Wow Javi, sounds like a very successful day! What have you been up to, Jay?

Not much Iris. Still just me, a Monarch crysalis and 3 tussock cats. It's cold outside. Winter is coming!

I am not ready for winter! Look what I found today! How did I miss this?!

Iris: That flannel moth cat immediately reminded me of the asps I've come across in my yard -- just out of sheer dumb luck did I (nor my young kiddos) ever brush against or touch one of these. I hear they have an incredibly painful, long lasting sting.

REALLY excited to wake up this morning to seven black (ready to emerge!) Queen crysalises! So, that'll put it right at 7 days from the time the chrysalies formed.

The beautiful, speckly spots are showing through!

How exciting! I really appreciate you sharing this with us.

Fast and furious over here! :)

Queen #1 (I missed when he/she emerged, as the wings are already straightened out and drying):

And not far behind, Queen #3 (#2 is fine, but in the shadows and, so, camera shy right now):

Because the wings are still shriveled, I'd expect them to appear smaller than than the butterfly's body. However, I didn't expect the abdomen to be so swollen. Perhaps that's part of the 'drying out' process.

I've specially marked the lighter colored crysalises with curling ribbon, and will be interested to see if the butterflies are any different than these first three, which had green crysalises.

Monarch to the left, and Queen on the right -- perspective issue, as the Monarch's wings are actually longer than the Queen's:

This one was black/dark earlier, and it just got much lighter moments ago:

And the butterfly emerged by the time I got back inside and peeked out the window again. :)

This is the Queen that emerged from one of the light/beige, non-green crysalises. Probably expectedly, it looks no different than the ones that started off as green crysalises:

Great pictures! And what a busy day. Did they “slim down” after drying? This looks like one hefty butterfly.

OK, two more, and then I PROMISE I'm done! :) They're all starting to test their wings, so I imagine the enclosure will be empty within the next hour.

I guess they de-plumped, Iris. But I'll be honest: the gorgeous wings are distracting me from focusing on abdomens.

I do notice -- having watched the various butterflies as their wings dry -- Monarchs tend to drip much more liquid than do the others, by far. In fact, I don't notice any fluid dripping from the Queens' wings. I wonder if, right after emergence, the Queens' bodily fluids simply re-distribute, moving from abdomen out to wing tips? Pure conjecture on my part....musings of a butterfly lunatic! :)

They are gorgeous!

Feel guilty I never noticed them before.

Are you sure they were there before? I don’t think you would have missed them. As for the liquid thing, the Gulf Fritillary sure make a mess of the white vinyl siding on my garage. There are currently 6 chrysalis lined up on there.

Just no telling, really, Iris. I guess it's been many years since I've grown milkweed, such that I don't recall. It's possible I saw orange flutter, and brain said "Monarch or Gulf Frit". How exciting to think, though, that this season might be a first time for Queens to visit. :) Hopefully they'll stick around.

GF's leave stains, eh? I guess they would...Monarch drips certainly do.

The tithonia is doing so much better (even though it still wilts after only 1 hour of direct sun!) -- looks like I'll even have a ton of seeds to harvest for next spring:

It's nice to be able to see all the beautiful blooms from a distance (and from indoors!), rather than hunting and pecking up close to find a single flower.

My gifted pipevine is also doing better -- at least it's stopped dying. :) Call it setting a low bar, being thankful for the little things in life -- whatever.

I've really had to nurse this plant along to get it healthy again. But I'm headed out of town (for 10 days), and am leaving this in the care of DH to water. We'll see what happens.

PS Should I place a tulle/organza bag over the tithonia seeds in case the birds feel like going to town on these little morsels?

I really can’t say if you would need to put a baggie over the flowers. I didn’t collect the seeds last year, but had plenty of volunteer seedlings popping up. I have seen birds on them, but at my place they seem to prefer Zinnia and perennial sunflowers. My swamp sunflowers are just staring to flower. So cheerful! They are on their way to take over the world, even though I have given away at least 50 pots of them this year alone. Most went to the DNR for a pond Restauration project.

Jay, hope you are doing well and are just tired of us....

Iris: Given how the tithonia is obviously not enjoying its afternoon location, I'm just assuming any sprouts that come up next spring will meet the same fate. I've found there's not a single variety of plant/flower that all (or even most) butterflies and hummers appear to love over another, so I'm going for variety. :)

ETA: Don't worry, Iris. I'll make sure I make it clear to DH that my expectations are low; and it's only through dumb luck that I've managed to pull it back from death's brink! The key with the watering, it appears: less is more.

(DNR...had to look it up, as the standard meaning that came to mind is not a happy one.)

Yes, Jay!! You started this thread because the other one was getting too long. Feel free to start a #2 -- and maybe we can go years and years like the Geology thread over in Kitchens. :D

If your husband is anything like mine, I can just imagine it. He would put a toothpick (finger would disturb the soil too much) in every couple of hours to see if it is too dry. If he kills it, drive to every nursery within a 150 mile radius to find something that looks the same....

It seems my trees are finally getting big enough to get more of the “woodsy” butterflies.

The siding of the house is still very popular with caterpillars looking for a place. Should probably look up if these overwinter in the chrysalis.

Dangit..kinda hating Houzz right now: just spent time posting, and the page errored out. Ugh!!!

OK, much shorter, uninspired post. Spent yesterday touring wine country in No California, and spied milkweed at winery garden. No flowers, but pretty sure it's A. speciosa.

Ha ha! Only you would be looking for milkweed on vacation. Hope you are having fun. Keeping an eye on the weather channel once again. Looks like “Michael” is coming our way.

Trying to flush Jay out into the open with this:

Hope everything's ok with you, Jay.

Beautiful picture!

Thanks, Iris -- this little guy has been in the yard all day today.

Fennel as a host plant for Eastern black swallowtails, but the only eggs today are courtesy of an Asian (?) ladybug:

Great pictures! I have never caught a ladybug in the act, so it took me a while to figure out what the eggs were. I have so many Gulf Fritillary caterpillars now. It’s supposed to get down to 37 degrees tonight. Poor babies.

Thanks, Iris. I took my coffee outdoors this morning, finally taking advantage of the cooler weather. I spotted the ladybug and snapped the first pic (and others) just to get an ID, since it looked so different from regular/native ladybugs. I happened to check on it an hour later, and the bright yellow (eggs) caught my eye. Very cool.

One Gulf Frit visited my red pentas for a few minutes earlier this afternoon, and a Monarch has been hogging the nectar on the white butterfly bush for the past hour. Wonder where everyone/thing else is. Hopefully your day will warm up tomorrow so the GF cats can carry on as usual!

A final fun one for the day:

These two were huge yesterday, and I thought for sure I'd have to hunt for two chrysalises sometime today. Nope! Still happily munching.

I did get the email from Learner that the Monarchs entered SC for their migration last week. They were right. A couple of days ago I had about 20 of them in my yard. One of my daughter’s professors at Clemson tagged 22 in one day with her class. Looks like they are having a good year. I was complaining about stains not long ago, right?

Whoa, that's a dark, red stain. For a great cause, right? :)

The Asian lady bug eggs hatched (maybe yesterday, but I wasn't around):

Baby ladybugs! Do they overwinter as pupa? Does it even get cold enough at your place so bugs have to overwinter? While I was pulling weeds earlier, I had 23 (!!!) turkeys come in for a landing about 15 feet from me. That was really cool. I don’t see them often in my yard and usually it’s just 1 or 2.

Iris: I don't know if they overwinter. In our 26 years here, this is only the second time I've paid enough attention to my yard to notice ladybug larvae. Our winters are so unpredictable here that, for me, it's very difficult to know what to plant. There have been autumns where I bite the bullet and plant little Johnny Jump Up violas and snapdragons, only to have a heatwave come through and turn them all into cooked cabbage. Or I'll take a risk on something less cold hardy, only to have a several day frost event descend on us, and likewise turn everything into cooked cabbage! Not a good look, either way. I mentioned this in another thread (I think), but this past winter we had several days straight where temps didn't get above freezing -- an anomaly for these parts, at least in my recollection. And we had a few nights that dipped into the lower 20s -- hard freezes we're not used to -- unprotected pressure vacuum breakers from neighborhood sprinkler systems could be heard exploding on a regular basis. Those yards were easy to spot: just follow that flood of water that came rushing down the gutters.

I had to think those 23 turkeys made quite a ruckus, no? Where DH and I fished yesterday, it was definitely Pelican Day! They are not the most graceful of creatures as they break the water's surface -- we were LOLing all day at the awful splat-crashing sound every time
they hit the water.

I just noticed an anole lurking around the fennel bush where the lady bugs hatched. Unless they all crawled away, onto other bushes by now, that lizard had a few good meals. :/

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but wasn't sure where else to post. :)

Thought I'd try my hand at rooting some gardenia cuttings and brought a few branches in. Lookee my stowaway -- this Queen cat couldn't be more than 2nd/3rd instar:

Aww. You still have caterpillars! Do you still have milkweed?

I was watering some of my newly-planteds and saw a number of fairly large Monarch cats. I intentionally didn't cover any of my MWs (mostly tropicals + 1 tuberosa that decided to do its thing NOW!) during our recent light freezes; the leaves are scarce, and most have turned burgundy/bronze, but every plant is blooming. I don't see a freeze in the 10-day forecast, and DH actually flipped on the A/C yesterday. Low 80s today, upper 70s over the weekend -- butterflies of all persuasions everywhere.

Look what I just found!

Great news, Iris! Speaking of frits, I shared in another thread that I took some cuttings from my neighbor's P. Incense vine and am rooting them in water. They're all doing very well and sprouting lots of new growth -- all the leaves on the right side of the pic (even though I don't see any roots forming -- do I just jam the ends into potting media?!):

As I was shooting this, I noticed tiny nibble holes in the older leaves to the right. Hmmm...I know those weren't there a few days ago.

This guy's certainly enjoying an indoor feast! :)

Aww. Tiny caterpillar! I hope it is going to warm up enough for the Fritillary to be able to fly. Not much flowering around here. Just a couple of asters, a little white flower I have no idea what it is and the weeds in the lawn. Plenty of dandelions. Glad my grass isn’t of the perfect kind.

Now that’s just wrong. As seen this morning. 40 degrees.

Oh-oh....a risk-averse thrill seeker, I see! I'm not even gonna post pics of all the little Monarch cats I see in the yard here. :/ (But, then, there's no freeze on the horizon.)

Our weather men are still debating if we will get snow or wintry mix this weekend. The stores are preparing, but will probably be out of milk and bread by Friday. That’s South Carolina for you. I still don’t understand why the Gulf Fritillary work this way when all the others have a pretty good plan.

Maybe they cover themselves by laying far more eggs than the others with better plans.

hey Iris! It is almost winter(its october here) and there are tons of butterflies and caterpillars(gulf frits, skippers, and monarchs)! So happy! I'm in South Carolina too!

The sunny 82 degrees today doesn’t feel like Winter :) I still have all kinds of caterpillars in the garden. The little Monarch ones better eat up and get going! The last of the Tiger Swallowtail caterpillars (that I know of), moved on yesterday.

Its 85 out here in ladson. It goes on and on, cold, hot, and rain.

nice pic