I can't believe it. I was thrilled to have read about Jill's discovery of the Queen (Danaus gilippus) caterpillars on her scrawny Milkweed (her words). I mean, it is so exciting to find butterflies that you don't normally see in your garden, right?

WELL, today, I was in my backyard. I'd just finished watering everything, including hosing down the !@#$% Oleander Aphids on my gazillion Milkweed plants (I 'say' and record that I have 100 plants, but truthfully or shall I say accurately? I probably have well over 300! I am just too lazy to count the bloody things!). I decided to relax, walk around, see if there were any Gulf Frit eggs to collect to send off to Murray, check on the Spiders (I've been on a Black and Brown Widow hunt these past few days-you should SEE the Black Widow I got yesterday! EEEEK! The sucker was HUGE and had laid three humongous egg sacs before I got to her...I did put her in a killing jar so I now have a 'specimen' to share and is it a SPECIMEN.)

Back to my story...which as you veterans know, I AM the storyteller...

So, there I am hunched down, after having searched through the Passiflora, and deciding to take a break and look at the Milkweed to see if I did a good job at washing off the Aphids when I suddenly scream. Chelsea looks at me like, "WHAT?!" I had to go back and turn over the MW stalk again, talking aloud, as is my usual, "What the HECK was THAT?!" I cut the stalk off between my fingernails (thank goodness for acrylics!), turned it over, and it was...a QUEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!! Yeee-haaaaaa! I thought, "Jill had Queens and now ME?! I don't believe it! I must be seeing things in this heat."

I looked again. Sure enough, it was a Queen larva that had just molted. I was so excited I ran in the house, grabbed a bug cup, and ran back outside. I ended up finding a total of three (there may be more out there but I didn't find 'em). I called DH on his cell (who was at the beach surfing, as usual) to tell him ("Guess what I just found!" "Uh, another spider?").

I cannot believe it still...

Here's a picture of one of the little guys. :)

{{gwi:517644}}