Partridge Peas
Partridge peas are interesting, because they host cloudless sulphur caterpillars, and their flowers are visited by many other insects. The bees are all over them now.
I've always loved CS cats. The mamas must have laid the eggs in the flower buds, because the cats have all been pure yellow when small. It's hard to get a decent picture of anything yellow or white, but here's a little CS cat -
This year's cats must be transferring to just leaves and/or pods, though, because this year's cats are all green when they're in the late instars, no yellow and blue ones -
For years, I've been seeing 'bees' that hover on my porch. I finally looked them up when I found one of these 'bees' nectaring on the partridge pea flowers. It's a Virginia hover fly, a very big fly, for sure! -
There is also a big, but beautiful green spider out there amongst the partridge peas, caterpillars, and bees -
There's a desmodium plant growing in the partridge peas. I let desmodium (weed) grow in the garden, because it's the host plant for long-tailed skippers. I haven't seen a long-tailed skipper in quite a while, but one was here, because there's a caterpillar in its open nest out there -
I've raised and released and am raising a total of about 30 or more gulf frit cats. There are also many GF cats outside, and the vines are becoming skeletonized. Here's a picture of a caterpillar and an adult -
In addition to the gulf frits I'm raising in cages on the porch, I've got about ?20 promethea eggs that a female promethea moth laid on the bar of her cage before she left at night - a male had showed up to mate with her in the afternoon. It's so strange how prometheas call and mate in the afternoon instead of at night! They only stayed together about ?6 or 7 hours, -'hope that was long enough to get fertilized eggs!
I'm also raising one lone spicebush swallowtail cat.
Sherry
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11 years agoSusan, for whatever reason, the sleepy oranges don't use the partridge peas here - doesn't make sense. They use the few sicklepods (C. obtusifolia, as I recall) that grow in my garden, which are small. One year I purposely planted sicklepod in a raised bed and fertilized them - they grew to bush size, about 6'X6', so I think I'm going to plant them in that bed next year and plant partridge pea seeds along my roadside. Both sleepy oranges and cloudless sulphurs use sicklepod, and it holds up well in water, which partridge peas don't, so I can bring both types in (also little yellows) and raise them myself if I want to. None of the sulphurs use my C. bicapsularis if the other two types are available. In late winter/very early spring, it's the first cassia to sprout leaves, and the sleepy oranges use them then.
DD, I'm 'only' 66 (67 next month), so you've got more of an excuse for not watering than I do. We had a lot of rain in spring and off and on in summer, but it's dry now. I just dread dragging out that hose! And the weeds are awful! I swore I wouldn't let them get out of hand this year, but I did - once the heat set in, it was hard to push myself to go out there! I have arthritis, too, and the body aches are pretty bad - my doctor says if you live long enough, you'll have arthritis, so I guess it's better than the alternative. Aleve and Ibuprofen don't really do the job.
My hummingbirds always stay until mid-October, and I keep the feeders up, hoping for an overwintering rufous hummer. I had one a few years ago, and he sure brightened up my winter! I made a picture of him after he had molted, gotten his full gorget, just before he left in March. Now that I've got my big 'Orange Septre' buddleia that blooms in winter and real early spring, any overwintering hummers will have an additional food source. Here he is - you can see his orange gorget (as opposed to the ruby throat's red) and the orange coloring on his body -
Sherry
- 11 years ago
When I cut off a large passionvine leaf to feed my gulf frit caterpillars, there was a cloudless sulphur chrysalis under it! I just love these little surprises! I put the leaf in a water pick attached to the inside of a cage on my porch, so I can see the butterfly when it emerges -
Sherry - 11 years ago
dragonflydee