Butterflies

[Astronuc]

Well, my wife and I are seeing lots of butterflies and a few moths, bees and wasps since we started a butterfly garden.

So I am starting a general discussion thread on butterflies, and I will leave the swallowtail thread intact.

Anyway there are some cool conservatories around in which one can visit and see lots of different butterflies.

http://www.niagaraparks.com/nature/butterfly.php

The Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science is a stunning, living exhibit that showcases hundreds of live butterflies in a naturalistic rainforest setting.  The central conservatory is a dramatic three-story glass cone filled with tropical plants and exotic butterflies.

http://www.hmns.org/see_do/butterfly_center.asp

http://www.hmns.org/see_do/butterfly_center/butterflies.asp

[Astronuc]

Absolutely cool  and spectacular  site if you are into butterflies (  ) -

Butterflies of North America - http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/bflyusa.htm

At least some our tax dollars are well spent. 

[Astronuc]

OK - here is one or two orange butterflies I need to identify.

The first one was taken in August, and the butterlfy is in pretty good shape.

The other three was taken last weekend and the butterflies wings have been damaged.

[Patty]

My first thought is a great spangled fritillary.

http://www.images.on.ca/JayC/pages/Great_Spangled_Fritillary.htm

What do you think?

(I thought their range was only western US, however.)

[Patty]

Range: Alberta east to Nova Scotia, south to central California, New Mexico, central Arkansas, and northern Georgia.
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/pa/74.htm

We saw these on our rrecent trip to Yosemite. They were all over White Wolf campgrounds, where we hiked one day. I'll post a pic in a bit.

[Astronuc]

Yep, looks like you pegged that one Patty. 

 

[Patty]

So we were in Yosemite, and decided to hike up to Harden Lake which is a 2.5 mile hike from White Wolf campground. My lasting impression from the hike was how many butterflies we saw that day that I had never seen (or rarely seen) before.

Here are 6, of the eight that I saw (two others were isolated sightings and I couldn't catch them. )



These are, in order:

Clodius Parnassian

[Patty]

Sorry, I hit post by mistake.

These are, in order:

Clodius parnassian,     Acmon blue,     (One of the )Sulfur butterfly (at a bad angle)

Subspecies of Fritillary*     Common Buckeye (one of my faves) and California Tortoiseshell.



* which remains unidentified and doesn't appear to be a Great Spangled fritillary - some of the markings are wrong .

[Astronuc]

Here's a cool story on NPR - Following the Monarchs in an Ultralight Airplane

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4858381

Morning Edition, September 22, 2005 · Some 300 million monarch butterflies spread all over North America will soon converge on small forests in the mountains of Mexico. This year, the butterflies have unusual company -- Francisco Gutierrez. He plans to follow the monarchs' migration in a 33-foot wide utralight airplane.

Monarchs rest in Valle Del Bravo, Mexico. Each winter, the monarchs fly down to Mexico, descending in droves on the forest trees near Gutierrez's home in the Mexican state of Michocan.

In the photo gallery, there is a picture of a Monarch on a flower - which to me looks like a flower of a Buddleia davidii - and I eleieve that it is an 'Attraction'.

[Patty]

Two more monarch pics from today.

An egg (we saw it freshly laid):


And a 2nd instar (ie cute little baby) caterpillar:


The baby is only about a centimeter long.

The pupae (I posted pictures of them elsewhere)  should be emerging any day now.    (I can't decide which happy smile is the right one.)

[Astronuc]

Cool -    -  that's the smiley I prefer for joyous occasions, as well as

 

[Astronuc]

OK - here's one which is basically white with some black markings on the wing tips, and it has green eyes.

[Patty]

The genus is Pieris which has so many species members it's hard to know which is which. My first guess is a mustard white, though it actually looks more like a cabbage white. http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~aa095/NSLeps/cawh.htm

I don't know about the green eyes.

I can't finds a good comparative webpage for the whites. Google on Pieris and other terms like "whites" or "butterflies" and you may find something better than this:

http://www.answers.com/topic/whites-butterfly

[Astronuc]

Cool, thanks for the infomation Patty.

We have lots of "whites", but the differences are subtle.

They do seem to be the most common.  Hopefully next spring, our butterfly garden will be really dense, and we'll have lots of our little friends.

 

[Astronuc]

Here is some more pics of one of our swallowtail caterpillars.  It disappeared shortly after these were taken.