Here's the pics :)

Thats so cool! I just found some eggs on my dill weed plants.

Congratulations, Rhonda! And you do not need a monopod. Your pictures are great! Do you have cannas? Mine are really being eaten for the first time in 20 years, but I didn’t move them to get the skipper’s attention.

Thanks Sultry and congrats on your eggs!

Thanks Iris! Yes, I have cannas. Jeannie sent me a couple of rhizomes a year ago and they have become 100+ plants! I have given away at least 50 plants the past few months :) Do skippers eat cannas? Which skippers?

I posted a couple of days ago because all of my cannas looked so bad. I believe I have Calpodes ethlius, first time ever.

Iris,

I'll have to check my cannas tomorrow. I didn't know that they were a host plant.

Javiwa,

Thanks! Congrats on the eggs! I've only been in this house for 17 months so last year my garden was brand new. I have monarchs and gulf frits year-round but the others were few and far between. But, this year the plants are mature and just the past few days the activity and variety of butterflies has really picked up.

I'm sure the monarchs are around, as I'm finding cats and eggs on the milkweeds -- I guess I just don't happen to notice when they cruise by. Occasionally I'll see a Giant swoop around, and just the other day I noticed two Giant egg on my new orange tree. Yesterday morning, a pair was doing some sort of courtship air-dance right above my head. :)

Look at this fat little guy I found on one of my roses. I think he is a Polyphemus baby.

Javiwa, that's awesome. Based on everybody's comments it appears that this will be a banner butterfly year :)

Sultry, he is adorable! They sure make a beautiful moth.

BTW, I ordered 2 large mesh butterfly habitats to house the tons of
Black Swallowtail cats and eggs but they won't be here until Friday.
This is going to be a banner butterfly year!!!

Rhonda

I am not sure it’s going to be a banner year yet. Seems of to a slow start for most kinds for me. I still haven’t seen a single Gulf Fritillary! The only caterpillar I saw today was this one

Great photo Iris! What is it?

I love fireflies...wish we had them here.

I have no idea. Tried looking it up by the plant (Evening Primrose), but that didn’t work out.

We have been getting tons of rain. Where will this caterpillar cocoon? On the ground? He would be in a place that gets mowed if he gets around the rose bush somewhere plus there's no leaves down there. What should I do?

Sneaky little guys.

Fabulous, Iris! We should be getting a break from our hot weather this weekend (finally!), such that I can actually spend a few extra moments to look for my little guys.

Sultry, I don't know anything about Polyphemus, maybe you should start a new post and include your pic so your question doesn't get buried in this post. I'd love to hear thee answers to your questions.

Cool pic Iris! I checked my cannas today and didn't see any caterpillars :(

Javiwa, after getting 30" in 2 weeks in the 2nd half of May, we haven't received any this month (though they have been getting it all around us). Have fun searching for cats :)

My babies are growing up! This guy is about an inch long :)

Ohhh..."about an inch long" is when they start decimating your dill/fennel. :) I consider this phase the teenage years.

I ended up with more fennel plants (4) than dill (2); and, naturally, I just checked my plants: 7 tiny, newly hatched cats on my dill, and zero (!) on my fennel.

Javiwa,

I have fennel and parsley. Not one egg or cat on the parsley. There's bunches of microscopic little cats now. This guy is the biggest.

My polyphemus cat has disappeared. I looked everywhere for a cocoon but couldn't find it. I hope he's safe. We have so many birds nesting in our yard including cardinals and woodpeckers.

I've seen very few butterflies this year so far. No monarchs at all, only one giant swallowtail that keeps flitting around, and I saw one zebra yesterday. I don't have a lot blooming, though. I'm going to plant out some more vincas and marigolds tomorrow, and hope they bloom quickly so the butterflies will have something to eat. If we hadn't had those freezes, the pigeon peas would be blooming now, and at least the carpenter bees would be happy.

I had a lot of blooms earlier in the spring, but since the heat hit, almost everything has stopped blooming.

Rhonda: One of the most fascinating things about Eastern blacks IMO is the color variability among the young cats! The one you pictured as well as mine from last week are very green; yet my 1-1/4"er pictured today is mostly black and orange (I dub him Halloween!):

I ended up scooting a three of the dill hatchlings over to the fennel, and they're thriving. Now the fennel has seven!

Thanks everyone! Is it me or are the Black Swallowtails extremely prolific breeders this year?

I couldn't say: this is my first year with BSs. I'm not complaining, however! :)

I haven't seen any black swallowtails, but we had a giant swallowtail hanging around, probably laying eggs on the citrus tree next door.

I just found two new Giant eggs on my little orange tree (newly purchased and re-potted a few weeks ago)...that makes 7-8 now. Wonder how bare they'll end up stripping my tree.

Deb and javi, I see giants every now and then and would love to find some on my ruby red tree :)

Look what I found today! Boy they eat a lot, but no Monarch caterpillars around at the moment (actually haven’t even seen an adult in at least 2 weeks). And they are so adorable.

Whoa, Iris! So cool, but what are they?

Here's my 9-day-old Giant -- just voracious!

And the little orange tree I bought a few weeks ago has ~ 7-8. Hoping the tree survives.

They are milkweed tussock moth. Last year we didn’t have them until August. Not a pretty butterfly, but the caterpillars were so much fun to watch running all over the place.

Iris, they are cute and some moths are beautiful.

Javi, I'm jealous! I'm sure there's giant cats around but can't find one. My neighbor has lemon and orange and we have grapefruit trees and I've seen the giants flying around.

Fyi. A while back we contacted the Florida Dept. of Agriculture for the free wasps (gnat size bugs) that they have to fight citrus greening.

Rhonda

Looks like a good year.

Rhonda, hope you don’t mind. Look what I found with two !! was what I was thinking when I found this one today.