Tidbits From My Day

My camera and I are not getting along. For some reason it is refusing to focus as well as I would like. Perhaps it is feeling neglected of late or is experiencing a mid-life crisis. Whatever is going on with it, the bottom line is that it just isn't giving me the results I am after. That being said, here are a few images of some of the critters that shared my space today...

Lead phase red-backed salamander

young pine woods treefrog

swallowtail chrysalis - not sure which swallowtail...probably tiger

and lastly, a camel cricket -- again, I have no idea which species, heck I don't even know which genus. We'll just call it a "hoppy bug" and leave it at that.

I hope your Wednesday was wonderful. Mine was pretty darn pleasant.

With Apologies

It's a lousy shot, taken under bad conditions with a dirty lens no less. Yet despite it all, this variegated fritillary chrysalis is still pretty cool. In your mind's eye you must replace the white with silver...

The caterpillar feeds mainly on maypops (Passiflora) but we discovered this summer it also has a taste for flax. Here's what the caterpillar looks like...

And here's the adult. We have tons of these around the house...

All three are pretty lousy pictures, so like I said -- with apologies ;)

It's An Acquired Taste

So you say you want to get closer to nature, eh? Well, just find a place with some zebra swallowtails and work up a really good sweat. They'll find you simply irresistible...

 

 

I finally had to gently grasp this butterfly and physically remove it from Treebeard's sweat-soaked shirt. He's my man, don't you know, and I don't allow trespassers ;)

Taking Wing

Just before leaving for work on the morning of the second, I made a quick trip out to the side yard to check on the black swallowtail chrysalises. Good thing I did, or I would have missed the show altogether! The "dill worms" of previous posts had emerged as butterflies sometime in the wee hours of the morning and were just about dry enough to fly...

A transformation that never ceases to amaze me.

A Chrysalis of a Different Color

One day, on the bronze fennel in the butterfly garden, a little black swallowtail caterpillar munches away...

A few days later, it has become a caterpillar with attitude. Note the forked, orange thing protruding from the caterpillar's prothoracic region. It's called an osmeterium and it is a smelly little thing that the caterpillar can extend when it feels threatened.

A few more days and the caterpillar has grown and my bronze fennel has shrunk. Such little eating machines ;)

A day or two later and I find the cat in a telltale position down at the base of the plant - time to pupate!

One day later and the cat has formed its chrysalis. Interesting that this one, while being the same shape as the others in the previous post, is all tans and grays. The better to camouflage itself on the stem of the bronze fennel.

Now, we wait.

Dill Worms Revisited

Black swallowtail chrysalises can be quite hard to see, even when you are staring right at them. I knew my "dill worms" were about ready to pupate when I photographed them the other day - they were all nice and fat - so recently I went in search of a chrysalis. Luck was with me and I found two that were about eight feet away from where I had seen the caterpillars feeding. Hopefully the squadron of turkeys that visited the yard this morning didn't find them, too!

 

 

 

Puddle Party

 

After a dry spell of a week or two we finally had a decent shower. The butterflies certainly appreciated the rain. Primarily Palamedes partying in the puddles.

Dill Worms

 

 

 

Seems the black swallowtails (Papilio polyxenes) have been visiting the garden. We found several caterpillars helping themselves to the dill and parsley. Munch on little cats!

Par-tay!

Zebra swallowtails on bear scat.

Shall We Dance?

 

This pair of Variegated Fritillaries, Euptoieta claudia, is trying to get a jump on the competition. We generally don't see them around much until April. Purple passionflower, Passiflora incarnata, generally serves as the hostplant for the caterpillars and I haven't seen any of that in leaf yet.

Proper Punctuation

This is an Eastern Comma, Polygonia comma, one of the anglewing butterflies. It gets its name from a small, silvered mark on the ventral surface of its hind wing. Unfortunately, this particular butterfly refused to fold its wings sufficiently for me to get a shot of the comma.

 

 

One seldom sees one of these butterflies nectaring. They prefer other fare...tree sap, rotten fruit, scat, and carrion, for example. They overwinters as adults so it is not unusual to see this species out and about on warm winter days.

LBB

Nope, not a little brown bird. This one is a little brown butterfly called Henry's Elfin, Incisalaia henrici or Callophrys henrici depending on which authority you use. There was some really pretty green on the wings that didn't show up in this photograph. Too bad.

These butterflies fly here in the early spring and though not particularly uncommon, they can be hard to spot. Being little and brown they tend to go unnoticed. Evergreen hollies seem to be a favored host plant.