Mellie (spelled it correctly this time ? ) some really nice Photo's and information .
I am familiar with the rain story this season , rained for two months , I was beginning to believe I would see no butterflies at all this year ,, wow , did this thread help the craving ,

flaflwrgrl ,, Good information is always appreciated (and you are appreciated)

Thanks Jim.

Great photos everyone!

Hey Mellie, I've been meaning to ask about the cheese cloth. Can you share with us how and why you use it? Thanks.

Well, my Critter Keepers obviously have holes that little caterpillars can escape from. And medium size caterpillars. I found that out the hard way with some Zebra Swallowtails. Don't worry, I found them all. I knew I needed some kind of cloth and I don't know why I chose cheesecloth. Maybe because I was already at Home Depot buying plants or something? Sometimes I think I should just go to Joann's and buy some cheap muslin. The cheesecloth does keep caterpillars from escaping, it already comes folded over, and it has useful footholds for bigger caterpillars looking to build a chrysalis. It also used to be the exact size to cover my Critter Keepers but then PetCo changed brands or something and now they're a little wider. So no particular reason I guess; it just works for me. Other fabrics would do just as well, I suppose.

I had noticed that the cats seems to like using the cheese cloth. It's a good choice.

Not caterpillars....
but I remember when I was just a kid my friend (quite the budding naturalist) brought a Praying Mantis egg case into her room to 'see what would happen'. Unlike you, she did not use any cheesecloth and woke on day to find scads of tiny baby Praying Mantises all over every inch of her room.

greene said:

but I remember when I was just a kid my friend (quite the budding naturalist) brought a Praying Mantis egg case into her room to 'see what would happen'. Unlike you, she did not use any cheesecloth and woke on day to find scads of tiny baby Praying Mantises all over every inch of her room.

, praying mantis



Monarch this afternoon , smaller than this morning or would count them all as the same one .
Catching some shade in the Tulip Poplar , Meet the Swallowtail family

If that happened , would they be , Monartails or perhaps Tigerarchs
Oh well , I better stop before the GMO people hear about this
Today the plants and food , tomorrow the Butterflies ,,

Mellielong ,, A question , What plant did you get the Orange Barred Sulphur larvae from . ?

nice set of read antenna ?

Had to move this one off the post goats are curious creatures

Jim, I use Senna ligustrina (Privet Cassia) for my Cloudless and Orange-Barred Sulphurs. They'll use anything in the Senna or Cassia family but some Cassias are invasive and I wanted something native. I bought mine from the Florida Native Plant Society at one of the USF Botanical Garden Plant Festivals.

Cinda, I think you have a Tulip Tree Moth. It's very similar to the Promethea Moth but my "Caterpillars of North America" says the Tulip Tree Moth has a light stripe down the bottom of the abdomen that the other lacks and I'm pretty sure I can see that in your photo. Either way, I want to give it hugs!

gardengus Promethea Moth Caterpillar ? Great photo , of the Larvae gus ,
Hair of a cross post Mellielong , I have a Senna , the Prairie version (species) I am hoping the hardy one here anyway ,,
Have not seen any Orange Barred this year either ,,

Jim, aren't you a little far north for Orange-Barreds? I looked at BAMONA's sightings map and I see that they do come that far north, but it doesn't look like they do it very often. Seems like it would be a rare sighting for you.

Mellie I have seen at least two a season for the past 12 years ,Colias eurytheme the female .

This is still nervous . if I could tell or not , but this is about the fifth time I have seen one today



here is the Senna

Hoping it is this )Cassia hebecarpa

Why nervous, Jim? You know you've got a male Monarch there, right? It might help you count if you could at least see if they're male or female. That way if you saw a female, then a male, you would know you saw at least two different Monarchs.

Oh, and don't even joke about mixing Monarchs and Swallowtails. There are these vans that go around for Scotts' Lawn Service and they have this mutant butterfly on them. It's like they took a Monarch but added the bottom of a Swallowtail to it. It looks absurd and I yell in the car every time I see one. Like they couldn't pick one butterfly? Like one isn't beautiful enough that they felt they had to combine two? I don't trust any lawn service company but one that has a mutant hybrid creature on the side of its van would never convince me to buy from them.

Tulip tree makes sense It was under my big tulip tree and in the photo it was on the trunk of the tree.

More activity in the garden
The phlox attract a lot of visitors.

Millie (the behavior) I guessed most of them are male , and it seems late here for them to be patrolling like they are.

Mellie )and, I was hoping earlier ,you would not be to awfully upset , (the genetic GMO butterfly) I know you like your butterflies exactly as they are , It was not meant to upset you , With the Van and people it is the age old Mythology , like Beowolf , Mummy , Wolfman , etc oh the Satyr ..

After all , standard Host plant and the Butterfly name learning , are enough as they are . I know and understand why you prefer staying to that ,

Oh Jim, I'm not upset. It's just that there are a ton of lawn services around here, as you can imagine. My uncle even owns a landscaping company. And the latest thing is that they're all trying to make themselves sound "natural" and "green". But then they can't even put a normal photo of a butterfly on their vans? I guess I just don't see much of a need to improve on nature. Don't even get me started on coneflowers! Purple is my favorite color and I maintain we don't need coneflowers in other colors unless they are random mutations!

Cinda, I love your Tiger ST! I've seen one flying in my neighborhood the last two days but it doesn't want to stop.

In caterpillar update news...my baby Tiger ST died. The big one is still fine. I had wondered about the little guy. He ate a lot right away, but then he kind of stopped and he wasn't growing like he should. Plus, he should have molted at least once by now. Even the Pipevine ST cats that hatched yesterday are noticeable larger. It's weird how fast they grow! A few more are hatching, too! Oh, and I found another five eggs this morning on the Pipevine. Also, I'm down to one final Polydamas cat. He's molting right now. Other than that, I still have the two Giant ST cats on Rue and the final Io Moth cat munching Wisteria.

gardengus , Indeed , Beautiful TST


Mellie , sorry to hear about your larvae cat dying . At least you gave it a chance , Hopefully all the others will live, grow, and pupate delightfully
As far as purple Coneflowers , don't take this wrong but ,, I have a ground hog that agrees with you , It is eating all my flowers except the purple coneflowers , it can eat syrica milkweed ,