Congrats, congrats, you lucky duck you! You know I'm green with envy! :)
Wonderful picture, Sandy!
MissSherry

Thanks MissSherry,

Your congrats means a lot to me!

OKSandy

Cool! You've reinvigorated my determination to raise Eastern Tailed Blues.

Jeff

Wow, Sandy, YOU DID IT! I know how it feels to be so determined to find something! But, as we agreed, my aster's foliage is probably too tough to support any cats, so I'm going to have to p/u some different asters next year or winter sow some.

CONGRATULATIONS - you deserve a big WOOOOOO-HOOOOOO!

Susan

Thanks, Susan

I think Lowes has the very same asters for sale right now. They are called a "New York" aster, and the foliage and flowers look just like my NOID. I have both the magenta and the blue-lavender, but the PCs prefer the one with magenta flowers. Go figure! I also have been collecting seeds from the plants that I will gladly share. Fall is probably the time for planting aster seeds so they will bloom the following year.

The other thing that I have noticed is that the PCs seem to like to nectar on the red purslane that comes up volunteer in my front beds. The purslane is just in front of the asters. And I also see them nectaring on the Angelonia behind the asters. There is lots of PC activity in this flower bed.

Hmmmm.....magenta New York aster - I'm going to Hattiesburg tomorrow for my second recheck with the periodontist, so I'll go to Lowe's and see if they have it there. If they don't, I'll get on your seed list, Sandy!
Thanks!
MissSherry

This morning when I went out to check the asters I found a newly eclosed Pearl Crescent or Phyciodes tharos. Here's a picture of the eclosed PC and its chrysalis:

{{gwi:542027}}

Wow, that's fabulous, Sandy!
MissSherry

To quote Cap'n Jack Sparrow, "That's interesting..."

Because the markings on it could easily be mistaken for a Northern Crescent instead of a Pearl. The former is at the edge of your range, but take a look:

http://www.wisconsinbutterflies.org/butterflies/species/174

Jeff

Jeff, I looked at the site for the Northern Crescent. It does look a lot like the Pearl Crescent Photo in my Butterflies of Oklahoma, Kansas, and North Texas books. I'll post the picture I took on our OKLeps site. The author of the afore mentioned book hosts this site, so I should be able to get a definitive answer.

I have never heard of Northern Crescents in Oklahoma, but that doesn't mean they aren't here.

Thanks for the info.

OKSandy

Jeff,
I went back to my photos of the open winged PCs and I see a definite difference. I am going to post an adult open winged picture so you can compare and see if you can see the difference also. My BFs look more like the picture in my book than those on the website.

{{gwi:542028}}

I have also posted it on the okleps' site for verification. I should get a response this evening.

Jeff, I did a lot of research last evening and if my crescents are NCs, this is the first time the species has been reported in OK. We have some diligent gentlemen who keep records of all the BFs and Moths in OK. And new species are recorded all the time.

I have not had a response to my post on okleps, but IMHO, these are Pearl Crescents.

Also, I have seeds of a hibiscus that I have found the ETB larva on. In fact, if you plant perennial hibiscus, the ETB larvas will skeletonize the leaves. I will share my hibiscus seeds if you are interested. It is a lovely deep burgundy color that I have not seen anywhere else.

OKSandy

Sorry, Jeff, it's the little gray hairstreaks that eat my hibiscus. Should have checked before I posted. OKS

Sandy, you may have Hibiscus 'Kopper King'. I have one and the leaves are a dark burgandy. The flowers are a pale pink with a red eye. I love it. I have another hibiscus with large deep pink, rose flowers that are huge, and the Hibiscus coccineus or Texas Star hibiscus as well. I found a grey hairstreak on it this summer. I felt bad because my neighbor friend told me to just toss the flower buds that had holes in them and turned yellow. I'd been doing that until I figured out they were the larvae of the GH. They sure don't get very big before they pupate.

Susan

Susan, the leaves of my hibiscus are green; the flowers are deep burgundy color. It looks a lot like a "disco" hibiscus, but doesn't get as tall. This year it has actually stayed fairly small with all the wet weather.

I'm sure I've thrown away a lot of the cats also. They are really tiny.

Sandy