I'm bleary-eyed and exhausted, but only have a couple of chapters left to go on my latest novel. Wish me luck. In the mean time, I took some pictures, enjoy!
Check this guy out. He must have just hatched out of his chrysalis, in fact this might be one of the first monarch caterpillars from the milkweed to change. His color was so vibrant, and his wings were pristine. Lucky me. He was in the mood to show off as well.
Speaking of chrysalises, I've found two spicebush swallowtail ones on the bricks. This was the first one I spotted. Eventually it turned a dark brown, but this picture was taken right after he changed, and he still had his green coloration. You can see his anchor thread really well in this picture. I spotted another one near the eaves, and I have a third on a stick in my little aquarium. I'm hoping to watch that one emerge.
There are quite a few monarch chrysalises around now. I have a least five in the bushes, one in a window sill, and one on the eaves. As you can see, the ones in the spicebushes are really hard to spot. It looks just like the leaves.
I've also spotted a couple of different moth caterpillars that look interesting.
I haven't had a chance to figure out what they are, exactly, but if you like fuzzy caterpillars, I guess these guys are for you.Well, it's time for me to get back to work. Hopefully by
next week at this time, I'll be celebrating writing "The End."Until then, enjoy the pictures.
Happy reading,
Jess
6 comments:
You're very good at catching these little fellows in pictures. {Smile}
That Monarch butterfly reminds me of one butterfly back when I was a kid. Mom was a kindergarden teacher, and she had some caterpillars for her kids to watch. They turned into chrysalises, and she brought them home for... I'm not sure whether it was a weekend, or a long holiday. But she brought five home. One by one, they turned dark. We put them outside, hoping to see the butterfly when it came out. But you can't watch chrysalises all the time. One by one they came out, dried their wings, and took off without us catching a glimpse. When the last chrysalise turned color, Dad decided to see if this one couldn't be different. He took the chrysalise outside, and set it on a bunch of hanging orchids. Then he dipped a cotton swab into sugar water, and stuck it right next to the chrysalise. He hoped this would encourage the butterfly to stay a few more minutes, so we could see him before he flew off. {Smile}
Well... the butterfly climbed out of his chrysalise, and climbed up onto the highest nearby sopt to dry his wings. Then he noticed that he was standing on something sticky. Hmm... the sticky stuff tasted sweet. Nice, really. So he stayed. We found him. We watched him for a while. He showed no interest in leaving. We went back to doing what we were doing. WE checked back later. He was still there. He stayed for an hour... two hours... three.... By nightfall, he still hadn't left.
The next morning, he left bright and early, for he was gone when we checked on him. But he enjoyed quite a bit of sugar water before leaving. {BIG SMILE, wink}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
Ooh, that's a good trick for when the ones in the aquarium come out.
I hope you had as much luck with the butterflies in the aquarium as we did with that fellow. {BIG SMILE, wink}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
We get a few Monarch butterflies as they migrate through the Dallas Fort Worth Area. They are really beautiful. I plant dill and fennel every year hoping to attract more. Have never had them lay eggs here.
The Monarchs will lay eggs on Milkweed, also called Southern butterfly weed in the South. You can find it at good nurseries. It's a very attractive plant, and the monarch caterpillars love it.
Dill and fennel will host Black Swallowtails. I'm not sure how abundant they are in Texas. They seem pretty common. However, I had lots of Black Swallowtail caterpillars in Florida, and only about five up here. I'm not sure what's up with that.
So try some Southern butterfly weed. It should look a little like bamboo with clusters of star-like red flowers with yellow centers. The flowers also come in pink. It may have other color varieties, but those are the only two I've seen.
Good luck.
Good news about the latest book! I'm looking forward to it.
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