'Sounds wonderful, Mechelle - send 'em this way!
I know what you mean about the scent of orange blossoms - I have an orange tree, and when it blooms, I stand next to it and just breathe in! :)
Sherry

Good news is great to hear. I think it will be the next generation that finally makes it to Wisconsin in May, so they need to be mating and laying eggs in Texas.

Cool! I have been seeing butterflies since January 1! That is because where I live in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas is very Tropical! I hae seen all the butterflies you have seen except the Spicebush Swallowtail which is not found in m area. I wish it was...

mechelle,

It's great to know the BFs are on the move. I think we are all getting anxious. Today we have highs in the upper 80's, so it just seems the BFs can't be too far behind.

Sandy

That's wonderful news, Mechelle. But I have to say, I am green with envy :-)

Tropical. High's in the upper 80's. Sheesh!!!! Tomorrows high is predicted to be 60... on the Mojave Desert... in Las Vegas... you know that place that's normally 120 in the shade all summer and pushing 100 by March. Actually will be even colder if you factor in the wind chill. It's looking like spring in Sin City this year will be on a Thursday and summer for a 3-day weekend before fall on Monday.

Global warming my butt! Not in Vegas, not this year. Plus side is we have water coming out of our ears after mostly drought conditions for the last dozen years.

Glad somebody is getting descent weather AND butterflies.

Larry, if it's any consolation, those high 80s will be replaced with 50s and lows in the 30s come next week. We are in our roller coaster season here in Oklahoma.

BTW, Desertleps is really getting active with lots of sightings and collection discussions. Did you ever check it out?

Only briefly Sandy. But when I discovered it was Yahoo that ended any possible interest I may have had. I don't Yahoo like I don't AOL like I don't Wally World.

Slowly but surely I'll get more folks here to use taxonomy (and maybe even get them to learn that the genus name is capitalized and species, subspecies, form, abberation, cline, etc names are not). LOL

I saw my first BFs today in my backyard. I spotted 2 Orange sulfurs, 1 female pipevine, and 1 skipper (possibly Horace or Indigo). I think this is pretty early. Can't wait til tomorrow when the day will be warmer. I may have to go out and look at the nature park.

Sandy

Here it got to the high 40s as the lowest temperature this past winter.

I saw my first swallowtail, other than a giant or pipevine swallowtail that I released myself - a beautiful palamedes!
Sherry

My Christmas cassias/C. bicapsularis or Senna bicapsularis, whichever it is, are just beginning to make new growth mostly from the bottom, so I cut back most of the top. I get a lot of new growth that way. There's only about 5" of new growth at the bottom, and there are already sulphur eggs on the little leaves! They're big enough that I can see them, so they must be either sleepy orange/Eurema nicippe eggs or cloudless sulphur/phoebis sennae eggs - little yellow/Eurema lisa eggs are just about microscopic! I'll guess they're sleepy oranges, since I don't usually see cloudless sulphur eggs this early in the season - I've seen all three adults flying, though, so they could possibly be any of the three.
A female promethea moth emerged this morning, and a male just showed up - I opened the cage door, he flew in, and then I zipped the door back up! I've read that the way the males of the various types of Callosamia know whether it's a female of their type is by the time of day she calls - their pheromones must be the same. Callosamia promethea calls in the late afternoon.
Yesterday I saw what had to be either a C. anguilifera or C. securifera - it was orangish colored. I have no idea why it was flying in the morning, unless his flying time is that early!
I just checked the cage, and they're a couple - how sweet! :)
Sherry

Another male has shown up, and he's flying all over the porch - the early bird gets the worm! :)
Sherry

Chuckle, chuckle. Sherry's Honeymoon Hideaway is in business again!

Sure is, Sandy!
I made a picture of one of the sulphur eggs - 'had to use my macro setting. I even found a few eggs on dead oak leaves that were lying at the bottom of the cassia - can you find the egg?
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The honeymooners are still at it. I looked it up, and it said they usually stay coupled until the next evening, so it'll be tomorrow night before I release them. I may put her in a paper bag and get some eggs. I've got so much gardening going now, I don't know if I really want to be raising moths, although prometheas don't eat as much or take as long as the really big, big moths, so I'll probably raise some.
Sherry

Right in the center of the two sprouts on the little round leaf?

That's it, Sandy! Remember what record player needles used to look like? That's what sulphur eggs remind me of, at least in shape.
Sherry

I definitely remember what record player needles look like! The eggs also remind me of little tiny grains of rice.

Well, the information I read was wrong, because my couple disengaged late last night - my husband said they were just taking a cigarette break. :0 I opened the door, so they could fly out, and I woke up a while ago, checked on them, and they're both still there - they must have smoked a whole pack! :0 She's laid a few egg clusters in the cage, so I got my paper bag and put her in it. I guess I'll raise the ones that come from the eggs she laid in the cage, and put the others in groupings on cherry and sweetgum trees, since they're the only trees leafed out enough yet. The eggs aren't supposed to hatch for 8-12 days, so maybe by then other types of trees will be ready, probably the crabapples. Fortunately, promethea moths eat a huge variety of leaves!
Sherry

I am just north of Houston and the Monarchs have been all over my Milkweed. I had 12 Caterpillars and all turned to chrysalis the last couple of days.

I have a lemon, lime and orange tree, but I have not seen any Giant Swallowtails around it yet.

Spring has been here the last two weeks, but it got cold again today. I don't think we'll get below freezing, just in the 40's or upper 30's

I just saw my first spicebush swallowtail, a gorgeous male! 'Still haven't seen a tiger swallowtail - they usually fly high in the early part of spring, so I should probably look up more! :)
Sherry