I was cleaning out my total mess of a garden (most of which is swamp milkweed) and found this! I’m so excited! Does anyone know what type of butterfly it is?
@RiotDemon from what we can see of it that seems plausible, I was wondering the same before I went the Mothra route. It kind of looks like you can see the orange wing with black banding peeking out, over the next few days it should get even clearer.
@RiotDemon It could be. I planted swamp milkweed a couple of years ago and pulled it out last year. I didn’t pull the pods, however, and my garden is entirely full of milkweed. I’m not seeing the stripes though.
@Pavlov Did you know that the skull on the butterfly in that picture is actually a tiny representation of a painting by Salvador Dali called “In Voluptas Mors”? Blew my mind when I found out.
Milkweed=monarch. You have one of the very rare specimens that will migrate to Mexico and spend the winter there. Only the last generation born each summer does this; the earlier ones die within 8 weeks. Please leave enough milkweed growing for next year’s butterflies! http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/invertebrates/monarch-butterfly.aspx
@OldCatLady I planted the milkweed specifically for the monarchs and never saw any. Oh well. I didn’t like having pretty flowers anyway. Do you know if they lay a lot of eggs in the same garden? Should I root though the stuff I pulled out to look for more?
@compunaut I bought plants at my local nursery. I did collect seed pods from the Asclepius Tuberosa a few days ago- I can send you some if you want to plant seeds.
@mfladd I can’t seem to kick this infection. Normally I get on here around midnight, check the daily deal, chat…and usually laugh. But I haven’t been making it to midnight. For a lifelong insomniac, it’s an odd experience let me tell you. It’s taking me three times as long to read my books. We have to start a thread so we can talk about our shows.
A little background on my garden- I saw a documentary about monarchs a few years ago. I bought some milkweed at the local nursery they had labelled “butterfly weed”. Turns out it’s what most people called swamp milkweed (asclepias incarnata). It grew 6 feet tall, was covered in special milkweed aphids and beetles, and flowered for about a week. I pulled it out last year and planted the more petite butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa). This is shorter and has had pretty flowers all summer.
Here’s a photo of my garden:
Looks like shit, right? The right part has been cleaned out (bee balm and lavender for the butterflies) but the left is full of swamp milkweed seedlings. (Funny thing the chrysalis was on a weed). So my dilemma- let it look like shit or pull the swamp stuff out and let the pretty milkweed grow? The swamp stuff will kill everything in it’s path if I keep it.
Here’s a photo of my butterfly weed trying to survive (I cleaned it out a couple of weeks ago)-
This is what my friend said to me; he said “Guess what I like? Mashed potatoes.” It’s like,“Dude. you gotta give me time to guess. If you’re gonna quiz me, you must insert a pause in there.”
Holy crap, my garden is full of monarch caterpillars. There are at least 30 or 40, and they have stripped maybe half of my plants. I hope there is enough for everyone.
Plus they are competing with these fluffy little fuckers. May the best creepy crawler win.
@sammydog01 Bummer. You open a nice soup kitchen milkweed patch for the Monarchs, and the moths move in and try to take over. I’m with @Shrdlu on this, and would save the Monarchs, but - your milkweed, your call.
Added: Per your addition above - best not to watch any movies about Mothma before sleeping.
@rockblossom Thanks for that image. It was killing the tiny fluffy babies that was the hardest. I’ll move some stuff around this fall and try to keep a nice ugly monarch garden for next year. I’m starting to hate monarchs. Stupid guilt inducing butterflies.
@OldCatLady Our beach is on the monarch migration path. Several years ago, I was out taking a walk and found myself in a monarch “cloud” similar to your picture. Best walk ever!
@jbartus Then they would have starved to death instead. Like the Monarch caterpillars, they live on milkweed. Limited food supply, so which do you feed?
@sammydog01 Well, the 'pillars are not exactly babies. They are third instar, so more like punk rocker teens, if that makes you feel better about killing them.
tl;dr Instar is the level that a caterpillar is at, as it grows, moults (sheds its skin), and eats more. Hatching from an egg is usually considered the first instar.
@sammydog01, you may want to review this article on alternative fuels for monarch caterpillars.
Among other things, the article suggests certain pumpkins may serve as a suitable alternative to milkweed. Perhaps a grocery store pumpkin will supplement sufficiently to get them to the cocoon stage.
“No milkweed? No problem. In the fifth instar, Monarch caterpillars will eat a variety of pumpkin”
@Yoda_Daenerys It’s like a tiny white caterpie, then a slightly larger green caterpie, then a caterpie with stripes and tiny antenna, etc. Kinda like levels in the DS game.
@sammydog01 I wouldn’t say the fluffballs perished in vain. Ultimately, the survival of the Monarch species is threatened. Tiger moths… not so threatened. In fact, I believe tiger moths are a proliferate species. What you did with the fluffballs was to thin the herd. The elimination of a few for the betterment of the many. It’s unfortunate the tiger moths had to go, but this was not a hate crime.
@ruouttaurmind what’s that thing called that we learned about here at Meh. where eventually if a thread goes long enough someone brings up hitler?
What you did with the fluffballs was to thin the herd. The elimination of a few for the betterment of the many. It’s unfortunate the tiger moths had to go
@Yoda_Daenerys Well, I was thinking less like the Third Reich, and more like the USFWS or the or a rancher managing livestock?
/giphy butterfly rancher
This thread makes me happy. I’ma plant some milkweed next year just so I can have some monarch caterpillars.
My 7 year old daughter was balling when I killed about 300 dickhead oak worms that were demolishing my 10 year old red oak tree. I’m sure she’d change her mind if she saw how plain-jane they are when they turn into miniature bats.
I bet she’d forget all about the 2016 oak worm genocide if we had Monarchs next summer
You should take your daughter to see it if it’s around. This is the third year I have had milkweeds and the first I have had monarchs, so it may take a while. Plus they can be invasive and carry a lot of other bugs so you may want to research before you plant.
I checked this morning and there were way fewer caterpillars, but still some voracious chewing.
This afternoon they are almost all gone- I assume they are hunkering down to pupate. I found a few on my trellis of morning glory. The surviving fluffies can have the last bit of milkweed.
Evening update:
I found several chrysalises on window frames above my garden! Here is the one low enough to get a good photo of- not a chrysalis yet, but soon:
(I also pulled some surviving fluffies out of the trash can and put them on the milkweed.)
@sammydog01 Next year you’ll know not to clean out the milkweed too soon. Does your local county extension agent have any information on their local habit and calendar?
@OldCatLady I don’t think so because no one in their right mind would plant those suckers. I’m moving the short ones to the other side of my garden (they have tap roots and might die but now I know where to get more). I’ll transplant some of the tall ones to the back. No pods on the tall ones as this was their first season and the pods on the short pretty ones were eaten. I don’t know if the defoliated ones are tough enough to survive transplanting- we’ll see. Bye bye roses, tomatoes, and annuals. Hello ugly giants.
@jbartus We have raised tobacco hornworms in the house- they’re really easy but you need a lot of tomato plants to feed them.
(This photo is off the internet.)
@sammydog01 I found out my regal moths eat hickory trees
I think I know why they don’t live here anymore, it makes sense that they would have been driven out due to loss of habitat. New England would have been largely stripped of its hickory trees to make tool handles and the like over the last 400 years.
@jbartus It looks like they are related to Luna moths, which also eat hickory. Looking at my photo that’s probably a hickory tree. We have lots of them here. I’ll keep an eye out for your creepy caterpillar.
@sammydog01 under the camera settings there should be a choice of “single”, “burst”, and “continuous” I think. Continuous should be what you want and then select the time interval.
OK, cool story: Tonight was parents’ night at my kid’s high school. I went to the biology classroom and this was on the table:
OMG THE TEACHER IS A BUG PERSON!!! @OldCatLady It’s a black swallowtail she raised in her garden on fennel plants. She poked it and it stuck out this orange thing that looked just like a caterpie! She had a tank full of chrysalises and a couple of caterpillars getting ready to pupate. We talked caterpillars. I’m sending in a monarch chrysalis with my kid tomorrow.
@OldCatLady No, there is too much weird here that I don’t want the school to know about. I found a video of the orange thing on its head (osmeterium). This is what she made it do.
@sammydog01 They are, and I’m far less angry at them than I am at the current assailant upon my potted-railing-garden… the freakin’ birds! I love(d) birds, but they’ve taken to having their dirt baths in my pots, and have uprooted several of my plants and just royally screwed the soil in several others. I thought my harvest was safe since it was largely hot peppers…
@sammydog01 Those are all spectacular, every one. Thanks for keeping the milkweed, and for the pictures. I guess we know what everyone is planting next year: milkweed, dill and parsley.
So my daughter said that the monarch I sent to school emerged and they released it. I asked about the tank of swallowtail chrysalises.
“The only tank I saw was the spider tank.”
“SHE HAS A TANK FULL OF SPIDERS???”
“I wasn’t going to tell you about that.”
I had to promise to not catch spiders to send in to school for the spider tank. The teacher specifically asked for black widows, but anything the kids could catch safely was fine. I really want to go in and see.
Hey imma Necro this thread right up today. Found this guy when I went out to check the pool equipment, it crawled into my hand readily and after a photo I let it crawl back onto the weeds.
@RiotDemon@ruouttaurmind idk, it looks similar to what oldcatlady called a black swallowtail above. The blue on the bottom was very bright in direct sunlight but by the time it crawled onto my hand the sun was obscured a bit. But when I put butterflies in the site search the first image result was the one from that post and I thought it was very similar.
I also don’t believe I’ve ever held a butterfly before. It was very gentle, of course they weigh like nothing. I only wanted to see if it would crawl up so I could get a better picture, it was obscured by some weeds where it was.
@djslack@RiotDemon@ruouttaurmind My googling says female black swallowtail- looks like some yellow on the edges. It’s really hard to tell though. It’s beautiful! Lucky you.
@djslack@RiotDemon@ruouttaurmind I took a lot of butterfly pictures last year (I haven’t seen many this year), and I still have to look up every black one I see. They all look superficially the same.
Wow! You’re all so lucky. I picked some milkweed seed pods this summer in a nearby parking lot and am going to try to grow it for next year. We had monarchs in our yard when I was in 4th grade and it was the best biology lesson ever. Thanks for reviving this very cool thread, I love it. Someone in my neighborhood posted a photo of this cool thing they found in their yard:
@Kyeh@rockblossom I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those before. We found a Luna moth at the grocery store last week. I should get the camera on my hone fixed.
@rockblossom@sammydog01 Oh, I’d love to see a picture of a Luna moth. I saw one once when I was a kid, visiting Japan. I’ve never seen one around here.
@Kyeh@rockblossom@sammydog01 I’ve come across dead Luna moths on hikes through the woods around here several times. Never seen one alive, but usually stumble across a dead one once or twice a year.
@macromeh@OnionSoup The big black and yellow striped spiders are pretty amazing. All fuzzy and furry. They are fairly big. Canoeing across north Florida we’d run into a lot of them with webs going across the canoe paths in swampy areas. I’ve had a few land on my head when we’d break the webs to get through. All soft running across your face to get away from you.
@Lotsofgoats That explains the tiny fairies I found in the crawlspace. I hope she’s not upset that I sold them to the circus.
@jbartus damn, @Lotsofgoats beat me to it.
Is it a monarch?
@RiotDemon from what we can see of it that seems plausible, I was wondering the same before I went the Mothra route. It kind of looks like you can see the orange wing with black banding peeking out, over the next few days it should get even clearer.
@RiotDemon It could be. I planted swamp milkweed a couple of years ago and pulled it out last year. I didn’t pull the pods, however, and my garden is entirely full of milkweed. I’m not seeing the stripes though.
@jbartus Oh you’re right. I do kind of see the orange and black peeking through. Just a small hint. I missed that the first time I looked at it.
@RiotDemon That’s was thinking. Milkweed is their primary food source.
/giphy invasion of the body snatchers
@Pavlov Did you know that the skull on the butterfly in that picture is actually a tiny representation of a painting by Salvador Dali called “In Voluptas Mors”? Blew my mind when I found out.
Milkweed=monarch. You have one of the very rare specimens that will migrate to Mexico and spend the winter there. Only the last generation born each summer does this; the earlier ones die within 8 weeks. Please leave enough milkweed growing for next year’s butterflies! http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/invertebrates/monarch-butterfly.aspx
@OldCatLady I planted the milkweed specifically for the monarchs and never saw any. Oh well. I didn’t like having pretty flowers anyway. Do you know if they lay a lot of eggs in the same garden? Should I root though the stuff I pulled out to look for more?
@sammydog01 Yes, and yes. Images on the article may help you ID them.
@OldCatLady i blame the goat for any monarchs that were harmed in the making of this garden waste
@sammydog01 Where did you get the milkweed for planting?
@compunaut I bought plants at my local nursery. I did collect seed pods from the Asclepius Tuberosa a few days ago- I can send you some if you want to plant seeds.
@sammydog01 Thanks for the offer! I’ll check a couple local stores first, but I’ll let you know if that doesn’t pan out
@compunaut @sammydog01 There are milkweed seeds here: http://www.marysheirloomseeds.com/collections/flowers?page=2
@compunaut If you live somewhere with seasons you may have to wait until spring to find the plants for sale.
@OldCatLady I bookmarked this site for the planting instructions. Thanks!
http://shirt.woot.com/offers/when-i-grow-up
Run, @sammydog01, Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!
/giphy Shelob
Don’t worry, if it gets out of control, I know someone that can help us
/giphy godzilla
@thismyusername The Dome?
@mfladd decent book. Not sure about the show… I lost my tv halfway through.
@RiotDemon that’s awful. I hope you find it soon!
@capguncowboy lol, I don’t! It’s lost with my ex and can stay there.
@thismyusername
@RiotDemon I enjoyed the show. The ending was a little abrupt but it was pretty cool.
@mehbee Where the hell have you been? Young lady, if you wander off like that again I will take you over my knee.
@mfladd Promises, promises.
@LaVikinga I always keep my promises.
@mfladd Do I even want to ask how you find these things? SMDH
@LaVikinga search term: Spanking Nordic Princess
@LaVikinga That was going to be my response!
@mfladd I can’t seem to kick this infection. Normally I get on here around midnight, check the daily deal, chat…and usually laugh. But I haven’t been making it to midnight. For a lifelong insomniac, it’s an odd experience let me tell you. It’s taking me three times as long to read my books. We have to start a thread so we can talk about our shows.
@mehbee Absolutely. Hope you feel better soon!
By the way over at reddit they would love this in the
subreddit.
@thismyusername I just bookmarked that site. Thanks!
@ninjaemilee i was also thinking butterfree from pokemon, i wonder what CP it will be?
Monarch. They feed on milkweed, so that makes sense. I think this deserves a progress thread and eventually some final photos!
My daughter would kill to find that in our garden!
@capguncowboy That’s a great idea!
@capguncowboy chronicles of a monarch, if only garden planting photos were available…
And for the big reveal-
That was fast!
@sammydog01 super fast. Very pretty
@sammydog01 He’s(shes’s?) beautiful!
@mehbee @sammydog01 That looks like a girl.
A little background on my garden- I saw a documentary about monarchs a few years ago. I bought some milkweed at the local nursery they had labelled “butterfly weed”. Turns out it’s what most people called swamp milkweed (asclepias incarnata). It grew 6 feet tall, was covered in special milkweed aphids and beetles, and flowered for about a week. I pulled it out last year and planted the more petite butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa). This is shorter and has had pretty flowers all summer.
Here’s a photo of my garden:
Looks like shit, right? The right part has been cleaned out (bee balm and lavender for the butterflies) but the left is full of swamp milkweed seedlings. (Funny thing the chrysalis was on a weed). So my dilemma- let it look like shit or pull the swamp stuff out and let the pretty milkweed grow? The swamp stuff will kill everything in it’s path if I keep it.
Here’s a photo of my butterfly weed trying to survive (I cleaned it out a couple of weeks ago)-
@sammydog01 Above is the before- here is the after. The green stuff by the downspout is catnip and everything else green is a weed.
Hasta la vista butterfly.
@sammydog01 Good job capturing the mystery and the reveal. You’re a magician!
@OldCatLady There was another monarch today!
This is what my friend said to me; he said “Guess what I like? Mashed potatoes.” It’s like,“Dude. you gotta give me time to guess. If you’re gonna quiz me, you must insert a pause in there.”
– Mitch Hedberg
@DrWorm i hate surprises
Holy crap, my garden is full of monarch caterpillars. There are at least 30 or 40, and they have stripped maybe half of my plants. I hope there is enough for everyone.
Plus they are competing with these fluffy little fuckers. May the best creepy crawler win.
@sammydog01 Milkweed Tiger Moths. Interesting caterpillars, but the moth is meh:
@rockblossom @OldCatLady Should I remove these guys? I feel bad doing it as they are native but they will starve out the monarchs.
@sammydog01 If I were there, I would help you take the Tiger Moths off, so that the Monarchs could live. Tiger Moths are a dime a dozen.
@Shrdlu I just committed mass caterpillaricide. If the caterpillars are in charge of hell you’re going with me.
@sammydog01 Bummer. You open a nice
soup kitchenmilkweed patch for the Monarchs, and the moths move in and try to take over. I’m with @Shrdlu on this, and would save the Monarchs, but - your milkweed, your call.Added: Per your addition above - best not to watch any movies about Mothma before sleeping.
“Mothra”
@rockblossom Thanks for that image. It was killing the tiny fluffy babies that was the hardest. I’ll move some stuff around this fall and try to keep a nice ugly monarch garden for next year. I’m starting to hate monarchs. Stupid guilt inducing butterflies.
@sammydog01 I’m in charge of blame this month. The moth invasion was my fault.
/giphy Monarch butterfly
@OldCatLady
@thismyusername Thanks- more nightmares.
@sammydog01 @thismyusername Way too many things wrong with that image. Erk.
@OldCatLady Our beach is on the monarch migration path. Several years ago, I was out taking a walk and found myself in a monarch “cloud” similar to your picture. Best walk ever!
@sammydog01 you killed them?
Why didn’t you just covertly relocate them into your neighbor’s bushes?
Poor little baby moths, cut off before they even had a chance. 
@jbartus Then they would have starved to death instead. Like the Monarch caterpillars, they live on milkweed. Limited food supply, so which do you feed?
@sammydog01 Well, the 'pillars are not exactly babies. They are third instar, so more like punk rocker teens, if that makes you feel better about killing them.
@rockblossom Yes, yes that makes me feel better. Thanks! They had very nice childhoods.
@rockblossom who says the neighbors can’t have milkweed? O_o
@jbartus They might, but milkweed plants are not bushes. Nice attempted save, though!
@rockblossom considering it was a tongue in cheek comment in the first place I apologize for nothing!
Sorry I’m not sorry for not knowing the technical classification of a milkweed plant.
@sammydog01 let darwin decide
@jbartus be nice now JB
@Yoda_Daenerys I was nice! I was just unapologetic!
My new little dudes appear to be 5th instar. It’s 90 degrees here, so I expect they’ll be pupating in the next few days.
@sammydog01 i know i cud google it, but what does instar mean? is it kind of like the evolution level in pokemon go?
@Yoda_Daenerys I thought you’d enjoy this article on the life cycle of the butterfly (which explains instar, among other things).
http://www.butterflyschool.org/new/meta.html
tl;dr Instar is the level that a caterpillar is at, as it grows, moults (sheds its skin), and eats more. Hatching from an egg is usually considered the first instar.
@sammydog01, you may want to review this article on alternative fuels for monarch caterpillars.
Among other things, the article suggests certain pumpkins may serve as a suitable alternative to milkweed. Perhaps a grocery store pumpkin will supplement sufficiently to get them to the cocoon stage.
“No milkweed? No problem. In the fifth instar, Monarch caterpillars will eat a variety of pumpkin”
@ruouttaurmind I will definitely read that. Thanks! So you’re saying I killed the little fluffballs for nothing?
@Yoda_Daenerys It’s like a tiny white caterpie, then a slightly larger green caterpie, then a caterpie with stripes and tiny antenna, etc. Kinda like levels in the DS game.
@sammydog01 I wouldn’t say the fluffballs perished in vain. Ultimately, the survival of the Monarch species is threatened. Tiger moths… not so threatened. In fact, I believe tiger moths are a proliferate species. What you did with the fluffballs was to thin the herd. The elimination of a few for the betterment of the many. It’s unfortunate the tiger moths had to go, but this was not a hate crime.
@ruouttaurmind what’s that thing called that we learned about here at Meh. where eventually if a thread goes long enough someone brings up hitler?
/giphy just sayin
@Yoda_Daenerys Well, I was thinking less like the Third Reich, and more like the USFWS or the or a rancher managing livestock?
/giphy butterfly rancher
@Yoda_Daenerys Godwin’s Law
@sammydog01 http://www.dorkly.com/post/68577/pokemon-you-didnt-realize-were-based-on-actual-things
This thread makes me happy. I’ma plant some milkweed next year just so I can have some monarch caterpillars.
My 7 year old daughter was balling when I killed about 300 dickhead oak worms that were demolishing my 10 year old red oak tree. I’m sure she’d change her mind if she saw how plain-jane they are when they turn into miniature bats.
I bet she’d forget all about the 2016 oak worm genocide if we had Monarchs next summer
@capguncowboy You can also plant dill, parsley, fennel and rue to grow black swallowtail butterflies, which are lovely. Plant lots and lots and LOTS of parsley if you want to have any for you to eat. http://texasbutterflyranch.com/2014/07/01/how-to-raise-eastern-swallowtail-butterflies-at-home/
@capguncowboy This is the movie that inspired me.
You should take your daughter to see it if it’s around. This is the third year I have had milkweeds and the first I have had monarchs, so it may take a while. Plus they can be invasive and carry a lot of other bugs so you may want to research before you plant.
@OldCatLady If I had another garden I would so do this.
@sammydog01 I plant herbs in large pots around the patio. No weeding, no bending.
They are still stuffing their little caterpillar faces. Several more plants have been stripped.
@sammydog01 Pigerpillars
fun game if you like butterflies: http://www.runawayplay.com/games/flutter/
i recognized that eastern black swallowtail @OldCatLady posted right away because of the game.
@katylava Thanks! They have a moth version too!
I checked this morning and there were way fewer caterpillars, but still some voracious chewing.
This afternoon they are almost all gone- I assume they are hunkering down to pupate. I found a few on my trellis of morning glory. The surviving fluffies can have the last bit of milkweed.
@sammydog01 Have you checked downtown?
http://shirt.woot.com/offers/very-hungry
@narfcake I like this design so much that I just ordered this shirt for my son
@capguncowboy It’s okay to admit that it’s for yourself.
I have a few copies myself.
@narfcake only if a kids 10 will fit me. Screw men’s large. Mid-riff muscle shirts or GTFO!
@capguncowboy Hah! Fair enough.
Evening update:
I found several chrysalises on window frames above my garden! Here is the one low enough to get a good photo of- not a chrysalis yet, but soon:
(I also pulled some surviving fluffies out of the trash can and put them on the milkweed.)
@sammydog01 Next year you’ll know not to clean out the milkweed too soon. Does your local county extension agent have any information on their local habit and calendar?
@sammydog01 don’t you know that once you pick up those little flufflies their parents will disown them?
@Yoda_Daenerys They were orphans.
@OldCatLady I don’t think so because no one in their right mind would plant those suckers. I’m moving the short ones to the other side of my garden (they have tap roots and might die but now I know where to get more). I’ll transplant some of the tall ones to the back. No pods on the tall ones as this was their first season and the pods on the short pretty ones were eaten. I don’t know if the defoliated ones are tough enough to survive transplanting- we’ll see. Bye bye roses, tomatoes, and annuals. Hello ugly giants.
I have a question and figured there were some knowledgeable people here that might be able to answer my question.
What do I need to plant to get these guys to come to my yard?
They turn into these awesome looking moths:
@jbartus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citheronia_regalis
@jbartus Apparently you need to plant your garden south of the Mason Dixon line.
@sammydog01 they are apparently capable of growing here, just something happened to evict them. Probably loss of habitat.
@jbartus I came across this guy playing pokemon go in the park yesterday. My guess is a luna moth.
@sammydog01 that’s neat looking!
@jbartus We have raised tobacco hornworms in the house- they’re really easy but you need a lot of tomato plants to feed them.
(This photo is off the internet.)
@sammydog01 I found out my regal moths eat hickory trees
I think I know why they don’t live here anymore, it makes sense that they would have been driven out due to loss of habitat. New England would have been largely stripped of its hickory trees to make tool handles and the like over the last 400 years.
@jbartus It looks like they are related to Luna moths, which also eat hickory. Looking at my photo that’s probably a hickory tree. We have lots of them here. I’ll keep an eye out for your creepy caterpillar.
@sammydog01 just remember that it turns into a gorgeous creature. Also I think the spikes are awesome, not creepy!
@sammydog01
how was he holding the phone? did you ask what level he was?
how about you, what level?
@Yoda_Daenerys I’m level 21 and he had a 26 cp caterpie at the gym. Stupid bug.
@sammydog01 I have a 10 CP weedle I keep for just such occasions.
Check it out! It’s a chrysalis now! It’s like a tiny insect magician.
@sammydog01 nothing up its sleeves!
@sammydog01 They work fast, huh?
@compunaut I saw a video- it takes just minutes for them to dump the last skin.
Chrysalis day 2- it’s going to get repetitive for a while.
@sammydog01 About 2 weeks in the chrysalis stage, innit?
Do you have a GoPro or similar camera capable of time lapse recording? That would make a fun video.
@ruouttaurmind I only have the crappy red one that Meh sold. I don’t think it does time lapse.
@sammydog01 the Nabi should have a setting to take a pic every 2, 3, 5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds.
@Ignorant I’ll try to figure it out.
@sammydog01 under the camera settings there should be a choice of “single”, “burst”, and “continuous” I think. Continuous should be what you want and then select the time interval.
Fun thread. Thanks for posting this!
Day 3: the glowing spots are in every photo. Freaky.
Fluffies back in the house!
Day 4. Same old, same old.
Day 5. Whatever.
Apparently the monarch population is dwindling, you’re providing valuable support for them, @sammydog01.
For more milkweed and monarch information: http://monarchbutterflygarden.net/is-tropical-milkweed-killing-monarch-butterflies/
Day 6.
I have found 8 of these guys so far. Most are probably hidden.
@sammydog01 might be exciting if they all hatch (?) at the same time.
@RiotDemon I bet they will all go within a day of each other.
Day 7 (I swear these are really all different photos)
OK, cool story: Tonight was parents’ night at my kid’s high school. I went to the biology classroom and this was on the table:
OMG THE TEACHER IS A BUG PERSON!!!
@OldCatLady It’s a black swallowtail she raised in her garden on fennel plants. She poked it and it stuck out this orange thing that looked just like a caterpie! She had a tank full of chrysalises and a couple of caterpillars getting ready to pupate. We talked caterpillars. I’m sending in a monarch chrysalis with my kid tomorrow.
@sammydog01 I laughed out loud at the photo. You undoubtedly made her evening, too. Did you give her a link to this thread?
@sammydog01 Those dang bastards always eat all my parsley… but I love 'em anyway.
@OldCatLady No, there is too much weird here that I don’t want the school to know about. I found a video of the orange thing on its head (osmeterium). This is what she made it do.
@brhfl I need to grow some parsley or fennel or something. Next year I’ll find a place for a little patch. Those guys are awesome!
@sammydog01 They are, and I’m far less angry at them than I am at the current assailant upon my potted-railing-garden… the freakin’ birds! I love(d) birds, but they’ve taken to having their dirt baths in my pots, and have uprooted several of my plants and just royally screwed the soil in several others. I thought my harvest was safe since it was largely hot peppers…
@brhfl Can you arrange pine cones or pine straw on top of the dirt?
@OldCatLady Oh, that helps? I’m not sure there’s much of a point right now, but… next year!
@brhfl Anything that keeps the surface protected. I used bamboo skewers and ornamental rocks, too. They look very tidy.
@OldCatLady Makes sense, thanks!
BUTTERFLY DAY 1!!!
Here’s a photo of the same chrysalis I have been following, Day 9:
And here is the other chrysalis that is low enough to get a photo (that I didn’t send in to school)
It’s getting clear at the bottom.
And here is what I found on my morning glory:
There are two in that photo.
And I found this guy in the grass and moved him to a higher spot:
I saw five total butterflies today- more should come tomorrow.
@sammydog01 OK, just one more photo:
@sammydog01 Those are all spectacular, every one. Thanks for keeping the milkweed, and for the pictures. I guess we know what everyone is planting next year: milkweed, dill and parsley.
The progression is pretty cool. I wonder if I should plant some stuff for butterflies.
Since there is knowledgeable people following this thread, I’m curious as to what kind of butterfly this is? Or is it a fancy moth?
@RiotDemon Red Admiral
@rockblossom thanks! That website is pretty cool. I can actually select my county and see what lives here. Neat.
@RiotDemon Pretty!
Day 10:
sniff
@sammydog01 Empty
NestChrysalis Syndrome?@sammydog01 They grow up so fast…
@sammydog01 just wait til those student loan bills come piling in, then it’ll really hurt!
I just hatched a Caterpie, and had to laugh.
What is this? It won’t hold still for a better photo.
@OldCatLady
Gulf Fritillary
http://www.gardenswithwings.com/butterfly/Gulf Fritillary/index.html
@jbartus So it is, and my lantana is what it likes. Thanks!
So my daughter said that the monarch I sent to school emerged and they released it. I asked about the tank of swallowtail chrysalises.
“The only tank I saw was the spider tank.”
“SHE HAS A TANK FULL OF SPIDERS???”
“I wasn’t going to tell you about that.”
I had to promise to not catch spiders to send in to school for the spider tank. The teacher specifically asked for black widows, but anything the kids could catch safely was fine. I really want to go in and see.
Hey imma Necro this thread right up today. Found this guy when I went out to check the pool equipment, it crawled into my hand readily and after a photo I let it crawl back onto the weeds.
@djslack Great pic! Google says Spicebush Swallowtail. Do you concur?
@djslack @ruouttaurmind my Google says eastern tiger swallowtail.
/image eastern tiger swallowtail
/image spicebush swallowtail
@RiotDemon @ruouttaurmind idk, it looks similar to what oldcatlady called a black swallowtail above. The blue on the bottom was very bright in direct sunlight but by the time it crawled onto my hand the sun was obscured a bit. But when I put butterflies in the site search the first image result was the one from that post and I thought it was very similar.
I also don’t believe I’ve ever held a butterfly before. It was very gentle, of course they weigh like nothing. I only wanted to see if it would crawl up so I could get a better picture, it was obscured by some weeds where it was.
@djslack @RiotDemon @ruouttaurmind My googling says female black swallowtail- looks like some yellow on the edges. It’s really hard to tell though. It’s beautiful! Lucky you.
@sammydog01 yes, in the sun yellow on the edges and bright blue inside of that. Under the clouds those colors were muted.
@ruouttaurmind how funny. The photo it showed of the tiger looked almost the same as the other one.
I guess Google isn’t perfect.
@djslack @RiotDemon @ruouttaurmind I took a lot of butterfly pictures last year (I haven’t seen many this year), and I still have to look up every black one I see. They all look superficially the same.
Eastern Black Swallowtail
Spicebush Swallowtail
Dark form female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
@craigthom @djslack @ruouttaurmind I’m redeemed! A dark tiger!
@craigthom @RiotDemon @ruouttaurmind the shapes and colors do seem to mostly resemble that third picture. I think you’re right.
@djslack @RiotDemon @ruouttaurmind getting pictures of both the dorsal and ventral sides helps a lot with ID.
And they need to match, not just look similar, accounting for worn or missing bits. And the boys and girls look different. It’s tricky.
Wow! You’re all so lucky. I picked some milkweed seed pods this summer in a nearby parking lot and am going to try to grow it for next year. We had monarchs in our yard when I was in 4th grade and it was the best biology lesson ever. Thanks for reviving this very cool thread, I love it. Someone in my neighborhood posted a photo of this cool thing they found in their yard:
@Kyeh Black Witch Moth
@rockblossom Yes, and some unfortunate superstitions connected to it, but some good ones too, according to the comments on Nextdoor.
@Kyeh @rockblossom I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those before. We found a Luna moth at the grocery store last week. I should get the camera on my hone fixed.
@rockblossom @sammydog01 Oh, I’d love to see a picture of a Luna moth. I saw one once when I was a kid, visiting Japan. I’ve never seen one around here.
@Kyeh @rockblossom @sammydog01 I’ve come across dead Luna moths on hikes through the woods around here several times. Never seen one alive, but usually stumble across a dead one once or twice a year.
I found this guy guarding the broccoli a little while back:
@macromeh I love those guys. Pretty spiders and fun webs. I like the green crab spiders too. Pretty colour.
/image green crab spider
@macromeh
@macromeh He can live in the garden but keep it outta my house
@jmoor783 how can you tell it’s a ‘he?’
@macromeh @OnionSoup The big black and yellow striped spiders are pretty amazing. All fuzzy and furry. They are fairly big. Canoeing across north Florida we’d run into a lot of them with webs going across the canoe paths in swampy areas. I’ve had a few land on my head when we’d break the webs to get through. All soft running across your face to get away from you.
@jmoor783 @njfan it’s a “she”. Female orb weavers make the webs. Males are smaller and have just one job.