Awesome photo; beautiful butterfly!! It's good that their numbers seem steady in your area.Your "cultivar" is beautiful. Hope she returns full of eggs:)

Gorgeous.

Definitely more red than the norm. I found one picture where the RSP had 7 red spots.

The pics that stood out to me were the ones with red on the hindwings. I saw a couple that have one red spot at the top of the hindwings. Then I saw the one that I have linked below. Did not see another like it.

I'm jealous you're getting to raise so many. I've seen a few fluttering around so their numbers are better here than most butterflies this year.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:507965}}

She's a beauty, Sherry. I too am jealous of you having so many RSPs. I haven't seen one here in a couple of years. Don't know where they are hiding.

Sandy

She is gorgeous...she just lies to use a little more rouge than the other ladies :) I wish I could raise butterflies, but I'm gone from 6 am to 8 pm every day during the week. I'll just have to live vicariously through you :)

WOWZA!!!! She sure is a beauty! Lucky you. I still think that they should have been named Orange spotted Blues instead!

I agree, Angie, they're not purple anywhere. Maybe whoever named them blended the blue and red/orange together and got purple? :)

I wish you could raise butterflies, too, rvird01. It's a wonderful hobby, gives me peace!

Hmmm....I don't know why you wouldn't have RSPs there, Sandy, unless it's because there aren't many wild black cherry trees? They seem committed to that tree, only rarely using willows. In the past, I've seen them lay eggs on crabapple, that's the only other host I can verify.

The one with the red on the bottom is REALLY odd looking, KC! Extra and redder red (red orange, actually) spots seem within a normal range, but spots on the bottom is out there!

Leafhead, since cultivars have their own name, I'll just name my cultivar 'Sherry' - 'not egotistical a bit! :)

I checked out a hatchling that I had seen on a tree I pass by all the time, and it was gone, but a strange looking fly was on it - I guess it had just had a meal. :( I wasn't planning on bringing in more to raise right away, but I can't stand seeing them get eaten, so I went hunting and found about ?15 or so and brought them in. So here I go again.

I also found two more spicebush swallowtail cats, making my total there three. I have two chrysalides that SHOULD emerge soon, but you know how swallowtails can be, they might overwinter. :/

I feel very fortunate!

Sherry

I was just admiring your RSP pic again. Did you happen to get any closeups of just the forewing?

No, the above picture is as close as I got. I could trim the picture down some more, but that would make it blurry. Would you like me to do that? What would a closer picture tell you, KC?

Sherry

Sherry,
It would not tell me anything, AFAIK. I just think the forewings are gorgeous and wanted to see a better picture. I don't think cropping is the answer because it appears the tips of the forewings are not as in focus as the rest of the butterfly.

Sometimes I take pictures that don't include the whole insect because I wanted a better shot of something. I'm attaching a pic of a pandorus sphinx I caught last week. I had never seen one before so I was taking some closeups that did not include the whole moth. Anyway, I thought maybe you had done something similar.

KC

What a beautiful sphinx moth, KC! I love that green coloring!

I didn't do a close-up, but I'll do it the next time I get a different looking butterfly.

Sherry

Today, while I was on the porch, a red-spotted purple laid an egg on a pitiful looking leaf on the wild black cherry that's right next to the porch. The leaves on this tree are old and worn looking, and it's losing leaves like it's fall already! When she laid the egg on this ugly leaf, she kept running her lower abdomen all over the leaf, especially where it met the branch. I've never seen one do this before - maybe she was exuding something, trying to glue the leaf on? Anyway, at first I only saw her underside, but right before she left, I saw her topside and she had 5 big red spots! She had to be the one I released way back on July 21st, making her 43 days old, or 6 weeks and 1 day. She looked only slightly worn, and her wings weren't torn at all. This helps give an idea of how long they live - at least 6 weeks!

And while I was out in the garden late this evening, watering the plants, I found this hanging on one of the Ludwigia plants I haven't yet planted -

{{gwi:507970}}

I assume this caterpillar was on the willow in a pot in my garden, because there aren't any cherries very close. I don't know how I missed seeing it! I checked the willow, and I could see some branches that were stripped, but I couldn't find any more cats there. Anyway, I cut the little branch off and brought it inside to a cage. I'd love it if it were a viceroy, but I'm not holding my breath! :)

Sherry

Two of the five red-spotted purples in the latest batch I raised emerged recently, the first smallish, probably a male, the second one, medium, probably a male, possibly a female. Then today, a big female emerged, and she had the extra red spots like the one from nearly the same time last year -

{{gwi:507972}}

Actually, I don't think her red spots are quite as big as the one from last year, but she's close. Here's hoping she lays a lot of eggs!

Sherry

I saw my first RSP today at a local nursery. It was all over the hydrangeas. Limelight, I think it was called. Almost bought one. Expensive!!!! What a pretty butterfly!

Love these butterflies! Will have to get a black cherry and maybe try to keep it trimmed or stooled; wonder how it would do?

Though where I live I haven't seen any RSPs but you never know...have seen them out where I monitor.