Well, let's see. I've got a few things going on tonight. First, a little catch-up from yesterday. Speaking of Tiger STs, I spotted a real one flying around, but only managed one bad photo of it. Dad thinks he saw a dark form female and said it was flying around one of the yellow ones. Could I see eggs soon? Fingers crossed!
I still have plenty of Zebra Longwings around.
And the Monarch is still enjoying the Mexican Flame Vine. You can see the street, sidewalk, and the pole that holds the street sign in the background. I really do live on the corner, folks. Made it easy to walk to the bus stop in high school.
The Gulf Frits are still flying around trying to egg anything in sight - including the stucco on my house! I know butterflies often lay eggs near plants, like on the fence post where a vine is growing. And the passion vine is sort of close to, but does not touch, the side of my house. Stupid butterfly.
So my Tersa Sphinx Moth is growing really fast. You remember that I just posted that it molted. Well, I was checking it yesterday to see if I needed to pick more food before it got dark. And I thought it had enough. This morning, I noticed it hadn't eaten much and that was because it was molting again! And when I checked it a few minutes ago, it was done! They molt so much faster than butterfly cats! So I went outside to pick some penta leaves because I'm nice like that. You can definitely see the eyespots better now, but they'll get even bigger. FYI, these caterpillars come in green and brown, although I'm not sure if they're born that way and stay that way, or if the can molt and change color (like Zebra Swallowtails do). So far this one is staying green.
At least three of my Black ST eggs have hatched so while I was outside picking the Pentas, I picked some Rue, too. Now, this was a few minutes ago so all I had was the light from right outside the garage door which is not very bright. I even muttered that I should have brought a flashlight. But I could still make out the shape of things so I picked one piece of Rue. And I'm so good, I managed to find a Black ST egg. That's right folks, I can now find butterfly eggs IN THE DARK!
But wait - there's more! As I was walking back to my room to put it in the container, I noticed I actually picked TWO eggs. (Fun fact - there's a town in Florida named "Two Egg". Don't know how it got that name.) My thumb was hiding it in the first picture.
Sadly, there is one thing I cannot control. And that is parasites eating my butterflies!
My second Palamedes hadn't emerged but Swallowtails are known to take their time so I wasn't too worried. Until last night when I heard something and I looked over to see a wasp in my chrysalis container! Let's just say I went outside with a shoe and the wasp is no more. I forget what kind of wasp it is; I looked it up once. They have blue bodies and orange-red wings. And only one wasp comes out of the chrysalis. They're about as big as paper wasps. Here you can see the hole it made coming out of the chrysalis. FYI, I don't have too many problems with these wasps at my house but I do tend to get them when I "borrow" caterpillars from that place I plead the Fifth Amendment to ever going to.
And in "my Friday night is more exciting than your Friday night" news, I had a confused female Orange-Barred Sulphur emerge. She's spending the night in my bathroom (I keep my lamp on in the bedroom so it's darker in the bathroom) until I release her whenever I wake up tomorrow. I swear I looked at that container yesterday and no one looked close to coming out. I hate when they surprise me like that. I mean, it's a good surprise, but I like to be prepared.
And finally, I'm still celebrating my microbadge! You can't buy this one, folks. You have to earn it! By participating! There are still many weeks of plant celebrations this year so get yours when we have our next celebration which will be all about Clematises! Check out the full calendar and start plotting how to join me in the microbadge club here:
http://garden.org/barn/events/
