I'm so jealous! I've only ever seen one Great Purple Hairstreak before and my picture wasn't even half that good! I was buying my first Sweetbay Magnolia (not the two I bought this year, but it was the same nursery, this was about two years ago). The guy went to get the dolly to move it and here comes this butterfly. I realized it was a GPH and you know I had my camera on me. I was freaking out and Dad was keeping the employee and other customers from getting too close to me and the butterfly. I explained I had never seen that one before and I think everyone found it amusing. Plus, I was there buying a host plant for the Tiger ST so it's kind of obvious where my passions lie.
I'm glad someone is seeing Red Admirals. I've seen one this year! And no caterpillars despite me checking lots of pellitory. They're never a very common butterfly around here but I do tend to find a few in the spring. Oh well.
That one American Lady had a bite taken out of it, Linda! But that's why they have those eyespots. To lure predators away from their real head so they can live to see another day.
Ann, you've got some kind of Duskywing there. They're known as one of the spread-wing skippers because, unlike most skippers, they tend to sit around with their wings open.
I've been kind of down lately even though I saw my therapist yesterday. I'm not on good terms with my family so I've been pretty bummed. I think I need to go pet the Monarch cats outside. The cats I have indoors are either too small or will stinkhorn me. I'm glad I have all the great folks on ATP to make my day a little brighter.
Around here I've mostly been releasing bunches of Orange-Barred Sulphurs. They keep coming out when I'm sleeping so most of them flew away but I did get a picture of this female.
And there was a Gulf Frit flying around because there's always a Gulf Frit flying around. It's sitting on Spiderwort.
It was very windy here the other day when I was walking the yard. I dropped an American Lady cat and it took me a couple of minutes to find it. Then, I found three Monarchs that had eaten practically all of my A. tuberosa so I moved them over to the Giant Milkweed. I saw one this morning and his tubercles were wiggling and there was a huge pile of frass underneath him so I'm taking that as a sign he's happy. Anyway, this is what it looks like when I walk around the yard - three Monarchs and an American Lady cat.
In other caterpillar news, my mystery cat is definitely a Palamedes. Still can't explain why he had that brown patch on his rump when that defies everything they say in the books and on the internet, but he is now in his green form and I'm sure. I took him and the big Palamedes to my therapist's appointment. I figure I'm always telling him negative stuff; I just wanted to show him something good, you know? He took a picture to show his kids. I think the big Palamedes is going to gut purge soon. He's in position and his head is starting to fade to a lighter green. Like, the Spicebush ST, the Palamedes also changes color to a yellow or orange before they pupate. Still don't know why they do that or how it would help them survive. Need to ask a lepidopterist.
To cheer myself up, I'm thinking of going to Selby Gardens in Sarasota. Maybe tomorrow. The rain is supposed to be gone and our temperatures are going to be near normal so I figure I better get out before we hit 90 in a few days. They have a small butterfly garden there so hopefully I'll have some cool pictures to share.
