What's Flying Around

[Equilibrium]

I'm thinking you've got a spicebush there just like bridget1964's 2nd photo. I've seen a few around by me but not many. Maybe a coupla a year. Mostly we get the black swallowtails, the classic easterns, and the pipevines. Pipevines we see a lot in my immediate area since I've been sharing seedlings of Aristolochia with a few people and over the years.... they've been letting their vines go to seed otherwise we never saw them around 10 years ago or if they were here I never noticed. I think the one you have is a male. Males are blue splashes and females are green splashes I think or maybe it's the other way around. Anywhooo, looks like a spicebush to me.

adding screw up correction, The Beauty of the Swallowtail Butterfly, color is reverse of what I said, "Adults can be identified by their spoon-shaped tails and by their bright green (male) or iridescent blue (female) hind-wings. Ivory spots may be visible on the forewings, and orange spots may appear on the hindwings. Wingspan may be 3 to 4 inches."

[Gloria]

Another dragonfly visitor to the garden.

[ButterflyLinda]

That does look like a Spicebush Swallowtail, I think! And lovely pictures, bridget! Here's one I saw last week and never got around to doing anything with until this week. Rawson's Metalmark...I think.

[bridget1964]

Originally Posted by Gloria

Another dragonfly visitor to the garden.

Looks to be a common green darner, either a female or an immature adult. Dragonflies don't get their full coloration for 1-2 weeks after they emerge from the nymph stage. One of my favorites as they are sooo big!

Common Green Darner - Anax junius

[bridget1964]

Originally Posted by Equilibrium

I'm thinking you've got a spicebush there just like bridget1964's 2nd photo. I've seen a few around by me but not many. Maybe a coupla a year. Mostly we get the black swallowtails, the classic easterns, and the pipevines. Pipevines we see a lot in my immediate area since I've been sharing seedlings of Aristolochia with a few people and over the years.... they've been letting their vines go to seed otherwise we never saw them around 10 years ago or if they were here I never noticed. I think the one you have is a male. Males are blue splashes and females are green splashes I think or maybe it's the other way around. Anywhooo, looks like a spicebush to me.

adding screw up correction, The Beauty of the Swallowtail Butterfly, color is reverse of what I said, "Adults can be identified by their spoon-shaped tails and by their bright green (male) or iridescent blue (female) hind-wings. Ivory spots may be visible on the forewings, and orange spots may appear on the hindwings. Wingspan may be 3 to 4 inches."

I was going to say I thought it was a spicebush, but I was running out the door to do an Audubon presentation and didn't have time to research. I find it very difficult to differentiate between the two without very close scrutiny. I was able to positively ID the spicebush flutterbies I saw that day as they all sat still for me to take their photos!

I have seen many swallowtails this summer, eastern, spicebush, tigers. We don't get the pipevine, but they sure are pretty!

Great link, Equilibrium! I put it in my bookmarks! Thanks!

[bridget1964]

Originally Posted by ButterflyLinda

That does look like a Spicebush Swallowtail, I think! And lovely pictures, bridget! Here's one I saw last week and never got around to doing anything with until this week. Rawson's Metalmark...I think.

Linda,
You get the coolest butterflies down there in Texas! I'm curious, how many different species of butterflies have you 'raised' now? It sounds like you've done quite a few. I mostly stick with the monarchs, but have raised a few others. If I had the time, I'd probably go nuts hunting for eggs and cats!

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by ButterflyLinda

I didn't ever see the mother drop by, but the caterpillar is getting ready to pupate now, took this other pic earlier. The Red-spotted Purples are pretty butterflies, but the cats look a big strange, with horns.

Thanks to this site and your post, ButterflyLinda, I knew what it was that I spotted today. I had to come and search for this thread to find the name--Red-spotted Purples.

I did a web search and found that they are also called White Admirals. I spotted it on one of my quaking Aspens--one of the host plants listed.

I'm glad it was still there after I went back in to get the camera.

I didn't seen any adults either.

[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!

[Equilibrium]

Metalmarks, green darners, white admirals, and red-spotted purples!!! Holy guacamole!!! What a line-up. I spotted one (ONE) monarch today. This one's seen better days and I must have hit something on my camera to make it go goofy on me and it was pretty windy but it was a monarch and I've not been seeing hardly any around this year and little or no evidence of monarch cats munching away and I've been looking. Sorry for really bad photos. Here's an overexposed common whitetail, an over-exposed eastern amberwing, and an out of focus eastern forktail. I was batting 1000 today with the camera. Too much sun.... too much wind.... subjects too far away. I'll try to get more this weekend.

[bridget1964]

Originally Posted by dapjwy

Thanks to this site and your post, ButterflyLinda, I knew what it was that I spotted today. I had to come and search for this thread to find the name--Red-spotted Purples.

I did a web search and found that they are also called White Admirals. I spotted it on one of my quaking Aspens--one of the host plants listed.

I'm glad it was still there after I went back in to get the camera.

I didn't seen any adults either.

Nice photos of some really cool cats! I love how so many caterpillars look like bird droppings so as to confuse predators. Nature is truly amazing, isn't it?