It's wonderful to see a post from you, Susan! I'm so glad you got some new butterfly plants - that's so much fun!
Things are going pretty much as usual for me, except that I'm raising about 100 luna moth caterpillars - it's been quite the experience! I found my first palamedes egg of the year yesterday, I found a tiger egg several days ago, spicebush swallowtails are flying around like maybe they're laying some eggs on the sassafras, I keep releasing pipevines - 3 so far today, and my vines, which are growing wildly, are covered with the cats - I've got giant swallowtail eggs, sleepy orange cats, red admirals cats, and I saw my first American lady nest this morning!
I've planted lots of new trees and shrubs to replace the many that were lost in the hurricane - things are busy here!
Sherry

Wow, MissSherry. I saw your posts on the Lunas, but didn't realize you had over 100!!!!! You are the busy lady these days, huh? Getting back into the real swing of it after having been hard hit by the hurricanes? I know for me, sometimes I have to take a break one year and kind of let things happen naturally. Last year was a bumper year for us Okies! I raised lots of different species, and while my current plan is to continue that pattern, who knows what tomorrow will bring.

I have got my Pearly Everlasting for the American Ladies, so here's hoping! This is one, and the Painted Ladies, that I have year to rear. I think things are starting out a bit slowly this year. We've had cool weather, ferocious north winds, and lots of rain, which is probably stalling a lot of butterfly movement north. So those of you north of me, the butts may be a bit slower for you as well.

MissSherry, you remember the BST chrysalis I had from last year in that melanic bunch of cats (I had about 10 of them all at the same time) that did not eclose? Well, it eclosed a couple of weeks ago, so it really does pay to watch them for a year or so to see what happens!

We've release our 4 BST chrysalis's that overwintered now, so we're waiting on eggs!

My False Nettle is up about 6" now, too, and I've seen a Red Admiral in the yard, so cross your fingers!

Thanks for the big welcome!

Susan

That's great that the melanic BST successfully emerged, Susan! Mine never did, and since all or nearly all of my regulars made healthy adults, I thought maybe being melanic was a bad thing for a BST. Yours shows that that's not necessarily so.
Yes, I just brought more sweetgum leaves to the lunas - I had gotten a brief respite, because they were nearly all molting at the same time. About a ?month ago, I put my first mated female in a paper bag like they say to do, and she laid 116 eggs in the bag! I haven't counted the cats, but I'd say there are nearly as many cats now as there were eggs in the bag then!
Gotta go - my grandson is here to visit for just one day. I rarely ever get to see him, so I want to while I can.
Sherry

So glad to see you back! :)

Good to see you back Susan.

randy