Big Ant On Passionvine

It’s some type of Ant (obviously), but I’m not sure what kind.  He was just sitting on one of the Passionvine stems, like waiting to ambush something that would happen to come by.

Notice the little hairs on it’s head?

I thought since they were on my Sassafras tree they must be Spicebush Caterpillars?  Could these be some kind of Moth larvae?  The tree is definitely Sassafras.

Would anyone confirm these are IO Moth caterpillars?

UPDATE: Nancy Greig, Curator of Entomology at the Houston Museum of Natural Science was kind enough to reply to my email about what type of Caterpillars these might be.  She also thought these were likely IO Moth Caterpillars.

Closeup of IO Moth Caterpillars

Everyone knows about Ladybugs and Aphids right?  You typically can buy 1500-2000 Ladybugs for about $10.00, spread them around your Aphid affected plants, and in theory, they will eat the Aphids.  Personally, I’ve only had moderate success with this method, but I continue to use it.

Ladybug Stalking Aphids

Another insect that helps in Aphid control is the Hover Fly.  I didn’t know what this insect was until today.  These are insects that feed on that “honey dew” released by Aphids.  You can see some of that in the picture above (little white bubble).

Here’s a picture of a Hovey Fly eating, or regurgitating something, I’m not sure what.

Hover Fly Feeding On Aphids

We haven’t seen any Monarch Butterflies, but we do have 9 Caterpillars from the one Monarch from Mexico.  To give the Caterpillars the best chance of success, I have quarantined them in our Butterfly Enclosure.  I did this to protect the Caterpillars from predatory wasps and flies.  So far, all of the Monarch Caterpillars appear to be doing great.

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding On Milkweed Blooms

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding On Milkweed Flower

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding

Another Butterfly that has been making daily visits is a Giant Swallowtail.  From what I can tell, she really likes laying eggs on our Moro Blood Orange Tree.  On that tree alone I’ve counted over 9 different eggs, and I’m sure there’s some I haven’t seen.

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly Egg

I was fortunate enough to also catch a glimpse of 2 Giant Swallowtail Caterpillars. The Caterpillar in the picture below is about two days old.  You can even see the egg casing (white) in the background.

Two Day Old Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar

We’ve also seen the Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly.  I’ve been able to find 1 Caterpillar so far.  I’ll post some pictures of that later.

Ladybug Eating Aphid

The strange thing about this was that the Aphid was still alive and moving, while the Ladybug was eating it (I’m assuming it was eating it, maybe it was just holding it).

After a few moments of watching this, another Ladybug strolled by and decided to watch the event.

Ladybug Eating Aphid While Another Watches

Cloudless Sulphur Chrysalis Close To Emerging

What I didn’t expect is that the Butterfly would emerge in the late evening.  With most of the other Butterflies we have raised, the Butterfly emerged from the Chrysalis in the mid-morning hours.  Since it was cold outside we brought the newly emerged Butterfly inside for the night.

The next day we took the Butterfly outside so it could warm up in the morning sun.

Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly Just Hatched

Here’s a Macro closeup of the Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly.

Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly Just Hatched Up Close

This final shot was after the Butterfly flew a short distance away and continued to warm up in the sun.

Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly Resting Before Flight

In the first, this is a newborn Monarch on the Gardenia Bush warming up in the sun.  I took this picture with my Macro Lens.  Look at the detail on the wings.  It’s really the first time that the wings look like they have texture to them.  When viewing the image up close, the wings remind me of a soft, microfiber towel or something.

Newborn Monarch With Macro Lens

In this next picture, it was taken with my 100-400mm lens.  It’s the same Monarch, but it flew over to the Orange tree to continue warming up before flying.

Newborn Monarch On Orange Tree

So I’m out in the backyard today, taking some pictures of Butterflies, when I notice this Honeybee that looks like its head is stuck in between the leaves of this plant.  My first thought (seriously) was how in the heck does a Bee get its head stuck between plant leaves?

As I look closer, I see that those “leaves” where the Bee had its head stuck are in fact not “leaves” but legs, the legs of a HUGE Praying Mantis.

I quickly switch over to my macro lens and begin shooting.

Praying Mantis Eating Honeybee

The Praying Mantis was really going to town on this Bee.  You would think (or at least I thought this way) that as aggressive as this Praying Mantis is, no other insect would dare come close, but that was not the case.  Some crazy fly decided that a partially dismembered Honeybee would make a tasty meal, so it flew right on top of the Mantis’ eye.

Praying Mantis Eating Bee With Fly On Eye

It took the Mantis about 5 minutes to consume about half of the Bee.

Praying Mantis With Dismembered Honeybee

Below is a brief video illustrating what I have described so far.

Another 5 minutes go by, and the Mantis is done eating.  During the next several minutes, it cleaned itself up, then put out a bright big smile.

Praying Mantis Head

This final video is a brief excerpt of the Mantis cleaning itself.

A few days ago I wrote a post about this yellow Caterpillar that I had seen on our Cassia tree.  I speculated that the Caterpillar was a Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly Caterpillar.  I’m still sticking with that speculation.

Sulphur Caterpillar Macro 3

What was somewhat surprising to me is that there are not many pictures on the web of a Cloudless Sulphur Caterpillar (go ahead and try and search Google).  I did see some images labeled “Sulphur” Caterpillar, but really couldn’t find any that stated with certainty that the image displayed was indeed a Cloudless Sulphur Caterpillar so perhaps this is somewhat of a rarity.

Anyway, after two days, the Caterpillar finally turned into a Chrysalis.

This is the first Caterpillar and Chrysalis we’ve even seen in our backyard of the Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly.

Clouded Sulphur Chrysalis