A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Gardener's Chat Post your butterfly pictures

Here's some of my butterflies from the past couple weeks.

I'm pretty sure this first one is a Northern Crescent.


Great spangled frittillary



White Admiral

Very pretty, I haven't noticed any here yet.

Nice, Mel!!!

I haven't seen any colorful ones yet - just the small white ones.

Thanks , Tam, they are on their way to you. You will see them any day now.

Tiger swallowtail, headfirst

Thank you , Lynne. It's one of my obsessions.

I'm still not sure what this one is.......


Skipper



Another swallowtail picture. I love taking them with the dianthus because I think the little curly-cues on the dianthus look like the butterfly antenna.

Very nice again, Mel!

I, too, love taking yellow tiger swallotail pictures!
I never noticed that about the dianthus - COOL!

mel, very nice butterfyies AND I love your dianthis!!!! They are a very striking color!!!

I also raise black swallowtail butterflies from caterpillars. I have 10 right now. There are 5 out in the garden and 10 in this cage.

Here's two of them in their 1st or 2nd instar stage.



And here's 4 of them 2nd or 3rd instar.



Here's a good comparison of the different instar stages. This is the most current picture. If you look at the two caterpillars in the center of the picture, the one on top is one moult behind the one underneath it. I think they have one more moult left. Then it's straight eating for another week or two, then pupating.

WOW Mel - that is fascinating! How did you get involved in that?
And where do you get them to raise?

what kind of enclosure do you have them in?

I haven't spotted any long enough to capture, but I have seen one swallowtail and a few cabbage moths.

Lynne, a couple years ago I was out in the garden in late October, "putting it to bed" for the winter. Cleaning up debris in the herb garden I found a very colorful and unique looking caterpillar on the parsley. I took it in and brought it to the kids' school and we all watched and learned about caterpillars and butterflies. We watched it form it's chrysalis and then I took it home to overwinter it in the garage. That one didn't hatch in the spring, so I kept researching and building better cages for them. I watched a few hatch in an outdoor cage I had made, but most of that group didn't make it. I found out they are very vulnerable to predators in the chrysalis stage.

This years cage is better than ever, and I'm keeping them inside. And it's my first try with a 1st brood, so I'll get results a lot quicker than the 2nd brood which has to be overwintered.

Kenny, feed the caterpillars and the butterflies will come.

awesome pictures sheri. i love how you captured the blue on the underside of the wings.

that butterfly was a willing subject. He sat still the entire time.

Sheri - more fantastic pictures!!!

Oh Bill, that Cinnabar Moth is beautiful. Do you have a butterfly house? Do they really live in a butterfly house?

What am I? I don't think I've ever seen this type of butterfly here before?
He wouldn't let me see him open to see for sure - was a very fast flyer!

wow! beautiful lynne.

is it a moth?

Thanks Jiffy!

I don't think it's a moth, Sheri, as it was out in broad daylight and most moths here are out at night.

I'd love to know what it is - anyone???

under the fig tree

Another one on a coneflower - very tiny - anyone know what it is?

not sure of the name of this one. it looks very similar to a monarch but not quite. earlier there was a hummer behind him waiting on him to finish drinking so he could get in there. (of course, I missed that shot.)

nice. both of you. lynne, i don't know what your's is, but i like seeing the different ones. you seem to have a different set than i have here.

cricket, it looks like that butterfly color coordinated with the flower.

but of course! I planned that.
yea right!

not quite a butterfly, but this seemed like the place
this was on one of my "new" trees today

That is beautiful, Jiffy. Whatever it is.
And Cricket, i love the color combo on yours. That could be an award winner photo.

The pics are awesome.

We are not seeing any butterflies...none. I'm wondering if all the rain we are having is the reason why?

Verrrry nice pictures Sheri

very nice sheri!

They sure love that cedium. Here are a few of mine on the butterfly bush and in the wild.
[img][IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n269/psychobubba_2006/P8140530.jpg[/img][/img]
[img][IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n269/psychobubba_2006/P8140528.jpg[/img][/img]

when i took these there were about 100 on these flowers but you cant tell. they blend in well.

[img][IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n269/psychobubba_2006/P8100523.jpg[/img][/img]

I like that butterfly on the white. your flower garden is lovely.

these are not good clear pictures but it's the first one I've seen all spring and summer,, I guess I just haven 't been out side during the day enough,,

This one was huge,, I saw big ones last year but not quite as big as this one,, and yessss that's Emmy's play bowl on the ground








she got tired of me trying to get a good shot and flew away I kinda like this picture tho,,

That middle picture is way cool. The butterfly looks animated.


do you see the butterfly in this picture?

Here is one I took in a Neighbor's flower bed.

It's some sort of Skipper.