And my Mom always told me Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear! I'm going to have to show her that moth. How cool!
Well, I didn't go to the museum this week due to mental and physical health problems, but I got some cool pics from around the house for you guys. And I saw my therapist yesterday and my psychiatrist today (didn't mean to schedule them like that, it just happened) and I'm taking lots of Zyrtec and ordered more inhalers from Walgreens so maybe I'll be back to my version of "normal" soon? In the meantime, I wandered around the house at great peril due to the vast amounts of pollen assaulting me. At least I washed my car so it's relatively pollen-free now. It was getting embarrassing to drive that thing around! I read an article that the allergy season is going to be pretty bad up north for you folks who live up that way so be prepared! I haven't had them this bad since I first developed them at age 8!
First up is the ever-present Monarchs. Seriously, these guys never went away this winter. They have also eaten entire stocks of milkweed in my butterfly garden and my side yard. I still have some Giant Milkweed left and a few Tropical Milkweeds. Unfortunately, Mom saw them getting egg-bombed. And when I walked around the house every milkweed I saw that still had a leaf on it had an egg. See this picture? Look at those two white dots on the right side - those are more eggs!
I have twins on this plant! Most Monarchs don't tend to stick so close together like that. Weird.
Mom and I both had to relocate some Monarch cats onto the Giant Milkweed. FYI, despite things I've read, I've never had a problem switching a caterpillar to a different host plant. Not just Monarchs, but Sulphurs, and various Swallowtails, too. So don't be afraid to try it if you're running out of one kind of food.
In other caterpillar news, I have Gulf Fritillaries coming out of the woodwork! Or the passion vine, as the case may be. I grow Corky-Stem Passion Vine (P. suberosa) which is an absolute magnet for Frits and for Zebra Longwings. But like I've said before, it doesn't grow as fast as the other passifloras, although it still grows faster than 90% of most plants. So I had to institute my caterpillar-relocation program. They're like refugees looking for a new country. So Mom and I once again moved everyone we could find over to my Passiflora "Lavender Lady". The Frits usually find this pretty fast but I've never seen a Zebra Longwing on it. Zebras tend to prefer the native passifloras, I've found. Anyway, here's what my Corky-Stem Passion Vine looks like as of yesterday.
And you know there was still a Gulf Frit flying around it looking to lay eggs? And I'm standing there yelling, "There's no more room! Go away!" They never listen to me. So here are the happy refugees on the "Lavender Lady".
And this is why I enjoy the blooms while I can.
Here's the Frit that I was yelling at.
Now, you guys know I've had those Cloudless and Orange-Barred Sulphur chrysalises waiting to come out. One of the Orange-Barreds came out the other day and Mom woke me up to let it go. And it flew out of there and never even stopped for a picture. It was just...ZOOM! So today I had one of each come out but I managed to get a picture of each of them while they were still in the tank before they both jetted out of there. The Orange-Barred flew halfway down the street before I lost sight of it and the Cloudless went across the street to my neighbor's bamboo hedge. Here's the Orange-Barred. I think it's a female because they have those black dots you see in the picture but the males don't. Plus, the orange is at the bottom of their wings while the males have an orange "bar" across the top of their wings (hence, the name, Orange-Barred).
And here's the Cloudless Sulphur. Can't tell male and female on these butterflies (at least, not that I know of).
Now, the main reason I was walking around was to assess my host plants and see if everything was coming back and leafing out for spring. In interesting news, I planted two Spicebush and a Sassafras tree last year around this time, I think. Anyway, they all leafed out except after a few months one of the Spicebushes just kicked it. Lost all its leaves and was just a stick. It was like that through part of the summer, the fall, and all winter. I never pulled it because I'm kind of lazy and it wasn't in the way of anything anyway. But I kept complaining how two of the same plant could be planted within a few feet of each other, get the same conditions, and one up and kicks it! But would you believe I walked by that thing yesterday and it had leaves coming out of it?! I was totally about to trash it. And the sassafras which I also thought was dead is leafing out, too? Just a reminder that things can go dormant for a long time I guess, even in Florida weather. Maybe it was just putting down a good root system?
Also, my Sweetbay Magnolia, host for the Tiger Swallowtail, has a lot of new leaves on it! I was worried it wasn't leafing out fast enough and I wouldn't have any leaves to attract or feed a caterpillar. That's one caterpillar I've never raised to adulthood. I've had three that died on me (two were entirely my fault) and I had some eggs that never hatched for me. But I feel like this is going to be the year, folks!
I hope everything is slowly warming up for you guys. My Grandma in WV had snow the other day?! And even down here in Tampa it got down to 50 degrees! I'm happy it's not melting hot because that will come soon enough, but the weather this year has been downright strange. Just remember your plants may be dormant, not dead, and just leave them be if you can. And learn which plants leaf out later than all the others. For me it's my Bastard Indigo (host plant for the Silver-Spotted Skipper which is rare in these parts) and my Native Wisteria (not the Asian variety). So give everything a fair chance before ripping it out. Also, the Checkered Whites are starting to come out; I just haven't gotten a picture of one yet. Their host plant, Virginia Pepper Grass tends to grow in the medians and along the interstate so when you drive you see hundreds of them which is pretty cool. Hope everyone else has butterflies coming their way soon if you don't already!
