CassieBash's Caterpillars 2015--July edition

Welcome to the month of July! For those just stumbling across this thread, this is a continuation of my chronicles with caterpillars, moths, and butterflies (OK, and numerous other animals, but mainly the butterfly/moth thing). For older posts, please see my June thread and the thread covering the months of January-May.

Officially, July hasn't started yet, so I won't be posting anything more here until tomorrow. But I think that I'll start this post off with some pictures of last year's trip to the butterfly exhibit at the zoo. I think some colorful photos of tropical butterflies are a great way to start July, don't you?

Nothing happened yesterday, and unless someone hatches, I'm not expecting anything to happen today, either.

OK, it's picture time, as promised! I haven't identified some of these guys, even though I probably could ID most with my worldwide butterfly guide. Still, you don't need to know what species they are to know that they're beautiful!





Pretty sure this is a blue morpho with wings closed; they're only blue on the inside of the wings....



Giant silkworm Atlas moths, tropical cousins to our Polyphemus, Luna, Cecropia, and such:





And one more for the time being; I'll post still more zoo 2014 butterfly pics later. This is not the greatest pic due to the glass, but you can sort of see some of the chrysalises and one of their hatchlings clinging to one. Not sure if that was his own, or if he climbed up there from another. They had rows and rows of chrysalises set up like that.

I'm now up to six monarch eggs, which is pretty good considering that the mosquitoes have limited my "outside time" to 5 minute increments....

The skeeters are bad here, too.

Ah, but today's sun and breezes kept the mosquitoes to a minimum, perfect to grill some veggies for lunch with my aunt, uncle, and cousin from PA. Also, I did take a few minutes to spend weeding the garden while I had the opportunity. After a month of rain and skeeters, my garden's wild 'n' woolly! But my Sullivanti milkweed is in bloom, as well as my biggest clump of butterfly weed and a common milkweed-- most of the pasture milkweeds are blooming. My swamp one from last year is thriving and is budded. Many of my coneflowers are also budded and/or blooming.

I did find a yellow based tussock moth caterpillar today, but once again my bug world is otherwise status quo.

>5 CassieBash: I found a Sycamore Tussock moth caterpillar...oh those fuzzi caterpillars... ;)

>6 fuzzi:. Love it! 😜

OK, now for a two-day summary....

Yesterday a neighbor came over with his big power mower and mowed our pasture. There were a lot of saplings and nasty weeds that needed to be cut down. Sadly, this also resulted in the loss of lots of milkweed. Some were merely flattened and a couple are even starting to rise up again. My younger sister and I did check over a lot of milkweed plants in the front pasture while the back was getting trimmed, and we found a few monarch eggs and cats, as well as the cat of a silver spotted skipper that must have been looking for a place to pupate, since it was headed up a milkweed stem. Also found a single, round egg on a milkweed--not a monarch egg, since those are bullet-shaped and not a milkweed tussock moth because they lay clusters of eggs, so this one is a mystery. I also moved a green tree frog to the magnolia bush in the yard, out of the danger of the blades.

Today I walked through the mown pasture and found some cats, though no monarchs. Found a green generic cat on an oak with a banded woolly bear. Also found six small cats on an elm at the fence row, where the mower couldn't quite reach. I think they're question mark larva. For the first time in quite a while, I had hatchlings--3 cabbage whites and a poor moth that had its head stuck in its pupal case. Happy ending, though--I was there just after its emergence so I had no trouble removing the case, and after that it had no troubles and its wings unfurled perfectly. It had looked like it had been wearing a crash helmet. As of yet, the moth isn't identified, but I have a pic I'll post on Monday.

First, the unidentified moth from >7 CassieBash: (notice the subtle smiley face on its thorax):



And the silver-spotted skipper cat, found just before the mowing:



And just for >6 fuzzi:, this is my color-changing yellow bear cat, all grown up:



Aside from the emergence of the yellow bear early yesterday, I also had 4 more cabbage whites hatch and fly off by the afternoon. Apparently, the bleach destroyed the virus, as promised. And I still have plenty more; this photo represents maybe half of the cabbage white chrysalises I have left:



I also took the time to relocate a small cricket out of our bathroom, before either my cat or the cocker spaniel--who eats just about anything that fits in her mouth--could get it.



OK, now on to frogs, because all gardeners like frogs and toads, right? OK, I know some squeamish people out there who don't like slimy things, so there's undoubtedly a gardener out there who doesn't much care for them. But not you guys, and so I present to you a few pics of some frogs. This first was taken with my iPhone just today outside of one of the college entrances, where a newly-acquired, recycled plastic bench in Ancilla blue (or as close as it comes) sits. The frog put himself there, this wasn't posed.



Also taken this morning, this was one of the several tree frogs waiting--quite literally--at the door of the college. They'll sometimes get into the building and dry up, so I try my best to relocate them to a tree several feet away from the door. This is one of the three frogs this morning (out of 5) that I could reach:



And this is one of the green tree frogs from the pasture. They're still hanging around at the fence row edges, where the mower couldn't quite reach, sitting on pokeweed and milkweed leaves. This one is actually on a sleeve.



And lastly for now, a picture of the newly-mown pasture, taken this morning. Those dark spots approximately center and to the right that look like they might be something alive are; they're our resident turkey hens with their chicks.

>8 CassieBash: silver-spotted skipper cat
Aww. Mine’s in hiding.

frogs and toads
Never seen one in my yard. Envious.

We have tree frogs here, but I don't see them often. I see the reptiles (lizards and snakes) more frequently.

Turkeys! Wild ones?

>9 qebo: Mine's in hiding now, too. He'd been chowing down on locust leaves--honey and black locust trees are legumes, too--and now he's using those leaves in conjunction with the paper towel bedding to hide. Skippers do like to hide; my sooty wings stay tucked in their lambs quarter leaves up until the moment they want to pupate. About frogs and toads--really? Not even a toad? Our pond always "houses" tadpoles so we probably have more than our fair share, but still, I thought toads could eke out a living just about anywhere.

>10 fuzzi: We don't have lizards, and our snakes tend to be shy, except when they bask in the road. We see a lot of snakes hit in the road during the summer. *Sigh* And yep, they are wild turkeys, which have been re-established in our area of Indiana. A guy down the road was actually a volunteer to raise and release some of the first batches of wild turkeys. Surprisingly, even though I do believe it's legal to hunt them (populations are quite steady and some flocks are positively huge, with over 50 birds), no one in our immediate area seems inclined. This pair are both females with their respective broods; female turkeys stick together and collectively raise each others' young. When I snapped this with the iPhone, I counted six chicks (not all of which you can see in the pic--the smaller ones got "lost" in the mown grass), so they've lost several, probably to predation. Seldom do you see a wild turkey dead in the road, though it does happen. But for the most part, I think dogs, hawks, cats, foxes, and other predators are responsible for most of the chick deaths. If I get a chance, I'll try to get their pics with the Nikon so I can zoom in and get much better shots.

Yesterday, five or six cabbage whites hatched. It was hard to count; I've been keeping the monarch babies in the same tank, since I don't have any cabbage white larva left, and when I took the lid off, I kind of forgot that they were in there, and they sort of "exploded" from the tank in a small cloud. No other hatchings, and no additions to the menagerie. But I do have a photo of my Sullivant's milkweed, which looks a lot like the common milkweed, only a deeper shade of pink. I had to check the tag to make sure it was indeed the Sullivant.



For comparison, here's the common milkweed blooming:



This is the swamp milkweed I'd purchased last year, all budded and ready to bloom soon. The Sullivant is the one blooming behind swampy.



This is a shot of my butterfly weed, but it also encompasses some of the other garden, which has gotten really overgrown and out-of-control due to rain providing plenty of water and rain (and mosquitoes) keeping me from actually weeding. The yellow blooming plant is mustard and is what I've fed the cabbage whites. The white is some little daisy-like wildflower that I don't see much harm in and so let it grow; there's probably some caterpillar out there that would eat it, especially if it's a true aster family member. The zinnias in the bottom left are getting big; planted these from seeds and are excited to see them bloom once they get to that point. There's also some Queen Anne's lace and some native asters, as well as maybe a Jerusalem artichoke in the mix. The pot has verbena and lantana--the lantana is what's blooming in the top left corner.



Just as a note of interest, today there were 14 small tree frogs like the one on the bench and the tree in >8 CassieBash: on the door at work today. I moved what I could, including the one that was squeezed as far into the crack between the double doors as it was possible. Most were above my reach. When I got in, I found a 15th frog that had made it into the main corridor but it was still in good shape so I took it out immediately and put it on the bench. Qebo and Fuzzi, if I could get a few over your way, I'd do it; we seem to have plenty!

Nope, no frogs or toads in sight. Possibly well hidden, but I'm in the city, streets on two sides, alley on another, neighbor with a patch of grass next door, similar all around.

I would've mistaken Sullivant for common in part because I didn't know of its existence.

Overgrown gardens are the best.

>11 CassieBash: your white daisy-like wildflower could be a Fleabane. We have those, and I let them grow as much as possible.

I like Secret/overgrown Gardens, too. My vegetable garden has been overgrown for several years, and is about 7' tall in Dog Fennel and other volunteers. I think it's a refuge for rabbits and turtles, as I've seen several this year. Oh, and I've seen more snakes, too, which I have been told is a sign of a good ecosystem. :)

Addendum: you can see part of my overgrown garden in the background here, top left behind the propane tank:

>12 qebo: Well, like I said, I had to check the tag at the base to make sure it was the newbie and not just a particularly dark common milkweed. As for frogs and toads, maybe there isn't a suitable place to raise the tadpoles....

>13 fuzzi: I always think a bit of vegetation around the gas tank is a big help toward making the necessary look a bit less cold and sterile. Yours has a nice backdrop. Ours has violets growing all around the base, a pin oak just barely overshadowing it, and a small hardy hibiscus plot nearby.

I like overgrown too but some of the weeds are providing unhealthy competition for other plants now, and the lambs quarters have obscured my path in one area (not shown in photo). I love Queen Anne's lace but it spreads like crazy. About two years ago we had it coming up in certain sections of the yard and hypothesized that they came from seed heads mixed in with some of the poorer-quality grass hay that we bought for the horses. (One of the ponies has Cushing's and cannot have anything except his senior grain, grass hay, and the occasional peppermint candy--sugar-free, I believe.) I successfully transplanted some of the very small sprouts when they first started growing in the yard over to my garden and since then they'd be happy to be the only plants out there, except for the milkweed, which they seem to tolerate and accept as being as feisty, if not more so, than they are. Oh, and they also seem to accept the lambs quarters, since those three are all growing together nicely in my tractor-tire section of the garden, where the two swamp milkweed and the two Sullivant's milkweed live. I should really decide whether I'll keep any more cabbage whites and just pull the last of my mustard, since it's become a pest (again, spreads like crazy) and we found out its toxic to our horses. I don't really want it going to seed, especially if the seed should blow into the pasture, which is adjacent to my garden. Horses do generally have sense (horse sense, of course) but they aren't infallible, and we had one that loved to eat the milkweed. (It didn't seem to harm him, and after I read that book about the monarchs earlier this year, it would seem that the lower levels of toxins in the common milkweed lower its danger to livestock.) And while some people do apparently eat it, I don't think I'm eager to experiment.

Snakes are indeed a good thing in ecological terms, so rejoice, fuzzi! Also, keep an eye out for lichen, everyone, and remember that opossums are your friends!

>14 CassieBash: my plan, at this time, is to acquire large planters, and, after planting them with Milkweed, Cannas, and Coreopsis, place the containers at the back of my area, effectively screening the propane tank. I want to keep those three contained, as otherwise they would take over the yard!

Yard sales and Goodwill are on the Saturday morning agenda...we'll see what I can find. :)

I didn't know about mustard and Milkweed being toxic to horses!

>15 fuzzi: Well, it's Indian mustard, so it may be specific to that plant and not all mustards, but I'm not sure. And obviously, since Stormy ate common milkweed (he wisely left the more toxic butterfly weed and whorled milkweed alone), it can't be too bad. But it's a common, general warning for all livestock that the toxins in milkweed are bad. That's one reason why farmers with livestock hate it; apparently, it's particularly bad for sheep and cattle, possibly because horses are more discerning about what they eat (they have more delicate digestive systems to start with).

Good luck with the planters!

I had 8 cabbage white butterflies hatch yesterday. I anticipate that virtually all will be gone by the end of this week, leaving the monarch larva the sole inhabitants of that particular tank. The last of my monarch eggs hatched and the color of the unknown milkweed egg has changed color, becoming less white and more yellow, so I hope it's prepping to hatch. I'm curious as to what it could be, since I know it's not a monarch and I just can't imagine a milkweed tussock moth laying a single egg. There is the possibility of it being an unexpected cycnia but I find those rarely and usually later in the fall on the whorled milkweed when I do find them. Still, I love their color and the soft fur, and they're beautiful moths similar to the milkweed tussock moths. Or it could turn out to be a beetle, in which case I'll release it into the wild. I've just never had any luck raising beetle larva, whether in grub form or as nymphs or whatever they call the beetles whose young look more like this young ladybug. But somehow, the egg just seems like a Lep egg to me....

No hatchlings last night, but frankly, as cool as it was yesterday, I really wasn't surprised. This morning on our local weather, they said we set a new record for lowest high temperature for July 8 at 67 degrees--the old record was 69 degrees back in 1908. Wow. So between the rain and the cold temps, I saw not a single butterfly. But my monarchs are growing at a steady pace, and the two spicebush swallowtail cats have made their chrysalises. The Promethea moths are staggered now in how much growth they're attaining; some are still fairly small while two are overshadowing the others. I've noticed this happens when I get a collection; not sure why, as they have plenty of space and have spread out on the fresh food, so everyone should be getting plenty to eat. It happens with Io moths, too, which is another species that start out clustered together. Unfortunately, the large fellows have a spot on them that looks suspiciously like a tiny bruise--signs of possible parasites. It's possible a brachonid wasp found them before I did....

Some pictures of possible interest, because there hasn't been a picture posted since >13 fuzzi:, and we can't have that, now can we? Besides, I got this wonderful shot of a cabbage white's imminent hatching, probably sometime today if the cold and wet doesn't postpone it:



Another pic of my overgrown garden, this time the section with the coneflowers in bloom.



A beautiful catalpa bloom that's fallen from the tree. Since we've had such cool, wet weather, these blooms have been lasting a lot longer off the tree than normal. If you have catalpa trees that bloom in your area, you can fill a dish with water and float them inside it for a different sort of flower arrangement. Our catalpas almost bloomed on time this year--normally they bloom really, really late.



This is my windowsill; I have a wonderful view of the courtyard outside my office. The Botanic Chamber of Horrors...er, that is, the Library Director's Office windowsill, is home (from left to right) to Tentacles the Cape sundew, Snap the Venus flytrap, Ping the butterwort, and Nepenthes the tropical pitcher plant. Except for Snap, who I got from our local Lowes, all other plants were part of a small windowsill collection sold through California Carnivores.



How many monarch caterpillars can you find in this picture? Solution is here and I must say that even I found this tricky when I went to circle them for the solution picture. Hint: there are more than 4.

>18 CassieBash: view of the courtyard
Well that would boost job satisfaction.

Love the names of your windowsill collection.

Did you know that Venus flytraps are native to NC?

Some websites claim they're also native to SC, but one shouldn't believe everything one reads, hmm? ;)

>18 CassieBash: hey! Is that the Cabbage White's wing I see through the chrysalis? Wow.

>20 fuzzi: Yes, I do know that Venus flytraps are native to NC. I see them all over the U-Haul trucks for NC, but I knew before U-Haul even did that sort of thing. In fact, if I ever visit NC, I want to find a place in the wild where the flytraps grow in plenty. As far as being native to SC, it's possible, I suppose, but California Carnivore's page on Venus flytraps only mentions NC: "It is native only to the grassy wetlands within a 100-mile radius of Cape Fear, North Carolina. " Whether any of SC is within that 100-mile radius, I have no idea.

I have The Savage Garden at home to help me care for my new crew. When I was a children's librarian at Culver, I had a Venus flytrap that lived for many years on the windowsill. I let the kids feed it freeze-dried fruit flies when it wasn't dormant. I'd have kids vying after school hours to be the first in to see if it had an open trap that day. :)

Yep, that is the wing you can see through the chrysalis, which is why I took the shot. It's pretty cool that most chrysalises become transparent prior to hatching, so you can usually guess who's likely to appear. It'll probably be sitting on the side of the tank today when I get home.

8 more cabbage whites hatched, including the fellow in the chrysalis in >18 CassieBash:. Otherwise, a dull day in the Lep world.

>21 CassieBash: I've had a couple tries at growing a Venus Flytrap, note "tries". I probably should refrain from killing a third.

>23 fuzzi: Many people think they're tropical and don't realize they need a winter dormancy. And winter dormancy has been my biggest issue raising them. The windowsill at the library was just the right amount of chilly, it seemed. Other than cutting back a bit on its water, all I had to do was just let it sit there from November to April.

Over the weekend, I had two more whites hatch, one for each day. I did find a new inchworm on a Queen Anne's lace--still no sign of any black swallowtails in any life stage. In fact, it's been awhile since I've seen any adult swallowtails, including spicebush. I did see an adult monarch over the weekend, flying low over the field across from our house, so I hope it stops and lays eggs on the multitude of milkweed at our place, if it was female. But other than the monarch and a single red spotted purple, I haven't seen a butterfly larger than an admiral for a long time. I think it's just been too overcast and cool--not enough sun. I also collected an 8th question mark larva, a little guy that was found on some of the food I gathered for the other seven. My woolly bear molted recently and is getting quite big, as are those monarchs collected as cats, while those that hatched from eggs are now noticeably monarchs, albeit small ones. I've moved cats around again--I didn't like the looks of a couple of the whites chrysalises, so the monarchs have been shifted into a different tank, in case of infection. The question marks are growing quickly and I moved them into larger accommodations, along with their friend the woolly (both eat stinging nettle, and I've found that the woolly bear's bristles seem softer when raised on nettle, giving credence to the idea of nettle shampoo). The hexagon tank is temporarily unoccupied, but I'm thinking of moving the three or four small monarch cats to it soon. Unfortunately, it looks like disease may have taken my silver-spotted skipper, which had been doing beautifully until this weekend. It looks like my tussock moth is pupating, though it's too soon yet to confirm it as a success.

Fascinating about the Venus Flytraps's origins and need for winter dormancy! Explains why I've never had luck with them in the long run.

So much going on in your neck of the woods, Cassie! Great pics in >18 CassieBash: of the imminent (at that time) hatching and the windowsill garden at your office.

>25 Storeetllr: I agree, regarding the winter dormancy. We can't grow tulips here except as an annual, our winters don't get cold enough LONG enough, but I didn't consider that was my issue with VFTs.

>25 Storeetllr: Yep. Find a drafty windowsill for your next one. ;) Tentacles, by the way, is a cape sundew, which can be so successful in a terrarium or windowsill environment that it can spread by root to fill in a given space easily. The author of The Savage Garden states that it can easily become a "weed" in a terrarium, as it strives to take over. Tentacles has begun spreading; there's one baby with little tiny dewdrops, and what looks like the very start of a second baby. And now that I look even more closely, there are several very tiny starts scattered throughout....

>26 fuzzi: Is your winter that much warmer than in their native range around Cape Fear? I know little of the clime of NC but know that northern Indiana winters are much harsher (due to proximity to Canada and, in our area, the double-whammy of lake effect from Lake Michigan) than those down even in central Indiana, around Indianapolis. Heck, even Muncie sees warmer weather than we do, and it's not even as far down as Indy (further east, though). Ah, I remember Muncie winters--not much snow, not much wind chill, but a heck of a lot of cold rain....

Nothing hatched last night, but I did move the smallest monarchs into the hexagon tank, with a paper towel stretched over the top. I had one monarch die but suspect parasites rather than the goopy virus, partly because it was at the bottom of the tank (the NPV cases I've seen have been cats that have crawled to the top of the tank to die) and partly because it wasn't liquifying. I found two more spicebush swallowtails while finding food for the Promethea moths (one of which has made a cocoon); one large spicebush larva and one really tiny one. The only way I found either of them is that I'm so attuned to looking for rolled leaves that I check each possible roll for likely larva. Sometimes, I can tell when one had been there, partly from the chewed leaves, but also because you can see the silk if you get the leaf in the right light, or there's enough of a buildup. I disposed of the skipper body and the container I'd kept it in (which had previously held cottage cheese); I don't know how well those softer kinds of plastics would handle a bleach cleaning or if they'd absorb some of the bleach, possibly poisoning the cats, so I played it safe and just discarded everything into the trash. Everyone else seems fine; I'll have to get pics of my rather interesting inchworm, the one eating the Queen Anne's lace. It's not exactly ugly (in my opinion, no caterpillar truly is), but it isn't exactly svelte and delicate like you picture an inchworm, nor is it an interesting color. It's definitely a good stick mimic, however, as it's a thick-bodied brown thing capable of holding itself up on its last two sets of "legs" in a straight line, just like my false crocus geometer from my first thread.

By the way, for anyone who's interested, my woolly bear says it should be a mild winter for our area, as it still has barely any black on it. No doubt it's making promises it can't keep....

Nothing hatched, but my biggest monarch was in the J position last night. He even had a tinge of green at the bottom curve, a sign of the chrysalis forming underneath. I'd have loved to have filmed him wiggling out of his caterpillar skin--I've seen the process with many a monarch but it's always fun to watch--so I could have uploaded to YouTube to share with you, but time didn't allow for me to stake out the tank. Plus, my camera needs new batteries for filming. I did find a new inchworm, a little grey thing that was literally hanging by a thread from an elm tree, and gathered a few young admirals that now are hanging out with the question marks. Since our first generation of admirals was so successful, it's hard to find a nettle plant without at least one possible larva.

>28 CassieBash: time didn't allow for me to stake out the tank
I finally caught one in the act last year toward the end of the season, after watching watching watching in vain. I got photos but not video. Makes one appreciate the patience and skill of nature photographers.

>29 qebo: Yeah, there are times when I swear they know I'm watching and wait for me to go away to do all the cool things like pupate and hatch. If I were getting paid for nature photography, I might be able to do it. Except I'm not good with extreme humidity and heat, and mosquitoes are drawn to me like moths to a flame. So I'd need to find ideal weather conditions and a lot of DEET.... :)

Well, speaking of nature photographers, I had the opposite problem with the only hatchling to emerge yesterday. I didn't see the moth until it was already in flight; it had been sitting at the top of the tank--probably in a corner where I wouldn't notice it right away--and it was gone as soon as I took the lid off. So the bad news is that I have no idea what hatched, other than it was a moth, but the good news is it was obviously healthy and well-formed, so I'm as pleased as I can be with the circumstances. I'd rather this happen than to find a moth with crippled wings at the bottom of the tank, unable to live a normal life. Other Lep news includes two more cocooning Prometheas and I think my big spicebush swallowtail is looking around for areas to pupate. He's not exceptionally close, since he's still a bright green and spicebush swallowtails tend to turn from green to orange right before they make their chrysalis (tiger swallowtails, incidentally, turn from green to a cool purply color). But I found him investigating possible spots, and he's big enough to turn color at any time. I have two more question marks looking to J, and gathered several more small red admiral cats while gathering food for the question marks and woolly bear. That Queen Anne's lace inchworm is getting big; I really need to dig out my guides and see if I can't ID him, though he's thriving nicely and I think he'll be a successful raising, providing he isn't harboring parasites or NPV. My biggest monarchs are doing really well and the J is now in his chrysalis, and three or four were up there with him, contemplating their positions, I think. Meanwhile, all the smaller monarch cats have grown big enough to join the others in the "big guy" tank that has no extra-small screening, so the hexagon tank is once more ready for new occupants. Right now, it's been working well as a tank for small-sized monarchs and until I end up with a ton of them (thinking positively), I'll continue to use it as a nursery. I have one spicebush swallowtail chrysalis in there right now, so the hexagon isn't technically "empty", but the small monarch cats won't hurt the chrysalis, and until the spicebush looks ready to hatch, everyone should co-exist fine.

Homer Simpson moment: Woo-hoo! I finally, finally have a solitary black swallowtail caterpillar! I saw him just by chance as my sisters and I were walking the dogs; he was on a Queen Anne's lace stem by the side of the road. I only hope parasites haven't found him first. I've also found four more monarch caterpillar eggs, as well as another mystery milkweed egg. This one is definitely an egg (I think my last "mystery egg" turned out to be solidified milkweed milk--not the first time I've been fooled); it's shaped and colored something like the tobacco hornworm eggs I find on the tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers (as well as the occasional horse nettle, which is what I feed those pesky hornworms when I find them). I haven't had the opportunity to take a picture of it yet, and won't until Saturday at the earliest, so I hope that it doesn't hatch until then. But I guess if it hatches, I can at least snap a pic of the caterpillar instead!

I do need to remember to bring my camera with me on dog walks; I would have had a great shot of half a dozen of our wild turkeys. We've also had photo opps of chipmunks, 13 striped ground squirrels, fox squirrels, a snapping turtle, rabbits, deer, and numerous cool insects. And now that we know where an active fox den is, I might even see a Reynard (though I'll probably have to be quick to get a picture of him with dogs along). Even my drives have had possible photo opps that make me wish I just carried that camera everywhere; earlier this week it was a blue heron standing in a large puddle in a field, right by the road, and this morning it was three cranes out in a field, several yards away but still close enough that the Nikon would have gotten a great shot. I did try to get the heron with my iPhone but as soon as I stopped the car, he took off. Again, the patience and fortitude of nature photographers knows no bounds! :)

One thing I have learned is ALWAYS take a camera, everywhere you go.

I even have mine with me at church...sometimes I see things on the way to or from church, and I've taken butterfly pics on the church's front lawn. Oh, and I've taken pictures of the kids, the children...very photogenic!

I have a better camera, but most of the photos I post here are from my grungy garden camera because I can carry it in my pocket.

>32 fuzzi: & >33 qebo: I don't have its own paper bag yet; I should be getting one in a few days. For the zoo outing I used one of the camera bags for the video cameras at work; I just took it out of the case for the weekend. I'm looking forward to having a nice bag with a shoulder strap. I believe I got a water-resistant bag too. You never know.

I've been quiet this weekend regarding posts because my boyfriend spent the weekend with us. So instead of a day by day breakdown, here's the weekend summary:

My only hatchling was from my first spicebush swallowtail chrysalis, but it wasn't a spicebush. The fiery red-orange wasp with the blue-black wings was calm and it sat on my finger for a few moments before taking off. Unlike the flies, I just can't begrudge those wasps. I'm sure it's pure anti-fly sentiment on my part.

Regarding pupation, all but four of the Monarchs have made chrysalises, and the four were gathered as eggs while the others were cats when found, so it makes sense that they'd be a little behind. My Queen Anne's lace inchworm has pupated, and four of the question marks are morphing. I'm going to give the few remaining cabbage whites a few more days before I declare their chrysalises "dead", but I fear it's likely. I did happen to find on the dog walk tonight a tightly knit soybean leaf on a stray plant growing in the ditch by a cornfield (possibly seed dropped from last year), and when I peeled back the leaves I found a perfect silver spotted skipper chrysalis (best guess). So it looks like I might get to hatch one this year after all.

My finds, excluding the skipper, have all been monarch eggs or more tiny admirals. I found several monarch eggs this evening alone.

Got to see a swarm (drone? That sounds cool!) of dragonflies in a feeding frenzy--I'd say at least 10-15. They were darting everywhere over the front yard garden where the setting sun was still bright. It was as spectacular as any hummingbird flight. I got some iPhone footage but am planning to try for footage on the Nikon with the zoom tomorrow evening if possible.

>34 CassieBash: have you seen this site before: http://thedragonflywoman.com/ ?

She loves to hear about swarms, and if you have pictures or video, she loves it even more.

I'm subscribed to her newsletter, it comes irregularly, no spam worries. :)

>35 fuzzi: Oh, that's cool! My swarm was much smaller but still impressive in the small area it took place in. I'm working evening shifts this week and unfortunately I've been missing the time slot during the feeding frenzy so I haven't been able to get another filming chance. I've posted my video from the phone to FaceBook and need to upload it to YouTube for sharing here. Maybe tonight sometime; the library is practically dead at nights.

So no hatchings but I did come across a collection of caterpillars on one of my milkweeds; the milkweed tussock moths are now laying eggs and the newly hatched ones are so young they are white instead of the older larval colors that resemble a calico cat's colors. Sadly, I also lost two of the three remaining question mark caterpillars, possibly to NPV. I'm certainly going to treat the tank as if that's the case. The woolly bear is still fine, as is the other question mark, but theoretically they've been exposed, so I'll be watching them. In the meantime, my solitary black swallowtail grows larger every day and will likely be making a chrysalis in a few days, while my big spicebush has latched onto the glass of the tank to make his. Virtually all the large monarchs are in chrysalis or J position now, and a few of the eggs have hatched, so I have the start of a new batch of monarch caterpillars well underway.

And just FYI, the new issue of Grit for July/August has a small article on caterpillars in it, with some excellent full-color pictures. If you don't already subscribe, you might want to see if your local library does if you're interested.

Some pics....

This is the first monarch to J for this year:



This is a picture of the largest monarch caterpillars I had last week, before most made their chrysalises.



This is a picture of the smallest monarch caterpillar I had, circa about 2 weeks ago. He got big fast. And just FYI, the spicebush chrysalis on the side of the tank was the one that hatched the wasp in post >34 CassieBash:.



And while we're on the subject of tiny caterpillars, this is the youngest (and now the only) question mark caterpillar in my collection.



Two of the larger question mark larvae; they would either have made chrysalises or they might have been the two who died in >36 CassieBash:. Hard to tell....



This is a little grey elm-eating inchworm I collected (from post >28 CassieBash:). He's still eating elm.



The Queen Anne's lace mystery inchworm that pupated as of >34 CassieBash:, but I did get this one decent pic before he did so. He's facing the right, in case you can't tell. He had a habit of tucking his head and hunching his "shoulders", giving him that sulky, teenager appearance.

>35 fuzzi: Reported the swarm and uploaded the video to YouTube. Enjoy!

>38 CassieBash: I did enjoy! If that was you talking, it sounds as if you were excited. :) I would have been, too.

>39 fuzzi: Yes, that was me and my younger sister (but mostly me). She's the one who asked if Laura (older sister) and Mom knew about this. It was awesome! Unfortunately, I've not seen it repeated, but that might be because I'm not home this week at the right time (I'm working evening shifts). Perhaps Friday evening; the library closes at 4:30 PM on Friday, and the swarm was a bit later than that.

OK, so I have lost the final Promethea moth. It had always been the smallest, like a runt, so I always suspected it had something wrong with it. Still, all the others have made cocoons, so the majority survived to this point. Not much else has happened, except that I have a very small inchworm, found on my sister's rose this weekend (and that I forgot to report, I think--sorry!), seems to be pupating. If so, his cocoon will be one of the smallest I've ever had, rivaled only perhaps by the spanned hornworm or the leafrollers. The black swallowtail is getting big and I imagine he'll start looking for a place soon, but right now he's still content to munch on his Queen Anne's lace. With the Promethea moth gone, I moved the black swallowtail cat into the Promethea and spicebush swallowtail tank to give him more room (and thus a larger surface area on which to pupate). I do have a spicebush swallowtail chrysalis beginning to show a hint of dark blue/black under the green of the chrysalis skin in this tank, so I'll probably have a spicebush swallowtail butterfly soon. Wooly and its remaining question mark friend is well, so are the monarchs and the milkweed tussocks. So other than the Promethea caterpillar, I haven't officially lost anyone else. However, I think this weekend it's time for me to sort through what chrysalises and cocoons haven't hatched yet; I have some unhatched (and unhealthy-looking) cabbage white chrysalises, and the last remaining admiral chrysalises from the first generation are likely dead, too. Usually you can tell, either by the dark, unhealthy color (as in the cabbage whites) or the cocoon or chrysalis will feel dried out (I'll have to use this to judge the rest). Sometimes you'll find small holes where flies have exited--I think my first question mark chrysalis shows signs of this, and I know I'd had flies hatch out in that tank, so that's probably where they came from.

I've gotten my new carrying bag for my camera and I love it; now that I've been carrying it around for a couple of days, I haven't seen any photo opps, of course. Just the other day there were two cranes and before that there was a blue heron in the same spot, plus wild turkeys in our pasture, not to mention the dragonfly swarm. Now they're on to me. Either that, or the several 80 degree, dry days are drying up the large puddles that have attracted them in the first place.... :)

>40 CassieBash: you'll have more opportunities, and misses, of course, but keep taking your camera with you.

I was talking to a coworker this morning, standing next to the counter where she has a Peace lily growing. I looked at a forthcoming blossom, and noticed a tiny drop of liquid on the bud, just like a tear of sadness!

Of course I took a photo, there at work. :)

>41 fuzzi: Of course I took a photo.... Of course! Actually, I've used the camera to take some shots of the library, as one of the things I'm working on are new and updated tutorials. I'm doing a PowerPoint slideshow (with my voice-over narration) for a sort of "What's Where" orientation for the incoming students. (Hopefully the returnees know where things are by now....). My missed opportunity last night were three cranes flying overhead; I was driving home and there would have been no way to stop the car and take their pic before they were out of sight, even if I'd had my camera turned on and ready. (It was in its bag on the seat, so I had it with me, but those cranes were really booking!)

Update for today: Not much, except that the spicebush swallowtail chrysalis has become a little more transparent. Instead of just seeing a bit of bluish color underneath the green, it's now showing some of the markings of wing and body. By tonight or tomorrow, I'll have a beautiful spicebush butterfly. I'm very glad that I'm going to hatch at least one this season; I don't really mind the wasps but I'd like to think, as few cats as I've collected, that at least one would produce the desired effect. I hope the black swallowtail is just as successful.

>42 CassieBash: we need a self-driving car, so opportunities like your cranes, and my Bald Eagle, won't always be "missed"!

>43 fuzzi: Google is working on it. But they'd better make darn sure that your self-driving car's very complex computer system can't be hacked.

Yesterday evening I came home to find three adult insects, 2 butterflies and an ichneumon parasitic wasp for which I have yet to find a common name. One butterfly was indeed my spicebush swallowtail, and I noticed at the same time as the release that the only caterpillar in that tank, the black swallowtail, is exploring. It looks like he might choose the top of the tank--a rare place for a swallowtail, since they usually like vertical rather than horizontal positions. The second butterfly was a question mark.

I'll stick with the ME driving car as long as possible. ;)

Love reading about the caterpillars!

>45 fuzzi: Me, too.

Yesterday my skipper hatched. It was so late by the time I checked on it that I didn't bother to take pictures; it was already frantic to get out. I also found more monarch caterpillars and eggs both yesterday and today. Yesterday, I found a second wooly bear. Today, very exciting news--my first monarch butterfly hatched today, as well as two beautiful question mark butterflies! My black swallowtail actually climbed back down and chose to make his chrysalis on the underside of the paper towel bedding, which is fine with me.

I started cleaning out the old cocoons and chrysalises--I had about half a dozen dead red admiral ones and about 10-12 old milkweed tussock moth ones, plus 5 dead cabbage whites. Considering the number of successes of these species, I'm not disappointed. Deaths are to be expected, after all. I have yet to make decisions on some of the other pupae.

Yesterday, I hatched 5 monarch butterflies (at least 2 of which were male) and another question mark. The two largest admiral larvae died from parasites, and I think a woolly bear is either dying or pupating--hard to tell at this point so I've left him alone. Gathered some more monarch larvae and eggs, moved hatched eggs into nursery...you know the drill. Now, on to the thrilling part of this post...............

Picture time!

I'm thinking this is a type of fritillary, maybe a meadow fritillary? I didn't really take much time to ID, but he's rather small when I think of a fritillary. But then the first one I think of is the great spangled, which is so big that amateurs will confuse them with monarchs. Regardless, I managed to slide my finger under this obliging wild specimen, who then gave me lots of kisses (OK, he was slurping the sweat and salt off my finger!).



This is yesterday's question mark butterfly I mentioned earlier. This was taken right before I let him go, because I knew I'd never get to take his pic otherwise. It's a lovely shot of the question mark.



The turkeys were also out and about yesterday and I got close enough to get some OK pics, but they were a bit nervous. These are a pair of moms with their respective babies; one of the hen turkey's offspring are considerably older for some reason and seem almost grown--that's mostly who you're seeing here. The younger chicks are in the following picture. The flock was spread out over the entire back pasture.





This image is the turkey equivalent of a bigfoot picture, I fear. I was trying to get closer but both the turkey and I just kept moving too much to get a good pic, especially since I used my iPhone, which isn't the greatest camera but was what I had at the time. While not exactly scared, the hens and their children kept an eye on me and tried to maintain the same distance between us, never letting me get too much closer than several yardsticks away. Wild turkeys are far smarter and warier than their domestic equivalent, and even though we don't allow hunting, I'm not going to say for sure that no one else in the area doesn't hunt them. Still, the fact that they weren't headed straight for the woods as fast as they could go does indicate a certain amount of confidence that I wasn't ultimately that dangerous to them or their young.



Hopefully they'll be back out there again tonight; I'll take the Nikon this time!

As always, love the pictures!

No sign of turkeys last night (of course, since I had the camera), but I did hatch another monarch and while gathering food for the larva I have, I found more monarch cats and eggs. Pretty sure the one woolly is dead, but the other seems to be contemplating making a cocoon.

This morning I nearly got eaten alive by the mosquitoes while trying to convince a spider to leave our Katcha Bug humane insect removal system. He'd been in there for a little bit, as my sister had caught him right before she took a shower and had set him aside for later release. He'd made a small web and everything, and had decided that would be his new home. He had no idea he wouldn't catch anything we didn't catch first. The link provided is the cheapest supplier I could find to this specific product (and for US customers, you'll have to select US Dollars, as this is an Australian seller); apparently, if you read the comments that go with the picture of this product on this cool gardening web page, the price for this specific product has really gone up. I'm not personally a fan of the bug vacuums, especially for use with long-limbed critters like spiders, because I've heard that it can hurt them when it sucks them up. Plus I've actually caught a mouse (that my cat caught first, then released into our bedroom for her future entertainment) so I like our two and can't imagine having a vacuum. Apparently, PETA does have another style that looks useful for catching bugs but it looks a little small for a mouse....

>49 CassieBash: nice links, thanks.

I am not afraid of most insects, spiders, etc., as long as they are not in or on my face!

Taking photos of them has really opened up my eyes to the beauty of the micro-world around us.

If there is a large spider, or other critter in my house (with the exception of roaches and ants) I try to capture it and release outside.

>50 fuzzi: I'm not afraid of them, but one of the dogs and most of the cats try to kill and/or eat anything that moves, so we like to escort them to safer pastures--namely the field or gardens. For crickets, tree frogs, and other non-biting species I use my hands, but for those insects and spiders (and the occasional mouse) that might bite, it's nice to have this little device. It's also good for catching the really fast things that might fly or run off faster than I could catch them with my hands alone, or for things that might squiggle out of my grasp.

That being said, Tentacles and Nepenthes are probably coming home with me tonight--we're having terrible fruit fly problems in our house, way too many to simply catch and release, and they're the easiest of the carnivorous plants to move.

There's another natural method for catching fruit flies, I think involving apple cider vinegar and dish washing detergent. I'll see if I can find it for you.

>52 fuzzi: We used that for these little fly things at Ancilla here; I won't go into where we suspect they came from, other than to say the science wing right outside the library. Except we used sugar water and detergent. It did seem to work. I'm not sure about Tentacles--the flies might be big and strong enough to escape her--but Nepenthes may be chowing down. (It's hard to see into her pitchers, as her species have "lids".

No monarch hatchings yesterday, but I found more cats and eggs on food plants. I think the monarchs are beginning to hit their stride here as far as reproduction. I even had to move a few more of the larger larvae into the bigger tank. I did hatch two moths yesterday; I'll upload pictures tomorrow if I can. All my small moth pupae are now in one container; I had to do some rearranging to clear my wooden shelves to prepare it for its move back into of my newly refurbished corner of the barn. The project should be done tomorrow. We had a handyman come in and rip out the two old dog kennels (wire fencing, old broken boards, and years of crap that had been stashed in them because no one knew what else to do with that stuff). My shelves will be moved from where they currently sit at the south side, where they're in the way of our storage space for hay, to the northeast corner, under a loft area to protect me and my critters from the bat droppings. I plan to not only house the bugs but also store my garden statuary there.

Ah, a barn. And bats. How lovely. Seriously!

>54 fuzzi: And bats. We leave them alone, they don't always leave us alone. Every year, a certain number fall to the floor of the barn, usually babies. A bat rescue guy told us the best thing to do is pick them up in gloved hands and put them somewhere as high as you can. They'll call their mom to come pick them up. But not all who fall are so young; I was working with my bugs earlier this year when a bat fell onto my back. I was startled but not frightened, and the bat was fairly calm as well. I had to carefully remove my t-shirt and place it somewhere high and dark--easier said than done. I tried to get it to cling to the side of the barn but it crawled off into a cave made by the stacked bales of hay. Hopefully when it got dark he was able to climb out and up so he could fly again. Neither I nor the bat were in any way harmed. But now that I have everything under that loft, hopefully there won't be as much bat mess and there should be no chance of a bat dropping onto me in that corner; the loft's ceiling is way too low for them to want to roost there.

No hatchings, but that might have been just as well since I took the time to clean the shelves before putting my lepidoptera collection back on them. It looks good and tidy, though admittedly I haven't put everything where I want it just yet. But, as promised, I do have some pictures of both moths that hatched two days ago. I've gotten lazy about identifying them so I don't yet know what they are.

This is the smaller of the two. He (or she) stayed around, rather reluctantly, long enough for me to get a couple of pictures, and this was the best one. He was very active, flying in the container where I kept the small pupae, anticipating his release.



This is the larger, much calmer moth. He (or she) even let me hold him long enough to get this picture of it on my fingers.



This picture of a deer was taken on my way home from work in a field by the road.



Another picture taken the same day in the field next to the one where the deer was grazing. The birds were farther off the road than the deer, but I don't often see geese and turkeys in the same shot. If you look very closely at the top, there may be another big bird by the fence (see that grey thing between the two trees up by the wooden fence?--not sure what that is). Possibly a heron? We do have lots of water in this area; just down the road from the fields is a small lake and its surrounding swamp.

My August postings will be here.

Since this is yesterday's update, this is my last post here officially. Two of those brown leaf rollers and three male monarchs hatched. Found more monarch eggs and a few larvae.