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Post by chrysanthemum on Sept 26, 2021 13:36:00 GMT -6
This past week I was reading in our science book about butterflies to my young homeschoolers. They’re pretty familiar with the whole idea of metamorphosis from our previous adventures raising butterflies, but it was still exciting to us that the other day my daughter spotted a recently eclosed Gulf Fritillary on a rock wall in our backyard. We watched him (or her) drying his wings and got to wondering why he was so far from the passionflower trellis which is on the north side or our house rather than the west where the yard is. We started looking around and found a chewed up vine on a nearby live oak tree, and there were a couple of Gulf Fritillary caterpillars of various sizes on the vine. I wonder if it’s some other variety of passionflower.
I realize now that I should have put this thread in “Insects” rather than “Wildlife in the Garden.” heavyhitterokra, feel free to move it to its more proper spot.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Sept 26, 2021 13:45:14 GMT -6
Here’s another type of Swallowtail. I think it’s called a Pipevine Swallowtail. I love seeing these flying. I have never raised one, though.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Sept 27, 2021 11:54:38 GMT -6
Oh, wow! That's beautiful! When I was a kid, there were really bright blue butterflies like that along our heavily wooded lane. It was always cool and wet there by the spring that ran along the roadside, The butterflies loved it there. That photo brought back wonderful memories.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Sept 28, 2021 15:02:35 GMT -6
It’s hard for me to get good closeups of such small things, but I just found a couple of newly hatched eggs on my lemon leaves. The kids and I carefully plucked them, studied them under the magnifying glass, then tucked them into the foliage already in our aquarium. There is a danger that the older caterpillars could eat the younger ones, so I put them on a different stalk to try to give them a chance to grow a bit before the others notice.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Sept 28, 2021 20:36:45 GMT -6
That is so cool!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 23, 2021 18:09:10 GMT -6
Here’s a current picture of one of those newly hatched caterpillars about which I posted above. He’s the only one who hasn’t pupated yet, but I imagine it won’t be long. I have three that pupated a while ago that are still in chrysalides, and a fourth one actually eclosed and got released today.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 25, 2021 8:02:10 GMT -6
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Post by rdback on Oct 25, 2021 10:14:05 GMT -6
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 25, 2021 12:54:00 GMT -6
That will never cease to be amazing!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 27, 2021 14:49:48 GMT -6
As many times as I have raised caterpillars, I have to agree. I’m in awe of God’s wonderful creation.
We had another butterfly when I came downstairs this morning. It was still pitch black outside and 56 degrees, so he had to wait a couple of hours until it warmed up some and there was sunshine to warm his body. (I think I recall that butterflies need a temperature of 69 degrees to fly. The air can be lower if it’s sunny.). Our last caterpillar is getting in the J shape getting ready to pupate, and there’s one more chrysalis that will probably eclose soon. That will probably be it for caterpillars this year given that the weather is cooling.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 29, 2021 11:53:29 GMT -6
chrysanthemum,
Thanks, for posting the pictures and updates. Sometimes, I envy your weather. Our high today has been 50 degrees with a Northwest wind blowing at about 30 mph. Still, that's an improvement over yesterday's 40 mph wind and steady, drizzling rain. I think this is our 3rd day into the storm. Good for the soil, but bad for the achy joints and disposition in general.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 30, 2021 20:18:51 GMT -6
Cold and rainy can be hard if you don’t have a good wood fire burning, and I think you said that you can’t burn anymore because of your asthma. I’m sure that adds to the achy joints and low disposition. It would be warmer here in winter, I’m sure, but the cedar pollen would probably be pretty hard on your asthma, too. It’s thick, thick, thick in the winter months, and it gives me allergy symptoms something fierce. I’ve been allergic to stuff all my life but have never suffered the way I do down here from cedar. It makes it harder to enjoy the nice winter weather. (And it makes me glad for the days when there’s a cold rain because it washes the pollen out of the air for a bit.)
Seeing butterflies flying in December is sure a treat, though!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 31, 2021 13:18:55 GMT -6
You're right, cedar pollen kills me. Anytime we travel to Western Oklahoma, my wife and I both suffer from the cedar trees in that area.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Nov 5, 2021 22:35:01 GMT -6
Those swallowtail butterflies sure are gorgeous. I see them feeding from some of my garden flowers, but I'd better plant some of their forage plants if I ever want to contribute to increasing their presence. I have, however, once observed Lunar moth a giant Swallowtail larvae on one of my citrus trees.
This thread reminds me of when I was about 8 or 9. We lived in a small mobile home, in a somewhat rural area of Southern California in a town called Los Alamos. Anyway, my brother and I slept in a bunk bed. My bed was the top one. One day I brought home a Monarch caterpillar which was just an hour away from pupating (some would call that serendipity). Anyway, the ceiling, which was like a wood veneer, less than a foot above my head, while I lay on my pillow. I held the caterpillar in my hand and let it crawl onto that ceiling. It immediately began spinning the anchor pad for its chrysalis, then attach itself to the silken anchor pad, go into "J" mode and do its final molt into the chrysalis, soft at first, then shrinking, a little, into its final shape. I always loved how they resembled a jade crystal with tiny black and gold spots. Later I got to watch as the insect inside finally darkened and then emerged as an adult. Our room was in the rear of the mobile home and we had a back window, which I opened and the adult Monarch flew away. The whole thing was quite a memorable experience.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Nov 21, 2021 22:56:57 GMT -6
I've been starting various milkweed species, from seed all season long. Now that the nights are getting colder, and many of them will be going dormant, the queen butterflies have been laying their egg on my tiny little milkweed plants. Boo hoo, every day I've been checking my milkweed plants to try to keep the caterpillars feeding on the larger plants, so I still have milkweed plants, come Spring. They've already eaten my tiniest milkweed plants 'til they are just tiny little stumps. Funny thing, these young milkweed plants are all in 6 inch pots, spread out over 100 feet along my driveway. Yesterday a.m. I moved two caterpillars from the tiny plants they were on, at the far end of the driveway, to much larger milkweed plants at the opposite end of the driveway, then, this a.m. I found them both, back where I first found them. It seems they can navigate, even as larva. They are, however, not doing themselves any favors, since where they are doesn't have enough vegetation to support one larva, let alone two.
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