Okay, hunger is setting in but I feel like it's too early for lunch. That's what happens when you have breakfast at 5:30, I suppose. I like caterpillars - they set their own hours. Which reminds me, Meredith, your Spicebushies will likely come out at night and eat, although they do it in the day, too.
As for my Spicebushies, I found four eggs while picking food today. I totally cleaned out the container I had the little guy in. He's the only one of 18 eggs that survived. He's molting right now so I left him content in his leaf shelter with fresh food awaiting once he, himself becomes fresh and renewed by molting into a new skin. Let's hope the new generation does better.
So something really weird happened at MOSI the other day and my boss posted it on Facebook. This photo is one she posted so all credit is hers. In the flight cage, a Polydamas and a Pipevine decided to hook up. She isolated them in the lab with host plant and nectar but no word yet on if either one has laid eggs. Or which one laid eggs. Inter-species breeding isn't unheard of, but is pretty rare. Since nothing is eating my Wooly Pipevine, I offered it to her if she needs host foods for the mutant hybrids.
Things are much more mundane back at my house. Let's see, we have some catching up to do, don't we? My eldest Palamedes emerged and I put it on the Jatropha where it's in nice, full, Florida sun. Nothing warms up a cold-blooded insect like 90 degree weather. Identifying features of the Palamedes include a striped (not spotted) body along with that nifty yellow line on the underwing that is parallel to the body. Also, I never noticed but apparently when the sun hits them just right, the antenna appear to glow red, as if lit from within.
So I've been doing some cleaning recently and I finally got around to putting out a piece of garden art that I bought some time ago. I don't have much garden art because for me, the plants are the art. But I saw this little turtle with a butterfly on it and I thought, "That's so cute. It's two things I like in one!" I set it on the front doorstep a few days ago and it attracted a visitor. I knew it was a Hairstreak, but it didn't look like one I'd ever seen (and I've seen the rare Fulvous Hairstreak). I submitted it to BAMONA since nothing in my book looked quite right. They came back and said it was an Oak Hairstreak. Now, that's not in my field guide so I looked at the scientific name (Satyrium favonius) and realized my book calls it the Southern Hairstreak. Either way, it's a new species for me! With all these oaks around, you'd think there'd be more of them. I liked that I had a butterfly posing on a butterfly. It was very "meta" as the kids these days say.
Okay, I'm out of pictures and I can feel my blood sugar crashing. So I shall go find a host food on which to nosh. If only I could molt so that I might shed my wrinkles, past sun damage, and other imperfections.
