Butterfly Research

Today we finally finished our Monarch data sheet for Project Monarch Health http://www.monarchparasites.org/.  Below are the pictures of the info we are mailing in and we can't wait to see what our research shows about our local population:

We sampled 28 butterflies since May, not bad for a pair of rookies. 

Stay tuned for our next post in which we will share the changes we have made in our garden and process to accommodate the local butterfly population.

Some of you have expressed interest in creating a butterfly garden.  Though we are not experts, Isabel and I would be more than happy to help you get your garden started.  You can also let us know if you want to be notified when butterflies are either going into or coming out of their chrysalides.  Happy nature explorations to all!

Welcome Back

Hey Everybody?

Welcome back from Summer vacation!  We were very busy this Summer with friends and family and did not have time to blog.  We did have time to take pictures that we could post once the school year started.  So, to start things off with a bang we thought we would share a photo of this Stinkhorn mushroom that popped up in our front garden.  It is a bizarre looking thing with flies,  it really makes you think you have some kind of alien thing in your yard. 

Isabel and I are too smart for that so we immediately researched it on the internet.  We discovered that they are supposed to be a sign of a healthy garden so we happily accepted it's presence and it was gone in a day along with flies.

Gardening for the butterflies has made us more aware of what is in our garden.  We took some awesome pictures this Summer so stay tuned for some more great info from Isabel's garden.

Gulf Fritillary activity

Gulf Fritillary laying eggs.

perfect shot of momma at work

Two Gulf Fritillary eggs beside each other

caterpillar in its J.

Our first Fritillary chrysalis.

Captions above are thanks to Isabel.  We had a lot of activity in the garden this weekend.  Our Purple Passion flower has done exactly what we wanted, bring us Fritillary butterflies.  I didn't think it would happen so quickly, but they are regular visitors now and our vine is loaded with caterpillars.  I had to do some population management this weekend.  I didn't enjoy it, but we only have one plant.

We love to watch the fritillary.  It is a beautiful and friendly butterfly and is not bothered by our presence.  As you can see from the pictures above, she puts on quite a show as she deposits her eggs. Look closely at the picture of the chrysalis and you will see Isa's face through the vine.

Chrysalis Defects

Well, I am sorry to report that we have our first chrysalis defect issues.  The first picture is a chrysalis that formed while we were away and there were other caterpillars in the enclosure at the time.  My thought is that there was some interference/curiosity from another caterpillar but I cannot prove that.  I did do some research on www.monarchwatch.org and one forum post showed the same kind of photo and she also had other caterpillars in the enclosure.  She said her butterflies hatched without issue so I am going to leave the first one alone.  I also researched on this website http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com and she had some great pictures of damaged chrysalides, how they hatched and noted defects found, very informative.  So, I am going to let it be and then note any defects I see.

The second one formed it's chrysalis while we were away and again there were other caterpillars in the enclosure, but this one almost looks like some other issue was to blame.  I am going to remove this one from the cage and throw it away, we don't need any bad juju. 

Disney Butterflies

Queen Butterfly

Great Southern White Butterfly

Common Buckeye Butterfly

Julia Butterfly

butterfly topiary

Hi Everybody!  We were at Epcot, Disney World today and we were lucky enough to see the HGTV International Flower and Garden Festival https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/epcot/epcot-international-flower-and-garden-festival/ on the last day.  As part of the festival they have a butterfly tent and these are the pictures that we took.  The butterflies were beautiful and the topiaries that were created for the event were awesome.

If you like gardening and butterflies, we would recommend going to Epcot during this event.

Scarlet Milkweed Devoured

These stems used to be one of my scarlet milkweed plants.  Seeing the plants like this makes me nervous that we won't be able to feed all the caterpillars.  I hate to say it, but I think we are going to have to let mother nature take it's course since I don't have enough plants for all the babies. 

We put down more seeds in hopes that this will help accommodate the extra activity.   Isabel and I will also be planting some seeds in her friends gardens so the Monarchs can visit them too.Our activity in the garden has increased a lot since the end of April.  Every time I see a butterfly in the garden I am happy and sad all at once. 

My plants need time to recover!

Purple Passion Flower

We added this beauty to our garden this weekend.  Happy Mother's Day to me!  This plant is beautiful and it has a wonderful fragrance.

This plant should attract  Gulf Fritillary, Zebra Longwing, Crimson-patch longwing, Red-banded hairstreak, Julia butterfly, Mexican butterfly and is also a nectar plant.

We would love to have our state butterfly in the garden and the fritillary is beautiful.

Butterfly Stats

When Isabel and I first started this adventure we had a feeling that most of our butterflies were females, but we had not been keeping track.  Curious about our ratio of females to males we went back and looked at our pictures to see who was in the lead and it turns out that we were right; females are more common.  We have released a total of 14 Monarchs ( 5 males and 9 females).

We currently have 8 or 9 chrysalides waiting to hatch.  This past couple of weeks we have had more butterflies than ever, must be the season.  This picture gives you a good idea of how busy we have are.  If you look carefully you can see we have butterflies, chrysalides and caterpillars in this shot.  We have to give a shout out to Daddy who bought us this new home for the caterpillars; he likes to watch them too.  Their new home keeps them all in one place and contained until they are ready for release.  Everyone likes to walk by or sit in front of it and watch the caterpillars do their thing.

GULF FRITILLARY SPOTTED

I found this beautiful GULF FRITILLARY on my lantana plant.  I think it is a male. Just that morning I was second guessing my purchase of the plant because I had not seen any other butterflies and also because after I planted it I discovered it is considered an invasive.  It is incredibly rewarding to see that our little garden is slowly attracting other butterflies. 

The Next Generation

 How many caterpillars do you see?

It has been a while since we posted because we didn't have any butterflies to report on.  As you can see from these photos, we are about to make up for lost time.  We currently have 8 caterpillars, which is very exciting; this is the most we have ever had!

 

These are the caterpillars that we brought in today because they are about one day from making their chrysalis.  The others were left on the plant to grow a bit more.

Isabel and I have discovered the hard way that if we leave them outside they just vanish.






Isabel has lost her interest in the blog at the moment so for now you are stuck with mom.  We may be expanding our content to include some of the other insects and wildlife that we are lucky enough to see here in South Florida.

Caterpillar to Chrysalis

We are excited about this post because we are getting better at recording the steps from caterpillar to butterfly and have figured out how to share it with you.  Yesterday we released another female.  At first, we weren't sure if she was going to make it because she went into her chrysalis while she was kind of small compare to the others that we have seen.  We had two males at the same time and they were big, fat guys when they went into their chrysalis.

Below is the video of her in the fifth and final stage of shedding her skin, this is why she looks green and slimy.  They shed their skin after they have made the top part of their Chrysalis.  This little attachment holds them up while they shed and later holds their chrysalis in place, it is pretty strong. 

http://youtu.be/-AQTKuApgw8

She went into her chrysalis on February 22 and came out a butterfly on March 2.  She ended up falling from the chrysalis attachment (my fault) when the chrysalis was clear, so glad I didn't kill her.  In the first picture you can see her abdomen sticking out of the top which wouldn't happen normally. 

This blog is turning into an education on blogs, posts and videos for both Isabel and I.  Once again we have more videos to share and are having a hard time uploading.  Stay tuned...  We love to hear from you, click on Post Comment to leave an educational or encouraging message.

March 1, 2013 Release

This was a BIG caterpillar!

9:01am

10:12am - already cracked

10:33 am - free at last!

3:26pm - let me out!

going out into the wild.

it's a boy

time to fly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We released another butterfly today and it was another boy.  This time we posted pictures from the release and pictures of the chrysalis when it was green and before it hatched so that you could see the progression from chrysalis to butterfly. 

My mom took some really cool videos, of the butterfly coming out of the chrysalis, while I was at school.  She let the butterfly hang out in the house, on it's chrysalis shell, until I got back from school.  (Blogger is having video issues right now so we'll have to post them later.)

When we released the butterfly we found another male on the butterfly bush where we released yesterday's butterfly; we think it is probably the same butterfly.

My mom and I love to see the butterflies return and it's awesome when we come outside and see butterflies flying in the garden; it means they are enjoying our garden.