Development in action - Butterflies

[Patty]

I have updated my "butterfly hobby" thread on my RAD discussion forum (more info available to any and all here,  upon request) but thought I'd cross post here as well. I'll start with old news (new to you) and then proceed to updates. The short story is, I'm a butterfly gardener with a reasonable amount of education in development (and I married a Drosophilist) and you are about to see photos of our "children."  The first entry spans two weeks; every time you see "update" you are viewing a new photo that was taken days after the previous photos. The entries correspond to pictures taken over the last 2 - 3 weeks.

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There are tons of different Lepidoptera scattered about our very small backyard garden. It has been a great butterfly season due to the rains our area received last spring. Here are some of the critters that are fluttering, munching, and pupating here over the last few days.             
             
This is a Gulf Fritillary. This particular slightly tattered one has been visiting our Passiflora caerulea for the last few days, leaving yellow-orange eggs at each stop.             
             
 

In the picture below, she is laying another. After each egg lay, she goes and has a nice rest. It’s amusing to watch. Then it’s up off the resting leaf, where she has gotten some sun, and off to find another un-laid-upon Passiflora leaf for her next egg. She flutters about the leaves, and I understand this is in order to decide if it has any pre-existing eggs on it. She chooses a free leaf in order to give each egg ample food (although she may not realize that’s the reason for such behavior.) Incidentally, some Passiflora species have evolved leaves that look as though they already have eggs on them. The butterflies leave them alone. Fun, hunh?             
             
 

Here is a fifth instar Gulf Fritillary caterpillar, crawling off for a place to pupate:             
             
               
             
Here is the same one a few days later, hanging in J and looking a bit sickly             
             
 
             
And then here is the chrysalis the next day. Good camouflage, eh?             
             
 

UPDATE: I thought the chrysalis was beginning to look different somehow. Notice the pigmentation in the abdomenal area. I've never observed this particular species before, so didn't know what to expect as "delivery" became imminent.... As it's been two weeks I thought it might be prudent to keep an eye on this chrysalis: 
 


And.... in fact just an hour later I found a butterfly hanging on the chrysalis! I took the fresh butterfly outside (don't want it learning to fly in the kitchen, after all). Notice how fat the abdomen still is. The abdomen "pumps" fluids into the wings after emergence. This little butterfly should become more appropriately svelte over the next few hours.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
Those spots on the wings really are iridescent silver. They reflect UV - and we lowly humans don't detect that, but it aids in mating.   
 
If this fresh butterfly decides to exercise her wings I'll be sure to get a picture of that, for you. Notice her (I forget the name) proboscis? - which is something they attend to getting working, shortly after eclosure. Notice also that she is hanging on her empty (clear) chrysalis case to dry. She may be unable to fly for several hours, but by tonight will be gone from my life forever. It was nice watching this caterpillar do her thing. (end Fritillary update. ) 
 
We’ve been watching an Anise Swallowtail caterpillar in our garden over the last ten days as well. It is close to finished with its larval stage. It will not hang in a J to pupate – it will attach both ends to a stick or stem, and bow out in the middle.               
             
 
             
Update: THis morning I found the caterpillar preparing to pupate. This is how swallowtails attach in order to pupate. Notice the silk near the top - and compare to placement in the following image.     
 
   
This evening the little bugger had shed its outer "skin" revealing a bizarre (but normal) chrysalis. It is contorting wildly, and looks bound to break free, but I am told that silk is the strongest natural fiber and so let's hope the little guy stays attached:   
   
   
   
Notice the location of the silk in this picture relative to the preceding picture.     
   
You can see a picture of the adult on the web here:             
             
http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/biodiv/lepidopt/papilio/anise.htm">http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/biodiv/lepidopt/papilio/anise.htm       
             
Saturday I discovered a Monarch caterpillar on our milkweed:             
             
 
             
And it is now preparing to make a chrysalis on our kitchen counter, as it hangs in a J:             
             
               
Update: The monarch has pupated!       
       
 
       
You can tell this is a young pupa because the yellow dots near the bottom, and the yellow band above the black band near the top are not crisp and shiny gold.         
       
Note also the white silk used to attach to the stem (above the black stem-looking bit.) Many (if not all) caterpillars are capable of making silk. Many do not make cocoons out of their silk, but they do use the silk for attachment purposes.       
             
And a picture on the web, for anyone who may be unfamiliar with this species:               
       
http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/biodiv/lepidopt/danaidae/monarchm.htm">http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/biodiv/lepidopt/danaidae/monarchm.htm           
             
The monarch is one of the longest-lived butterflies. Each can live nine months, and they migrate from Mexico to Canada and back again. This time of year our area sees a peak of Monarchs. We see a smaller peak in the spring, when they are migrating north.           
 
UPDATE The monarch is just beginning to pigment inside its pupa case!   
 
 
 
It should come out tomorrow morning.    I will get another pigmentation picture, and the fresh butterfly, for you to enjoy tomorrow. (end monarch update) 
             
In addition to these beauties, we can’t forget their impressive cousins, who also are gracing our yard. We have a brood of tomato hornworms on the tomatoes. Here is one of the prettier ones, though I admit I have an aversion to hornworms in general!     
     
       
     
These are easily five times the size of a full grown monarch caterpillar; the adults are sometimes called hawk moths, sphinx moths, or hummingbird moths. The adults are mistaken for hummingbirds, to give you an idea of their size.             
   
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05517.html">http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05517.html         
           
We have had a family (or several families) of cabbage whites (a fairly ubiquitous white fluttery and I believe they are widespread in Europe as well). We have had a couple army worms (a medium-sized, brownish moth that earned its name due to the sheer number of caterpillars of this species that can arise in grain fields.               
             
-Patty

[Patty]

And here is our first baby (gulf fritillary), an hour after the last update in the last post, flying for the first time. It is enough to make me cry. This is the same caterpillar as the very first spiny one in the previous post.

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Here is an hour later -- You can see the forewing is slightly more enlarged than before. (note: You may have also noted that there are only four obvious legs for this insect.  Fritillaries are in the same family as Monarchs (Nymphalidae) and in this family, the two front legs are small and held close to the body.  http://www.answers.com/topic/brush-footed-butterfly-1   
   
 
   
And note that she is still hanging on her empty chrysalis (she might actually be a he.) She freaked when I took that picture, and so we saw her take her first flight!!! A scant three feet to a laurel tree, where she had to catch her breath. She showed us her beautiful inner wings at that point. Compare the vibrancy to the wings of her poor tattered mother in the original post.     
   
 
   
I hope you've enjoyed watching this little lepidopteran develop. She fluttered off a good ten feet after her rest on the laurel tree, and she will soon be braving the world of birds and cats, oh it's hard to watch the kids go off to college.

[Patty]

Right on schedule, the monarch has emerged. Here are some photos:


UPDATE: The monarch has emerged! below are pictures of the pigmentation completing inside the chrysalis; notice the gold dots that were so prominent have almost disappeared. Notice also the semicircular indentation appearing above the black band near the top. This means eclosure is imminent.

 

10 minutes later....

The butterfly is out! Notice the fat abdomen and crumpled wings.

 

   

An hour later... These show progressions over the following hour, notice the wings straightening out, the forewings are now considerably longer than the hindwings (compare to previous), and the abdomen is less pronounced. The butterfly looks completely ready for flight. She isn't ready yet, but she will be later this morning.

 

 

-Patty

[Astronuc]

One of the hazards of being a caterpillar is being prey to a variety or perhaps a specific wasp or other predator.

Here is an example.   

I checked to see if it could be saved - not with that many eggs.  The caterpillar is semi-alive.  It can barely move, and it's body is rather mushy (liquidy) inside.  So I presume the poison also helps digest the inside of the caterpillar.

The catepillar is on one of my cayenne pepper plants.  I only noticed it today, so I expect it was attacked within the last day or two.

And it seems to be a monarch caterpillar, so perhaps it was getting ready to pupate (?).  I need Patty's insight on this.

[Patty]

Oh!!!! No!!!! 

That is the saddest picture Io have seen in a long time.

The bad news: the caterpillar is a tobacco hornworm, which will turn into one of the sphinx/hawk/hummingbird moths that you are so fond of.

The good news: It probably came from your tomato plants if you have some? It looks too small to be ready to pupate, so I'd guess it freaked out when it was parasitized and wandered away from its brothers and sisters who are probably still on your tomato plant.

They're hard to spot as they are the same color as the tomato plant - Look on your tomatoes for areas where the leaves are no longer lush. Also look for the bizzarre droppings underneath. I'll see if I have some outisde to send you a picture to help with ID.

You do have tomatos, yes?

[Patty]

So you probably have other hornworms in your garden. I’d look on your tomatos. You can often find them above their frass (which you will see on the ground. Here is some under our tomato plants (and a finger tip)



and there are better web images here:





And also you can easily identify the branches they have denuded. Look towards the base of the denuded area, above frass. You’ll often see them munching happily (and frassing away) on your plants. They don’t scamper much, so if you spot the areas on the plan that have been attacked you should find them. Here is one of our plants with a healthy branch and a denuded branch. I remove the caterpillars as I find them and place them on a volunteer tomato somewhere.



You can either keep an eye on them where they are, or depending on how sad you are about the poor little guy above, you can bring them in from the outdoors.

And of course those wasps or spiders are beautiful in their own way…… And are just trying to earn a living in this old tough world…..

[Astronuc]

Yeah, it looks like a tobacco hornworm (but no horn), and yes we have tomatoes.  However, I am not worried - we have an abundance of tomatoes and the season is coming to an end with the reduced sunlight and colder weather.  I will look around for more of these caterpillar.

Apparently the eggs are of a braconid wasp.

In addition to hummingbird moths, we probably have other types of sphinx moths around.  One thing I noticed is a large number of different types of eggs on the mesh around the garden.

I do find those dark eggs on my pepper plants and I remove them.  So far I have not seen too many caterpillars on the peppers.

It will soon be time to harvest whats left of the tomatoes.

Here are some references on tomato hornworm -

http://www.vegedge.umn.edu/vegpest/hornworm.htm

and Sphinx Moths
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/INSECT/05517.html

Five-spotted hawkmoth
http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/mquinqui.htm

[Patty]

Elsewhere I had shown a picture of a monarch egg. Here it is again:


The caterpillar has hatched from the egg:



The egg shell is still visible to the right of the first instar caterpillar. He has eaten some of his eggshell.

To give you perspective, here is a leaf of the same width, with a more fully grown (fourth or fifth instar) monarch caterpillar on it:



Isn't the hatchling cute? Sorry he's out of focus. Maybe I'll be able to get a better picture.

[Patty]

I couldn't get him in focus - he's just too small he only takes up a couple pixels! But here he is again with a sunflower seed next to him for a size comparison. Again, this is a monarch, and it is the smallest one I may ever see!

[Astronuc]

I take it that that little green rod, which looks like a bacillus bacterium, is the first stage, i.e. from egg of a Monarch.

WOW!  That's amazing, but then again when one sees those tiny eggs, they have to start out really small.