Monarch Butterflies and Caterpillars

My friend, Debbie, gave me two Tropical Milkweed plants a few weeks ago. They have been growing nicely. I have been feeding and watering my “weeds”. The Black Swallowtails, Zebra Longwings, Tiger Swallowtails and Yellow butterflies love them……you can bet I’ll have a big patch of weeds next year.

I wondered how a Monarch would find these plants way back here in the woods. I never see them other than at Debbie’s and she is a couple of miles down the road.  Last week I was thrilled……a Monarch flew into the yard…it fluttered around the plants but didn’t spend much time on the flowers.  It came back a few days later and I took a couple videos. When I downloaded them I realized she was laying eggs.

I took these snapshots out of the video so they are not the best photos.

After I saw this in the video I went out and checked the plant leaf…sure enough…an egg. I did some research and read where ants and other insects  eat butterfly eggs. I found another article on how to keep them…so I set up a container and clipped the leaf…and several others. Once I knew what I was looking for I found several eggs.

There are 3 below, they are the small white spots. Just before they hatch the egg looks black. I guess it’s the little black face chewing it’s way out.

The next day I found this small caterpillar. It  must have just hatched…. It is eating it’s shell….I read that is their first meal. It is about 1/32 of an inch long.  tiny..tiny…tiny..

So I have moved my caterpillar nursery to a plastic bin for easier handling. I have to put fresh leaves in each day. Today I cut the section the caterpillar was sitting on off the wilted leaf and dropped it onto a fresh leaf. Look closely…you can see at least 3 caterpillars….there are over a dozen in the pile and I have several eggs yet to hatch.  I keep the leaves with the eggs in separate containers …evidently caterpillars might eat the eggs too.

Here’s a close-up of the one on the L side of the leaves. You can see the start of its stripes.

Here’s the video where I spotted the Monarch laying her eggs.

With all these caterpillars you’d think I’d get lucky enough to see them make their Chrysalis and capture them emerging as butterflies.

Jim’s next project will be a small butterfly house for my screen room.  Then I can have several potted Milkweed plants under netting and can put my caterpillars on living plants where they can eat all they want….and have a safe place to build their Chrysalis.

This is so interesting. I loved caterpillars when I was a kid……now I remember why.

Ragged Beauty (Black Swallowtail)

Life isn’t perfect and we can’t all be perfect.  I saw this butterfly and ran out to take it’s picture.  When I got closer I realized much of its wings are missing. But….it really didn’t matter…I still thought it beautiful.

 

 

On my way back inside I couldn’t resist snapping a shot of this little fellow. He comes to the backyard with 4 of his friends each morning for a few kernels of corn. My little dog, Raisin, loves to watch them. They are great “puppy” sitters. She won’t move from her cushion until they leave…and watches them intently.

Antlion (Doodlebug)

I was opening the door to the shed and this flew from the door to the side of the building.

It blends in so well, I’m not surprised I haven't noticed them before.

I didn’t realize until it landed on the flag….but the wings are transparent like a dragonfly’s. When in flight it looks like the “helicopters” that we see in the evening.

I’ve been through some bug websites but didn’t find out what it was…so ..if you know…please let me know.

Cuckoo Wasp?

I spotted this beautifully colored little flying insect.....

The closest thing I could find is a Cuckoo Wasp.....Am I right?

It was trying to get inside of these little wind chimes, but I think Mud Dabbers might have gotten there first.

Monarch Butterfly

My friend, Debbie, has a nice patch of Milkweed and a couple of Monarchs that fly in an out.  She found one caterpillar and put it in a container….fed it fresh milkweed everyday…until it made it’s cocoon.

This is what it looked like yesterday…around 2pm.  If you look closely…you can see a faint outline of the wings.

This was taken early this morning. It has turned very dark and is getting a lot more transparent. You can see some of the color.

We had a great waffle breakfast at their house this morning and watch….and watched….and watched….

We all had other things to do ..so we brought the container home with us …..I wanted to get a video of it coming out….

we watched…..and watched….

I left the room for awhile and Jim watched….no change other than getting a bit clearer…..Jim left the room for a few minutes…..and you know what happened…before I got out there it had opened and was drying it’s wings. 

I took the container and rode my bike to Debbie’s and put it on one of their milkweed plants.

It sat there for about an hour …then we started seeing some spreading of wings every few minutes.

A few minutes later it climbed up to the flowers…perhaps grabbed a snack and then flew away. I hope it remains in the area and lays an egg and we can have better luck next time. 

We have an idea of what to watch for…but perhaps it saw us as predators and waited for us to leave.

Hummingbird

Evidently my camera or my reflexes are too slow to get good pictures of a Hummingbird….but the video is able to capture it.

I havn’t seen this one lately….just a couple of juveniles or females.

Hummingbird Moth

It’s been awhile since my last post.  We were on vacation in NY,VT,TN & NC.   We had a great time with friends and family.  Even did some some trail riding on horseback. 

I spotted this Hummingbird Moth on my plants. It was kind enough to buzz around for video ..but not for photos.  It likes the Bougainville.

It was also very interested in the Mexican Petunias.  My Mother planted a few of these several years ago. Now they are bordering the road in and popping up around the tree in the backyard.

I’m back to buggin the bugs……chasing them around the yard with a camera.