I'm totally behind on posting so prepare to be assaulted by pictures! I have been so tired lately. I slept 20 hours one day last week! That's crazy even for me. And that doesn't leave time for much playing on the internet when you have to do basic living stuff. So let's dive in. These pictures are from Saturday.

I released a bunch of Monarchs. This one headed for my tire, as you can see. They actually do this a lot. I think because my car is warm from the sun. It was about 9:30 in the morning but I thought it was plenty warm. Of course, I am warm-blooded and butterflies are not.



One upside to all my neighbors mowing their weeds is that the Duskywings realized I'm the only game in town.



Although, the neighbor across from me has a lot of Frogfruit in his yard so he gets the White Peacocks and the Phaeon Crescents because it's their host plant. Here is my first Phaeon Crescent sighting of the year.



This is one of those Monk Skippers I learned about last year. They have a really long proboscis which is one way to tell them. They're also a little larger than most skippers and have no markings. I think this one has something on his left antenna.



And a Cassius Blue held still for a moment!

Now, I have some big news, folks. I'm taking a hiatus from MOSI for a while so this past Sunday was my last day for a bit. I'm sure I'll still drop by to give them my extra caterpillars and my trainee still has a book she borrowed from me so there's that. But I felt like I needed a break. I'm just kind of in a rut in my life and I want to do some different things. Problem is, I have limited energy due to the chronic fatigue and so I have to make what I call "energy choices". So I'm going to put my energies elsewhere. And since it's starting to get warm outside it seemed like good timing. Tentatively, I'm planning to take the summer off. But I might miss it and go back or I might quit altogether. I literally have no idea what I'm doing. But I talked to my therapist about it and he said as long as I'm not trying to isolate myself, it seems like it could be a good time to do some new things. That being said, you're going to have to put up with less of my pretty, museum pictures and more of my bad, wild photos. But at least I'll have time (and energy) to visit the wild butterflies!

After admonishing the Sulphurs for not laying eggs, they seem to be going insane. They're still stacking their eggs on the one Cassia in the flight cage!



And speaking of Sulphurs, it's mostly Orange-Barreds in the flight cage and outside. (More on that in my next post.)



It's weird because generally the Cloudless outnumber them, especially early in the year. It used to be the Orange-Barreds didn't really start up until the warm weather came but Cloudless were nearly year-round. Maybe mild winters are changing things up a bit? But I did get to release one Cloudless Sulphur.



Lots of Gulf Frits around now. My friend Dominic (who says he's 13 going on 28, whatever that means) stopped by and caught four Frits. I caught one. But then again, if I had the energy of my 13 year-old self, I'm sure I could have caught more.



And we still have quite a few Julias.



The Buckeyes were mostly in their chrysalises but a few had emerged. Not that they would come down and pose, though.



A couple of newly emerged Zebra Longwings.



I saw a Checkered White in the gardens but didn't have my net, of course. There have been way fewer White butterflies this year. I think the late freeze we had may have affected the Virginia Pepper Grass, which they host on. It seems to have appeared later this year. So I was really glad to see this one flying around.



Okay, as I was just typing I heard something. I am crazy, but I don't generally hear things that aren't there, so I checked the Critter Keepers and darn if that American Lady didn't come out! That was only seven days in the chrysalis! More on that in the next post.

Back to MOSI...I did get to see some butterfly mating so that was fun.



And back at home the Duskywings were there to greet me. I have a whole pack of them that nectar in front of the house now.

Yesterday I saw only birds so I already posted those over in the bird thread. But today it was back to caterpillars and butterflies. I saw a Tiger ST today but didn't get a picture. And some other kind (probably a Polydamas) went flying across the street. And neither left me eggs! So rude.

Now, I was talking about Cloudless and Orange-Barred Sulphurs. If you remember, I have some yellow form Cloudless caterpillars because they've been eating the buds and flowers that my Senna is still producing for some reason. Peak bloom time is around November, but since these have been established, they will bloom into April. I expect they'll stop soon. Anyway, the caterpillars can be very similar. And I happened to find one of each today when I was picking food so that was fortuitous. Here's the Cloudless yellow form. The blue forms rings around their body.



Whereas the blue on the Orange-Barred cat forms an actual pattern.



Now, I'm going to take a minute and talk about something that happened today that I'm not too proud of. Because it's important to learn from our mistakes and I did something that I knew better than to do. I was taking all the Sulphur cats out of the Critter Keeper to dump the old food and frass. I use a layer of cheesecloth on the top so I set that to the side and then set the caterpillars on it. Then, I had to put them back in the tank. Well, Sulphurs DO NOT like letting go of things. I usually break sticks off the plant when I collect them. Well, one was clinging to the cheesecloth and he was right at the edge. I had to move him or the lid would have closed on him. I was feeling hurried and instead of waiting for him to climb up my finger, I grabbed him and pulled. And one of his prolegs clung to the cheesecloth but the rest of him came, now bleeding from the wound. Yeah, I killed him because caterpillars don't recover from that. So please be more careful than me when handling Sulphur cats, in particular. It's often easier to break off a leaf or stem or whatever no matter what kind of caterpillar you have. It keeps you from getting stinkhorned, accidentally moving a molting caterpillar, or fatally injuring one like I did. So let's all learn from this.

Okay, back to the pictures. Here's one of those Skippers I haven't learned yet.



Weird angle of a Duskywing feeding.



Gulf Frit caterpillars getting transported to the bigger passion vine. I found one more cat after I took the picture. And no, these guys don't sting you despite the scary-looking hairs.



And here's the American Lady prowling my Critter Keeper a few minutes ago. As soon as I opened the lid, that butterfly was gone!

Mellie love the posts - wild or museum I love the updates! Keep 'em coming!

Go for it Melanie! Go do what you feel you need to do. We'll still be here looking at your photos from the "wild".

flaflwrgrl said:Go for it Melanie! Go do what you feel you need to do. We'll still be here looking at your photos from the "wild".

I totally forgot some photos I meant to post! These are from the museum. I wanted to talk about the power of Sage. Or Salvia. Latin or English - the butterflies love it no matter what you call it! This is a blue variety, but we have pink, red, and kind of a mauve color out in the garden and they like those, too. So I'm just gonna leave these here...





Now go plant some Salvia! I wonder if butterflies go "nom, nom, nom" or if it's more like "slurp, slurp, slurp"?

Maybe they go

@mellielong
Melanie, I wonder if you can tell me what larvae this one is? Teeny, tiny at this point & munching on dandelion.

No idea, Ann, but I'm pretty sure it's not a butterfly. Cool stripes, though! Might want to try www.butterfliesandmoths.org

Just a few pictures from the last few days. It has been a time of great change. Monarchs emerging, Sulphurs pupating, and I may have found my first Swallowtail egg.

Here's one of said Monarchs on Jatropha. It's a good plant to set them on because there are other plants below in case they fall. Also, it tends to get a lot of sun so that works.



Here's a couple of males I released yesterday. I released four Monarchs today! I only have one chrysalis left.



But the next generation is outside.



Along with the army of Gulf Frits that are on my passion vine. All those eggs I brought in turned into Gulf Frits. I wonder if they had a mutant mother or if I happened to find the eggs shortly after they were laid. Maybe they change colors after they're laid? Another thing to pay attention to this year. Also, notice how this cat only has one thin stripe. Remember we were talking about whether Gulf Frits have stripes or not? They did earlier in the year, but now they seem to be plain orange. And this guy is almost full grown so he'd have them by now, I would think. I'm going to have to examine more of them.



This Duskywing was sunning itself on Spiderwort.



I was just outside picking Senna for the Sulphur cats and checked the host plants. I found one egg on the Spicebush. It's kind of weird to just find one. There were none on the Sassafras planted right beside it, either. I'm hoping it's not a dud. Maybe the mommy butterfly got interrupted by the rain or something. Hopefully, she'll come back. And hopefully, this egg will hatch. I'll keep you guys posted.

I forgot to post Dad's picture. He saw a Buckeye yesterday in Ft. White, FL, wherever that is. He was doing woodturning stuff.

flaflwrgrl said:@mellielong
Melanie, I wonder if you can tell me what larvae this one is? Teeny, tiny at this point & munching on dandelion.

• Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
• Uploaded by flaflwrgrl

Possibly an armyworm (Spodoptera). Here's a picture of one:
http://www.projectnoah.org/spo...
but yours looks to maybe have more whitish stripes, so maybe Spodoptera eridania (southern armyworm).

If you look at this picture: http://bugguide.net/node/view/...
see the two lines that form a kind of triangle shape on its head, does it have that? If this is what it is, it is the caterpillar of an owlet moth (Noctuidae).

I went into a San Antonio nursery earlier looking for something. I couldn't resist taking a brief look at the Tropical Milkweed, however. Then the brief look became a longer look, and I ended up taking caterpillars home! I don't know if the milkweed was safe or not, but I just couldn't leave the cats there, so we'll see if they make it! Actually, one cat is pretty big already! Yay!

Yay Linda!!!!

Sue, gee I didn't look at it's face to know if it has the triangle thingy. I was engrossed doing something else & just ran across that little guy & quickly snapped some photos. But I don't think it's either of those. See where the dark green stops & the brown starts? On either side of that area there is a black dot -- I tried to get a photo of that but it came out blurry. No biggie really -- I just thought someone would recognize what it is. I don't have any veggies growing so it can eat dandelions all day long as far as I'm concerned.

Ann, your caterpillar does kind of remind me of this kind we get in the flight cage at MOSI every year and they seem to eat anything. I looked in my "Caterpillars of Eastern North America" book for things that ate dandelion but couldn't find a match. But there's a section in the book that talks about how some caterpillars are generalists (meaning they eat pretty much anything) and that dandelions are good for feeding them in captivity.

Linda, good for you! If you knew the amount of eggs I've picked off parsley at Home Depot...Let's just say I always take some tupperware in my tote bag. Also, if the milkweed wasn't safe I don't think you would have a "big" one. Pretty sure it would have killed them by now. I've bought milkweed from Home Depot and Lowe's and it's always been fine. I think they must grow it in greenhouses though because I hardly ever find eggs or cats on them. But as soon as I get them to the house, I get egg-bombed.

flaflwrgrl said:

Sue, gee I didn't look at it's face to know if it has the triangle thingy.

You mean to tell me you didn't ask it to face the camera and smile

flaflwrgrl said:See where the dark green stops & the brown starts? On either side of that area there is a black dot -- I tried to get a photo of that but it came out blurry.

OK, this is another picture of a Spodoptera, from the moth photographers' group, and it does show a black dot. Is that dot in the right place?:
http://mothphotographersgroup....
Also:
http://mothphotographersgroup....
Also, from Bugguide:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/...

Not saying that it's necessarily that exact species of Spodoptera, there's at least one other that is similar, but these pics are an example of the black dot.

Yes Sue, that's where the black dots were & you can also see the tiny black dots on top of it's head if you want to call it a head. I do believe it's a Spodoptera as you say.

Yes, those are the evil invaders we get at MOSI every year. I think they must come in on the plants we order because it's not like a moth is sneaking into the flight cage and laying eggs. And those caterpillars do seem to eat everything!

I went to my favorite butterfly spot today and took some pics that I just uploaded to my computer. You guys are going to have to wait though, because the cable guy is supposed to be here any minute to fix the internet. It keeps going in and out on us. But I'll tease you and say I had a pretty exciting day!

I am so happy - first butterfly sighting in my Atlanta backyard today It's been raining ALL WEEK and the sun came out from the clouds (and then went back in and got gray again). This red spotted purple was shy, but he or she came to visit!

Woo hoo, Meredith! Red-Spotted Purples are my second favorite butterfly. You'll see my fave if the cable guy every shows up. What's that plant it's settled on?