kv0925

For the benefit of the new folks: butterfly gardening is a hobby of mine, as is photography, and they dovetail quite nicely this time of year! I like to grab the camera and macro lens and head out to the garden to see what I can find--and of course, what I find isn't the half of what's really going on out there, but it's fun to see what I come across. :)

That first photo above is something of a rarity: I have lots of passionvine, which several species of butterfly use as their host plant, in this case Gulf fritillary (the orange one) and Zebra longwing (the white one). But normally they lay eggs on different areas of the plant, so it's unusual to see their caterpillars in such close proximity. Kinda neat.

Here are some itty-bitty baby Zebra longwing caterpillars, with my fingerprint and a gnat for scale. :)

Larger Zebra longwing caterpillar. Pretty close to pupation, probably.

And a larger Gulf fritillary larva. They look mean and potentially painful with those spikes, but they're harmless.

Obligatory passionflower closeup. Such neat flowers!

Buddleia (butterfly bush) doing quite well.

The firebush is also doing very well this year--more blooms than ever before.

Not a lot of monarch caterpillars so far this year, but a few went off to pupate somewhere, I think. This one's about to.

Under the watchful eye of a brown anole. I suspect I lose a good number of caterpillars to these guys.

We have a lantern-style porchlight by the front door, and this fellow seems to have taken up residence on and around it, no doubt feasting on the bugs it attracts every night. The girls and I named him Porchlight Frog, naturally. :) I believe it's a gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor), which despite its name has the chameleonlike ability to change color to match its surroundings, from light gray to green to brown to nearly black.

Back over in the butterfly garden, I came across this black stinkbug (Proxys punctulatus). I think it's kinda cute! Technically they're agricultural pests because they suck fluids from leaves, but they don't reproduce in large numbers so the damage they do is pretty minimal.

Speaking of pests, I didn't get any photos, but Hermione is growing some garden beans in the back yard, and they've been eaten up by caterpillars that we initially presumed were some sort of moth. But no, it turns out that the Long-tailed skipper butterfly hosts on beans! So I feel kinda bad to kill them. I planted a few beans in the butterfly garden, hopefully I can grow some for them there and distract them from the vegetable garden, or transplant them when they find their way back there.

Lots more Zebra longwing caterpillars. A lot of these will probably be snagged by lizards and wasps, though.

Speaking of lizards, here's a teensy young brown anole. They're so cute when they're little!

I've had this pipevine for years now, but this year it's going crazy and has finally flowered. The flowers are HUGE, and while I wouldn't call them pretty per se, they certainly are interesting.

Another flower with the caterpillar that likes that vine, Polydamas (or goldrim) swallowtail. Hadn't really spotted any until yesterday, but the two I found were huge, definitely nearing pupation. Which means there are probably scads more where I can't see them. I severely need to do some trimming, but now I fear I'll cut off some caterpillars or cocoons!

And finally, my love-hate relationship: paper wasps. I absolutely appreciate their role in the ecosystem--they're pollinators since they drink nectar, and they serve as pest control for some wee beasties I don't like. But they also hunt my butterfly caterpillars, and of course the big drawback is that they sting. I've generally been lucky, but this past weekend I was oblivious to a small nest right out in the open on the side of the house, and when I walked by one of them got me good, right behind the ear. OUCH. So usually I spray the nests when I come across them, especially if they're in an area I or the kids frequent. I feel a little bad about it, though.

Okay, one more: I came across this gal in the pool area a few weeks ago, and was pleased with how the photo came out. Apologies to arachnophobes!