Well, even seeing the Polydamas caterpillars was a bit surprising. They were almost full grown, but it still seems late. We have some at MOSI, too, but I don't know if those were eggs laid in the wild or in the flight cage.

Saw a new butterfly today - Common Buckeye. It was resting on an orange plastic construction fence. I let it climb on my hand to have a closer look then walk with it about one block then it flew off to land on some Honeysuckle. Such a pretty butterfly.

We've had some neighborhood drama that I had to take care of so I've been busy. Let's catch up on some pictures!

I had a feeling my Viceroy would be coming out soon, and it totally did on Thursday night. I took some pictures in my bathroom, but the Viceroy was nice enough to land on the porterweed when I released it yesterday morning. Much better lighting outside! To differentiate from a Monarch, a key detail is that line that curves through the lower wings.



So I had something weird happen. Remember I said my mystery moth caterpillar died? It was the one that was eating grass and about the time it died, there were all these weird little brown flecks around the container. They weren't moving, and I still haven't looked at them under my microscope, but I guess I assumed they were parasites. Well, I didn't throw the caterpillar out right away, mostly because I'm lazy. But, I also noticed that when I would pick up the container, it would twitch a little. I thought it was dying a slow death, and even wondered if I should put it out of its misery. Luckily, I'm lazy. Because I took a look at it on Saturday, and it pupated! I know moth caterpillars can take a few days (literally) to pupate. One of my Io Moths took like three days. So I have to revise my earlier statement and say that my caterpillar is now a pupa. I sure am glad I'm lazy when it comes to cleaning out my containers!



There are a ton of Barred Sulphurs flying around. I counted five or six at one time in the backyard yesterday. And I got two on the same tassel flower! I was surprised they were so cooperative. You know butterflies usually chase each other off flowers.



I'm still growing Long-Tailed Skippers in the backyard. There are tons of them flying around, too.



I found another one of those moth pupa on my Pokeweed. Remember, the moth came out and I took a good picture of it where it landed on my arm, but BAMONA couldn't identify it anyway? Lazy bums. I guess I'll try again.



Gulf Fritillaries are present pretty much year-round.



Tiny skippers are still around. It hasn't rained much, though that's supposed to change this weekend. A lot of the Spanish Needles have dried up so my pentas are becoming really popular.



The Long-Tailed Skippers have mostly been attacking the porterweed, but this one was high up on my Jatropha.



Speaking of Buckeyes, mine made their chrysalises and I kept meaning to take pictures. So here you go!



Another Skipper on the pentas.



And finally, I woke up this morning and Mom had emailed me to let me know I had a butterfly that had come out. It was one of the Eastern Black Swallowtails. Don't they know it's November? Grumble, grumble...

@mellielong - Melanie, I want to tell you that you are the bestest Moderator of any of the forums that I frequent here.

Aww, shucks. I've only been the moderator for three months so I'm glad to know I'm doing well! I appreciate the support; I really mean that.

And as a reward, I will go to MOSI tomorrow and take lots of pictures to share. I would do that anyway, but I will make it feel special! That is, if I don't get rained out. We've got a 70% chance and we really need that cold front to come through so we get the rain and so the temperatures will get back down in the 80's. I think I just felt all the Northerners roll their eyes at me. My friend, Dominic, who has been visiting me at MOSI since he was seven (he'll be 14 in January) called today to see if I was back volunteering at MOSI. He said he'd come by tomorrow and when I said there might be rain, he assured me he had checked the forecast and it is supposed to rain in the afternoon. Although, I've been hearing thunder and Dad said it sprinkled once already. I guess we'll find out! It wouldn't be the first time I've picked caterpillar food in the rain.

I'm doing a rain dance. We're so very, very dry and have been for so long. We NEED the rain. I recall last time they had predicted 90% chance not too long ago & we got our hopes all up & then the day came. Got up that morning & they had dropped the chance to 40%. Within the next hour they dropped the chance down again to 20%. And so the day went until we went by high & dry once again.

OT - we got about 1 " in the prior week or so. Before that, we had 5/8ths inch in 40 days. And it was HOT - particularly for this time of year. Maybe why I saw 2 Monarchs lkast Sunday.

DavidLMO said:@mellielong - Melanie, I want to tell you that you are the bestest Moderator of any of the forums that I frequent here.

Yay for Melanie!

Thanks, guys! I have pictures to share, but first you must hear about the picture I didn't get. I was wandering through the garden, trying to catch some butterflies, mostly our escaped Julias - and I saw a Mangrove Skipper! Now, some of you may recall I saw my first Mangrove Skipper ever (there were actually two of them) at Selby Gardens back in April. Of course, Selby is right on the water and there are mangroves right there, so no surprise. But to see one at MOSI? That far inland? I asked my boss if they secretly kidnapped one and it escaped. I tried to catch it twice with the net and all I did was scare it away. I walked around for hours afterward looking for it, but no luck.

Next time, I'll just take pictures. So Dominic came to visit me today and I put him to work recapturing butterflies that escaped into the outer enclosure. We're like a large screened in patio with a smaller screened in patio inside. The problem is, our outer screen has one panel that is drooping down and open to the outside which is why I saw Julias laying eggs in the garden. But they were also getting down to business in the flight cage.



Julias like fruit. Someone left their apple in one of the pots and they were really going for that.



Julias also find me tasty. Dominic had three of them on him at one time.



Gratuitous Julia shot.



Malachites



Monarch



Gulf Fritillary



Cassius Blue



Skipper



Monk Skipper



Maybe a Clouded Skipper?



Blurry Zebra Longwing



Spotted Oleander Caterpillar Moth (per BAMONA)



Okay, nap time!

Melanie and photo's
Butterfly Love

30 degree night temperatures and none

Wow Mellie, that's a great flurry of photos!!




edited for a mindless apostrophe error.

Very pretty indeed. Really nice picture of the Spotted Oleander Caterpillar Moth.

Help! Melanie I sure hope you can tell me what this is and if I should save it or not?

Found on the trunk of a huge white Bird of Paradise that we cut down as we are trying to get my jungle under control before spring . . . As you can see, it is about the size of my little finger, and has black mink trim on one cuff. Very stylish! There's a shiny protuberance out the underside as well.

That looks like a Wooly Bear caterpillar that pupated but didn't entirely shed its skin. You know, sometimes the skin gets stuck and whatnot, just like with butterflies. They do become interesting moths, so even if you don't bring it inside, I'd tuck it in a safe place and let it do its own thing. Some moths take a long time to come out, so you could be waiting a while.

Weird and interesting!

wildflowers said:Weird and interesting!

I had a wooly worm in my hands yesterday.
I set him among my potted plants all ganged up to stay warm for winter. Hope he finds a good place to pupate.

Seems like he should be somewhere else at this time of year, but not knowing for sure, I left him be.

Critter, that's a wise decision. Nature really knows what it's doing and it seems like the only time it needs our help is when we've done something to screw it up in the first place. So if you don't know, I think it's best to just let nature work it out.

In good news, we got rain! It's been drizzling most of the day. I can't wait for cooler temperatures. And by that, I mean, what should be average temperatures. Hitting the 90's in November is wrong, even if this is Florida.

Thanks, I did put him back approximately where he came from, so he can do his thing. I suspect the moth may have already flown because the coccoon was very light. Will watch it for a few days though.

Agree on the too hot weather, but wish we'd get a little bit of that rain that's blowing by us out to sea . . maybe later.

mellielong said:Critter, that's a wise decision. Nature really knows what it's doing and it seems like the only time it needs our help is when we've done something to screw it up in the first place. So if you don't know, I think it's best to just let nature work it out.

That's what my gut always tells me. But I never know if there's human damage that I am not aware of in the situation.