Okay, time for my weekly "look what I did at the museum" post! I have to say, for January we are doing quite well! Some of that is in part due to our friend that has a butterfly farm out in Plant City. If you're not familiar with Plant City, it's the site of the annual Strawberry Festival every March and there's usually a lot of big name country singers. I don't care for strawberries or country music, so I've never been. But it's kind of a big deal around here.
So lots of variety including several Swallowtails that were making me scratch my head. This Polydamas let me pick it up!
Last weekend a whole pop-up full of Giant ST chrysalises appeared. I figured they came from the farm and I was kind of wondering why. I mean, they were just going to stay in their chrysalis all winter, right? Wrong! We have eight in the flight cage! We're trying to get them to breed, and normally they lay on our kumquat tree. But I didn't find any eggs. I did find some kind of mold or fungus and ants that seemed attracted to said mold or fungus. So I went out and cut some rue, put it in a container with water, and I'm hoping for the best. At least it gives them another option for a host plant.
We also had a mysterious Black Swallowtail in the flight cage. Oh, the boss replanted the flight cage on Wednesday so be sure to check out the awesome new flowers! Okay, not these pentas. Pentas are always there. But in other pictures.
But mostly the Swallowtails were hanging out in one corner like the cool kids. And the Zebra Longwing was trying to join their clique but they weren't having it. That's the Polydamas on top, the two Giants, and the Black ST being bothered by the Zebra.
I was beginning to wonder if the Swallowtails were actually going to eat anything when this Giant came down on the geranium. (The Black ST picture was taken later in the day and I never did see the Polydamas eat anything.) I guess he decided the Zebra Longwing could hang with the big boys because they were sharing nicely.
This Great Southern White probably also came from the butterfly farm. They vary in color quite a bit, with the females being more gray. But you can always tell them from other White species because they have turquoise antenna clubs! Seriously, how awesome is that?
We mostly have Julias in the flight cage right now. Tons and tons of Julias. FYI, the female is the one with the black band across the top of the wings. I just checked my book because I always forget.
And there's still quite a few Zebra Longwings.
And sometimes the Longwings like to hang out together, like this Julia and Zebra on lantana.
We've kept the Malachites going for a long time now!
And the Monarchs I brought in a few weeks ago are happily flying around now. Okay, looking at the pictures they're mostly just eating a lot.
We had one Cloudless Sulphur in the flight cage but I caught a couple more.
And we had a couple of Buckeyes! They were hiding; I didn't see them until I'd been there a couple hours. The color on this one is amazing!
But the real surprise happened outside! I saw a Hairstreak! I "think" this is the White M Hairstreak. I sent my photos to BAMONA so I should know in about two months.
They take forever to get back to Florida people. When I post my butterflies from KY and WV, I usually hear back within a day. I suppose it's a supply and demand thing. I don't see this particular Hairstreak often enough to be sure so that's why I consulted the experts. I also posted it on our MOSI group on Facebook in case my boss wants to weigh in.
I caught a couple of Gulf Fritillaries outside since we didn't have any in the flight cage.
Inside the lab, the caterpillars I found last week turned out to be Orange-Barred Sulphurs! I was betting they were Cloudless, but they were too small to tell. I had to change the sign on the tank!
But honestly, Orange-Barred Sulphurs in January? I blame global warming.
That's it for the museum. I'm going to post again to show you what I found at my house.
