yesterday. But I did get some pics for you guys.
Zebra Longwing
Common Buckeye
Orange-Barred Sulphurs
Julia
Monarch
Gulf Fritillary
Female Orange-Barred Sulphur. You can see she lacks the orange bar at the top of the wings and only has orange near the bottom.
Great Southern White that I released this morning.
Also released a female Orange-Barred Sulphur
The Sulphurs hadn't been laying eggs in the flight cage but that was okay because I was finding plenty of caterpillars outside. But now they've gone crazy. I had to take a picture it was so crazy. Nearly every leaf had an egg on the tip of it which is normal. But do you see the three eggs stacked together in the picture? I've never seen Sulphurs stack their eggs. I didn't know they could! I guess they egged all the leaves and had to get creative. I saw it on another leaf, too. I guess we'll have plenty of Sulphurs for a while!
So I got home, ate my bagel from Panera, read a bit, and fell asleep. I woke up at 6pm and thought, "Oh shoot, I have to water my plants!" So I did that and then I thought, "Nothing comes between me and a caterpillar!" After checking that my neighbor's dogs were not out, I wandered back over. I needed to pick some fresh food for my caterpillar anyway, right? And I found him! The one I missed yesterday. I didn't take my camera with me because it was so late and I was trying to be quick about this. (I did see a Tropical Checkered Skipper, though!) So once I got back to the safety of my kitchen, I took some pics. Here is what the nest looks like at the top of the plant. Sometimes you can see the frass sticking to it, as well.
And then you open it up for your caterpillar prize!
I'm assuming this is also an American Lady that hasn't molted enough to look like the other. I haven't raised them in so long, I've forgotten a lot. Oh, I also found more mysterious yellow eggs on my Passiflora 'Lavender Lady'. Have brought them in to see if the Zebra Longwings are finally accepting my cultivar. Of the other eggs I brought in, I only managed to get one Gulf Fritillary. But the experiment shall continue!
