It was a dark and stormy day...but Melanie went out anyway to pick caterpillar food. It's not currently raining but it is thundering and it looks like it could pour at any second. I checked the radar and it looks like the heavier stuff is north of here. I ran into a few sprinkles when I went to Starbucks which is north of my house. With this weather, you wouldn't think the butterflies would be out, but you'd be wrong!
There's a Zebra Longwing floating around, as usual. It only allowed me one shot.
It's on porterweed, but that's Rue in the background.
And then it was Swallowtail day! First up was this Spicebush on the red pentas. I swear, next year it's going to be all red pentas. No more pink! No more purple!
Just kidding, purple is may favorite color! And I suppose I could use the leaves from the other colors to feed any Tersa Sphinx Moths I find.
Then, I saw the Tiger ST! Now, I have to revise my earlier statement. I believe Mom and I saw the same male Tiger ST. She only took pictures of the underside and from all the blue, I assumed she had a female. But I saw both sides of this one today, and the top has very little blue which means it's a male. I didn't realize they could have so much blue underneath. Also, if you look close, they're missing the same tail so I think it's the same butterfly.
The blue in the background is my front door. Butterflies are not shy about coming close to homes and man-made structures.
So I'm standing there watching the Tiger and I hear something that sounds like a mix between a locust and electricity crackling. Saw some movement in the plumbagos and decided to stay out of it. But then something caught my eye. The whole time I had been chasing the Tiger, a Giant ST was basking on my Giant Milkweed! This one looks pretty fresh, although it's not near any host plants so I'm pretty sure it didn't come from my yard. Still, it's a very nice looking specimen.
And in a special PSA, Melanie reminds you to count your caterpillars after they've hatched. You see, I moved all the hatched Pipevine cats to their own container since they were getting a little big. This morning, the egg container had three cats. I cleaned their container and put a new leaf in it for them. But as I was cleaning, I only saw two caterpillars. I thought maybe I was confused, and had counted the egg that was about to hatch. But when I came back inside with the new leaf, I spotted a little caterpillar on the counter! I apologized and scooped him onto the leaf. So yes, I had three caterpillars all along. To think I almost lost one!
