Great idea! Most children will remember their early experience with nature all their lives. I pretty much had to learn on my own as a child, but will never forget...at least, I hope so!

To me nature and kids just go hand in hand Thankfully my granddaughters love it like I do or else they'ed be bored out of their heads when they are here I love when they come to me saying they spotted something and I better get my camera

See, in my mind J was always "Jay" because I'm not very imaginative. But now I know. And while we're discussing identities, Glen, can I ask if you are male or female? I'm just curious because I try to picture you all in my head.

And Ive, that's great what you're doing with your boys. I've been doing this for seven years now and let me tell you - it never gets old. I was training a new volunteer at MOSI today and she was talking about watching a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis at a butterfly house in her native home of Costa Rica and I was saying how I've seen it happen hundreds of times and it still amazes me.

And since I was training a new volunteer, I spent six hours at the museum today! I'm pretty sure that's a record for me. I'm going to sleep so well tonight! We had a really good variety in the flight cage today but it poured buckets yesterday (and today while we were there) so most of the butterflies were trying to dry out high up on the screen. So not the best shots of everyone, but I tried. We had a couple of people come in with those super big cameras today. I told the one guy his camera was bigger than the guy that was in the flight cage a few minutes earlier and he said, "That's what counts." That made me laugh. Seriously, I hate to think how much some of those things cost!

Let's start out with someone we have a lot of - the Giant Swallowtail. It happens to be sitting on the one citrus tree we have (can't remember which fruit) but it wasn't laying eggs. Lots of basking today because of all the rain. FYI, this butterfly always gets the most attention from the guests. They always want to know "what the big one is". Another FYI, the Tiger Swallowtail is technically bigger, but they don't let me name the butterflies so I just roll with it.



I promised you Malachites and so you shall receive. Remember I told you my boss got a money-back guarantee on those chrysalises? Well, she's going to have to get her money back because a lot of them were diseased. We had three chrysalises left that were all shriveled up and yesterday one didn't come out all the way (the other volunteer left it in the lab so I could use it as a training exercise for the new volunteer). But here's pictures of the healthy ones. They look totally different on each side.



Lots of Zebra Longwings. People seem to like them because I'm always getting questions about them. A lot of people say they've seen them in their yard so that's a good thing, too.



We had a couple of Buckeyes.



And lots of Black STs now that the caterpillars have made it to adulthood.



Still some Julias.



A few Great Southern Whites (with raindrops). The caterpillars we're raising our starting to make their chrysalises so we should have more in about two weeks.



Pretty sure this is an Orange-Barred Sulphur.



We had a couple of Variegated Fritillaries which got me excited because we haven't had those in a long time. I've only ever seen one in the wild in Florida and it was way in the south part of the county. I live two miles south of the northern border of my county so that was quite a ways from my house. I saw one in West Virginia one April and when I reported it to BAMONA they said how early it was to see that species in that area so I thought that was neat that I caught an early one. All in all, I guess I'm jealous of you guys that have lots of Fritillaries to see. I want to see a Diana one day! But for now, I'll settle for my Variegated Frit.



This is a Cloudless Sulphur - much lighter yellow color.



The Hickory Horned Devil (Regal Moth) caterpillars are getting a little bigger. They sit in the same curled-up position as my Viceroys. I wonder what's up with that?



Out in the garden I pointed out this White Peacock to my new trainee.



And we also saw this Spicebush Swallowtail. A very pretty specimen, too!



That's all for today, folks. I'm tired and boy do I need a shower! Caterpillar wrangling can be a dirty business.

Ooh! Ahhhh! Some of my favorites all in one post, Melanie! I've only seen a Malachite here once...I've loved them ever since. And haven't seen those lovely Julias here in a long time...keep hoping they'll return. Color me green with envy!

Yeah, it was a good day for the guests and I let them know it. I point out all the different butterflies to those who seem interested. Especially people with giant cameras because I figure they want to get photographs of each kind. Julias and Malachites are native to Florida, but not this region of Florida so they're our "special visitors" as I kept calling them. More of a South Florida butterfly, especially the Malachite. But you never know when a hurricane is going to blow one your way. Seriously, my book says the Malachite wasn't spotted here until 1965 so I'm thinking it either got blown in or someone introduced it (but that would be odd). I'm going to have to research this some more.

Stunning Malachite!

The other day I saw this interesting moth in the garden, I think it is one of the Tiger moths but couldn't find an exact match. Anyone know which moth?

I'm so lucky--my Black ST emerged while I was at home! Only a few hours ago!
How long before it's ready to fly?

p.s. lucky bug, my Monarda just started blooming and my Echinacea are about there too

Terri, if it's been a couple of hours it should be ready to fly. If you have to keep it overnight (because who wants to release a butterfly in the dark) throw a towel over it's enclosure or put it in a dark room so it won't flap around freaking out until morning. It may still flap around a little, but that's what I do to keep them thinking it's night time. People in my house keep weird hours so lights are always on, it seems.

Margaret, I don't know moths. But to you and everyone (in North America anyway), let me just remind you that the folks at BAMONA www.butterfliesandmoths.org will let you submit a sighting and they will identify your butterfly or moth for you. Sometimes they take a little while in busier areas (like Florida, I guess) but they're really good at what they do. I like to submit whatever I see in West Virginia because I doubt there are a lot of rural West Virginians submitting their sightings. The whole county where Grandma lives still has only 20,000 people in it! I mean, my high school in Tampa had 2,000 people! So I like to give data about rural areas when I visit them. I figure we probably know a lot already about butterflies in my part of Florida. It's those less populated areas where we need more data. Plus, I don't know all the butterflies in that region anyway so sometimes I really don't know what I've seen even with my book in hand so I like to have someone confirm it for me. I figure it's a fair trade - they get more data and I get an identification!

It's out in the enclosed porch--pretty much dark out there. Took hubby out to show him and shined a flashlight on him (male butterfly), and he started moving about... so I figured we'd better put the lights back out.

I just want to try to get a really good picture tomorrow and then I'll release him.

Thanks for your coaching, Mellie!

Red Admiral

You're welcome Terri and good job! We'll look forward to that picture tomorrow.

I have an interesting picture from today that's not a butterfly or butterfly-related but I'm sharing it anyway! I saw these eggs on the collard greens last week and they were there again this week so I took a picture. I Googled "black and white insect eggs" and it came right up that they were Harlequin bug eggs which are a kind of stink bug. Seriously, what did we do before the internet, folks? There were Harlequin bugs on the plant, too but I didn't know what they were either and it seemed like the eggs were more distinctive so I took their picture. Apparently, collard greens are a favorite of theirs. But we use the collard greens for food for the White butterflies - Great Southern Whites right now. The greens are looking pretty bad but I figure that has more to do with the heat of Florida in July than the bugs, but maybe it's both. And it's always good to know what other bugs live on your host plants in case they can be a threat to the caterpillar. Like I had to explain to my trainee today that when you grow milkweed you get aphids and milkweed bugs and that's just how it goes. Anyway, here's those eggs which I think look pretty cool but turn into a bug that sucks the juices from your plants. Maybe not so cool, after all.

I hope I have better photos on my good camera, but haven't had time to plug it into the computer. Meanwhile, some i-pix of the release this morning.

mellielong said:
Margaret, I don't know moths. But to you and everyone (in North America anyway), let me just remind you that the folks at BAMONA www.butterfliesandmoths.org will let you submit a sighting and they will identify your butterfly or moth for you. Sometimes they take a little while in busier areas (like Florida, I guess) but they're really good at what they do. I like to submit whatever I see in West Virginia because I doubt there are a lot of rural West Virginians submitting their sightings. The whole county where Grandma lives still has only 20,000 people in it! I mean, my high school in Tampa had 2,000 people! So I like to give data about rural areas when I visit them. I figure we probably know a lot already about butterflies in my part of Florida. It's those less populated areas where we need more data. Plus, I don't know all the butterflies in that region anyway so sometimes I really don't know what I've seen even with my book in hand so I like to have someone confirm it for me. I figure it's a fair trade - they get more data and I get an identification!

Melanie, I submitted the photos of the moth today, hope for an id eventually. Took a couple of tries to get it right, guess there is a first time for everything.

Good for you, Margaret! I really like that site when I just have no idea what I'm looking at. Like for example, one time in West Virginia I saw this really bizarre, scary-looking moth. It's called an Abbot's Sphinx. Check out the picture I took.



So I took some pictures yesterday but I got distracted and then I got very sleepy so that's why you had to wait until today. Dad and I went to the movies and I told him on the way home we needed to stop and get some willow for the Viceroys. So yes, I took the caterpillars in their tupperware in my tote bag to the movies and I guess they got bored because they couldn't see it because one of them molted. I suppose he had nothing better to do. Well, when we stopped I gathered some leaves, and I found myself a third Viceroy caterpillar! He was also molting so I had to break the branch he was on. FYI, I know I said they hang out at the end of leaves, but I have found both Viceroys and Red-Spotted Purples when they get bigger will sometimes wrap themselves around a branch. Like this guy that I found (I remembered to take a picture before I got too excited and just added him to the collection).



Here's the guy who molted while not watching the movie. Check out those antlers now!



In other developments, there was this Gulf Frit chrysalis on the passion vine near the garage door that caught my eye last week because it had a little bit of white on it. And Gulf Frit chrysalises are brown. I thought maybe it was a weird quirk, but I looked today and the white had spread. I think it got mold growing on it. I disposed of it as I didn't want it to spread to anyone else.



In other Gulf Frit chrysalis news, I found an empty one on this cherry tree that seeded itself next to my oak tree. It was so far from the passion vine I had to ask Dad how far he thought it was (I suck at estimating distances) and he said 40 feet. Some caterpillar crawled across 40 feet of my lawn to find the perfect place to hide. So many of the Gulf Frits stay on the vine that this was just bizarre. At most, sometimes they crawl up the side of the house where the vine is planted. I guess this one had to be different. At least he seems to have come out okay.



And speaking of Gulf Frits, this one seemed to be posing so I was like, "Fine, I'll take your picture."



And this was a little blurrier than I intended, but see what the Pipevine caterpillars have done to their leaves? Can't accuse them of being wasteful. And I like to put the new leaf under the old one so they can find the food faster. I mean, caterpillars are designed to find food, but why make it hard for them?

Melanie, that Abbot's Sphinx is a strange looking one for sure!

Yeah, I didn't know what it was at first but I figured out it was a moth. I have a West Virginia butterfly book but it doesn't contain moths. The Abbot's Sphinx is in my Caterpillars of North America book but I didn't see the caterpillar, just the adult. So the BAMONA website was very helpful in putting a name to this strange creature.

Ok folks, I need to rant just a little. I used to belong to that DG site - in fact, my subscription expires tomorrow and I will not be renewing it. I like it over here at ATP too much! But I got a message through DG today so I checked it out. A lady in Sacramento, California saw my pictures of Zebra Swallowtails (my favorite butterfly) and informed me she had several pawpaw trees and wanted to know what she could do to attract the butterfly. Now, at this point I started scratching my head and I checked Google to make sure I was right. The Zebra ST is an East Coast butterfly - it only gets as far west as Texas. So I had to tell this lady she had zero chance of seeing this butterfly, ever. And I couldn't help but think, did she not buy a book or check a website first? There are so many books about butterflies that are specific to certain regions. I mean, I managed to buy a book just on West Virginia butterflies and it's not exactly the most popular state in the Union, you know? It's a great book, by the way. I would think the first thing you would do when building a butterfly garden would be to find out what butterflies live in your area! And those things called the Rocky Mountains serve as a major divider for all types of flora and fauna!

Then, I got really worried because she asked if she should order some caterpillars and what would be the best time to do that. And the answer is NEVER! I really believe the only people ordering from butterfly farms should be educational institutions like MOSI where I volunteer (or other botanical gardens, conservatories, etc.) I know people order Painted Ladies and Monarchs and that's sort of okay because they are found globally but there have been researchers who worry about introducing butterflies into local populations. You would hate to introduce disease, or weaker genetics into a local population. Populations can vary quite a bit, like how I was saying caterpillars prefer different host plants in different parts of their range. Tiger STs eat Sweetbay Magnolia in my yard, but eat the Tulip Poplars that grow on the side of the hill across the road from Grandma in West Virginia. Who knows what would happen if I transported some across state lines? That's why we have laws against that and check stations when you cross into the state. Even my dad who woodturns has to be careful about transporting wood across state lines. And of course, I told her that most butterfly farms probably wouldn't even ship a butterfly out of its native range (although some unethical ones might). Personally, I also don't like treating living creatures like commodities, but that's just the way I feel about it. I understand other people don't have the same feelings I do and that's okay.

Thanks for letting me vent, everyone. I spend every Sunday educating people and hopefully I'm educating you guys, too. I know we all started out new to this but sometimes I get a question that just throws me for a loop and this was one of those. And if someone asks you a similar question, hopefully this will help you to respond.

Well, I have a lot of pictures to post. I would have posted them earlier but I've kind of been in a bad mood. Probably need to pet my caterpillars more. I do see my therapist today at 3pm so that should help. Although, he has me worried because he emailed me late Tuesday night to reschedule my usual Wednesday 11am appointment. And since I have anxiety, my mind automatically goes to the worst places so now I hope his kids and family are okay. In the meantime, I've been feeding caterpillars and had one release.

The release was a Pipevine ST who apparently thought coming out at 8pm was a good idea. I kept it overnight because I didn't like the looks of her (I think it was a her, but I'm not positive). She stayed wrinkled for far too long and had these weird white streaks in her wings. Also, her abdomen was somewhat flattened. Let me show you. Here she is just emerged pretty much (at least, as soon as I noticed).



And here she was the next morning. Not as wrinkly, but look at her abdomen. Doesn't it look weird? Her chrysalis was a little bent at the position where it normally has that "hinge" but I've seen that happen before and still have a normal butterfly.



She wasn't quite ready to fly so I put her on some Spanish Needles and she eventually climbed to the top of my shepherd's hook (I have bromeliads that hang off it). See that weird white streak in her upper wing? I don't know what that is. But shortly after I took the picture she took off flying and flew for a couple minutes until she disappeared over into the neighbor's yard (Dale, this time, not Jim's as usual, LOL). So as long as she can fly I guess she stands a chance.



Okay, you know how I talk about caterpillars doing yoga? I think we can market this, folks. I have an entrepreneurial idea to start a new method of yoga based on caterpillar movements. Those neo-hippies will eat it up. But to demonstrate what I mean, first here's an older picture I have of a Palamedes Swallowtail (not a Spicebush, but like a cousin to it). The Palamedes and the Spicebush are snake mimics and that's what he's actually doing. He'll even sway back and forth like a cobra; it's too funny! But I always say they're doing yoga.



Now, here's a photo from yesterday showing the slightly different pose of the Viceroy. For some reason, they hold their heads and butts off of the leaf and just rest in the middle. Now, in their case, I have no idea why they do this. You can see the big one on top clearly, but the little guy below him is doing it, too.



Here's a couple of Gulf Frits for you.



Here's a lot of Duskywings. They usually hold their wings open, but I found a couple who were imitating planes.



The Zebra Longwings are out and about. And collecting pollen on their proboscis as you can see in the pictures.



I actually got a Long-Tailed Skipper to hold still for more than a split second!



I found both Polydamas and Pipevine eggs on the pipevine! Remember, Polydamas are golden yellow, Pipevine are reddish-orange.



And in caterpillar news, I have more Monarchs. Luckily, my milkweed has somewhat recovered.



And my Pipevine Swallowtails molted, are growing, and are munching away.