What's Flying Around

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by ButterflyLinda

Oh...that is great! And what a coincidence, I just released a butterfly today!
The answer to Bridger's raising question is LOTS of kinds! I try to have nectar plants...and host plants for as many as I can. I can't raise them all, especially this year...when there's so many. So I limit myself to just what I can easily manage to do. The Gulf Fritillaries are so numerous here I don't even think about raising them. And I'm likely to just bring just a few caterpillars of a certain kind in sometimes...like I did with the leafwings...and add them to my "collection". It's a hobby, I guess. I take care of my disabled hubby and we live out in the country. I gave up some of the other things I used to do, so I do this now. Here's the Red-spotted Purple...one of my favorites!

Wow, they are really pretty. Great photos. I hope I get to see the adults around here!

I'm hoping your husband shares and enjoys your new hobby.

I bet you're happy to have a new butterfly to add to your "collection".

[bridget1964]

Originally Posted by ButterflyLinda

Oh...that is great! And what a coincidence, I just released a butterfly today!
The answer to Bridger's raising question is LOTS of kinds! I try to have nectar plants...and host plants for as many as I can. I can't raise them all, especially this year...when there's so many. So I limit myself to just what I can easily manage to do. The Gulf Fritillaries are so numerous here I don't even think about raising them. And I'm likely to just bring just a few caterpillars of a certain kind in sometimes...like I did with the leafwings...and add them to my "collection". It's a hobby, I guess. I take care of my disabled hubby and we live out in the country. I gave up some of the other things I used to do, so I do this now. Here's the Red-spotted Purple...one of my favorites!

Linda,
So sorry to hear about your husband. I think I would choose raising butterflies as a hobby even if I had all the time and money in the world to do anything else! When I see that monarch emerge from its chrysalis, it is always miraculous to me! I am waiting on 3 to emerge this morning. Need to go pick milkweed to feed my 20 or so 3rd instars. They are so hungry!

[ButterflyLinda]

On the cages, I'm just doing that on Spicebush, because the leaves don't stay very good if you bring them in for container use. I use welded-wire fencing in a circle around the plant...with a special screening material with a strong, extra-tight weave (had to do some research to find a place that sells it) attached around it. Then I have another piece of screening that I clip onto the top of the circular cage...it's removable. I've also used 'sleeves' available to buy on the internet to slip over branches of a plant...to keep the caterpilars fairly safe. It's not perfect, but it helps.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

The first one I'm not sure on but I was happy to find some butterflies on the Summersweet. The next I think is a red spotted purple, though I've taken better photos of them (see the first page). Next we have a common white Cabbage Butterfly in a mating pose. There was another going down to "do the deed."

[Cirsium]

First one looks like a Silver-spotted Skipper:
Silver-spotted Skipper — wisconsinbutterflies.org

[ButterflyLinda]

Yes, the second looks like Red-spotted Purple to me also. The Cabbage White...looks weird because it looked like only one set of wings...but guess looks can be deceiving!

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by MrILoveTheAnts

The first one I'm not sure on but I was happy to find some butterflies on the Summersweet. The next I think is a red spotted purple, though I've taken better photos of them (see the first page). Next we have a common white Cabbage Butterfly in a mating pose. There was another going down to "do the deed."

Great pic...and interesting pose. I'd never thought about, nor seen, a mating pair of butterflies. I really liked your phrasing "...going down to 'do the deed'". You made me smile.

[swamp thing]

A few moths, taken tonight. There haven't been very many this year, maybe because our summer has been very hot and dry. ???

Anyway, as I'm looking up ID's for the moths, I hear a rustling outside in the recycling bin, which is always fun... tonight's creature feature was a small, beautiful skunk. I couldn't get a decent picture though. I'll have to have a word with a certain someone about rinsing stuff better before it goes in the bin...

There are dozens of Pyrausta moths. This might be P. acrionalis. The larvae eat mint, but I sure don't grow any. Maybe 3/8" wide.


One of the emerald geometrid moths, the wavy-lined emerald, Synchlora aerata. About 3/4" wide. The caterpillars camouflage themselves with bits of plants.


I think this is the common angle moth - the larvae eat maples. About an inch wide. (Or it might be a red-headed inch worm moth (M. signata), which eats pines. Or something else entirely...)
Marcaria aemulataria formerly Semiothisa aemulataria

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by swamp thing

...There are dozens of Pyrausta moths. This might be P. acrionalis. The larvae eat mint, but I sure don't grow any. Maybe 3/8" wide.
Attachment 18631

One of the emerald geometrid moths, the wavy-lined emerald, Synchlora aerata. About 3/4" wide. The caterpillars camouflage themselves with bits of plants.
Attachment 18632

I think this is the common angle moth - the larvae eat maples. About an inch wide. (Or it might be a red-headed inch worm moth (M. signata), which eats pines. Or something else entirely...)
Marcaria aemulataria formerly Semiothisa aemulataria
Attachment 18633

Great pictures and cool information. I especially like the idea that the caterpillars use plants to help camouflage themselves.

The mint-eating larva's as an adult moth is beautiful--and it must have the freshest breath of all the moths.

[linrose]

Out and about this morning I found these guys feasting on the mountain mint. It's magical when it blooms. I feel like I'm standing in the middle of a fairy land as dozens of butterflies flit all around me.

First is a buckeye, then some kind of skipper, a beautiful tiger swallowtail, and the last is blurry but I couldn't resist capturing five tigers on one plant.