Congrats, MissSherry! I love QMs; they're very easy to raise, too. I am seeing so many QM adults right now at the feeders, and these are so variable in color. Many have the beautiful mottled undersides that remind me of those granite cabinet tops. Others are a flat grayish brown, and many are in between. Even the uppersides vary a lot in color. I am seeing some of the summer forms now, which are gorgeous.

QMs are very gregarious in the garden, and almost downright bullies at the feeders. They even chase off the huge Mourning Cloaks, lol! They remind me of the "hummingbirds" of the banana feeders!

I have 4 of their host plants now - Elm, Hackberry, Hops, and False Nettle, so they pretty much have their choice.

Susan

It's great that you've got so many host plants for the question marks, Susan. Mine only use the false nettles - fortunately, there's a lot of it here.

On other threads people have mentioned how they're seeing hordes of question marks. Well, most of mine have pupated, so they'll be getting more of them from here pretty soon!

A few haven't yet made their chrysalis, so I took this picture of two of them -
{{gwi:466055}}

Sherry

Very healthy looking larvae, Sherry! I haven't found any more at all. Something is eating the False Nettle, but that could be almost anything. The Red Admiral caterpillars are all being parasitized. Every leaf I have opened has a tiny white cocoon in it. Wah!!!!

Maybe later in the year..... I've never had this happen before.

Susan

Oh, no, Susan! It's those #!*& tiny parasitic wasps! If they've returned, I predict the big RA explosion will be over. :(

I noticed in my first post, I said I found about 10 QM cats. Well, I went back and found more, plus I found two more little ones just two days ago. I'm enjoying raising them!

Sherry