Looks like the other mystery Butterfly actually is a type of Skipper, most likely the Horace’s Duskywing Skipper and this guy is apparently the most common Duskywing in Houston. Both Joshua (again from Joshua’s Native Plants) and my neighbor were able to identify this previously unknown Butterfly. It likes to feed on oaks and wisteria has also been reported.
Thanks for those who threw out some guesses on the mystery Butterflies! It’s always exciting for me when I learn something new and it was nice to have others share their knowledge as well.
.jpg "Mystery Butterfly") Mystery Butterfly
Looks like we found the answer to one of the mystery Butterflies. It’s a Polydamas Swallowtail, also called the Gold Rim Swallowtail. As mentioned in my previous post, this is a “tailess” Swallowtail and is a Mexican/South Texas (further south than Houston) native. They feed on Pipevine.
According to Joshua, from Joshua’s Native Plants, these Butterflies do wander this far north every few years in cycles and this Butterfly has been around Houston for the last 5 years or so (Thanks Joshua!).
 Mystery Butterfly 2
I think I may have identified one of the mystery Butterflies in the post below. I’m referring to the Butterfly that I said resembled a Swallowtail but didn’t have the “tails” of a Swallowtail.
I don’t want to give away what type of Butterfly I think this may be quite yet because I’m interested in the feedback from others (leave your comments and/or guesses!). However, I’ll give some hints. This species of Swallowtail doesn’t have the “prominent tails” of a Swallowtail, and this species typically only occurs from South Texas to Argentina (source: Butterflies of Houston and Southeast Texas). Last but not least, according to the book I mentioned in the previous sentence, this Butterfly is “extremely rare in our area and should never be expected.”
So let me know what type of “Swallowtail” you think this is. I’ve included another picture of this “Mystery Butterfly.”
Rare Houston Butterfly
I have a confession. I think some of my photographs are good, not great, but not bad either. I’m sure from a technical standpoint (color, composition, etc) very few of them are really fantastic. Further, to be honest, I think my camera and lenses do most of the work in making my pictures look decent, it hasn’t been because I have such great skill. That being said, I took a picture this weekend that I really think is quite good (again, not from a technical standpoint).
This was a spur of the moment picture. A male cardinal landed on the fence, I grabbed the camera, focused, and shot the picture. I really like how much detail there is (click on the picture for the full size), and how well the background is blurred. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?
Perfect Cardinal
We’ve had 3 Eastern Black Swallowtails hatch this weekend! These are really beautiful Butterflies. Here’s what’s interesting.
The three Butterflies that have hatched have all been the “green” Chrysalis type, not the “brown” Chrysalis type. I can’t recall if I mentioned it before, but there’s some mystery or disagreement about why Eastern Black Swallowtails have either a green or brown colored Chrysalis. One book I read said the color of the Chrysalis has to do with the surroundings of the Chrysalis. So if it forms a Chrysalis on a twig, then the Chrysalis would be brown to more closely blend in with its surroundings. If it formed a Chryalis on a nearby leaf, then the Chrysalis would be green. Another book I read said the color of the Chrysalises has to do with when the Butterfly will hatch. If the Chrysalis is brown, it will over-winter and hatch the following year. If it is green, then it will hatch during the same season. Finally, I have tried to do some research online about the color of the Chrysalis and a fewof those sites say that researchers don’t really know why an Eastern Black Swallowtail can be green or brown.
I guess time will determine which “source” is correct. We have another couple of green Chrysalises and several brown. If the two green ones hatch within the next few weeks and the brown ones don’t, then perhaps it is true that the “green ones” hatch during the same season and the “browns” overwinter. If they all hatch this season then it just goes to show you shouldn’t believe everything you read:-).
Anyway, here are some pictures of the Swallowtail that hatched today.
Eastern Black Swallowtail Hatchling Wings Spread Eastern Black Swallowtail Hatchling
If you’ve been reading, you know I have lots of books on Butterflies but sometimes books don’t provide all the answers. Look at the next three pictures and see if you can identify what type of Butterfly these might be as I have no idea.
First up, some type of Butterfly on our Fennel. Here’s what I’m thinking. It’s a rather dull colored Butterfly, that has me leaning towards some type of Skipper. However, this Butterfly was bigger than most Skippers. It also flew considerably slower than most Skippers I have seen. I also thought it might be some type of Crescent, but I couldn’t find any pictures that matched this Butterfly.
So, what are your guesses for this Butterfly?
Mystery Butterfly Next up, some type of Swallowtail perhaps? It kinda looks like a Giant Swallowtail to me, but it doesn’t seem to have all the necessary markings. I thought Giant Swallowtails have another line of yellow across their back and this one does not. It’s also missing the two “tails” of most Swallowtails.
Any guesses?
Mystery Butterfly 2 Mystery Butterfly 2a
I haven’t seen too many Painted Lady Butterflies in our backyard, but that is starting to change. The last two days there have been American Painted Lady Butterflies landing on our Coneflowers.
This particular Butterfly is an American Painted Lady Butterfly. They are NOT easy to photograph. Compared to the casual flying Monarch, these suckers act like they have ADHD. They do not sit still for long!
American Painted Lady American Painted Lady On Coneflower
Our animals endure a lot in our home. The dogs have to deal with the cats, the bird has to deal with the dogs, and one (of two) of the cats has to endure being tormented by newly hatched Butterflies. This is Chloe, our mixed breed cat. Someone (I won’t name names) likes to torment her cat by having it look at the newly released Butterflies.
The good thing about all of our pets is they are very well taken care of. The bad thing is that none of them know who their normal natural enemies would be in the wild.
First Chloe has to get a close up view of a newly hatched Monarch.
Curiosity And The Cat Then she has to endure staring at a newly hatched Eastern Black Swallowtail.
Cat And Eastern Black Swallowtail
Took Coco to the vet on Friday and had a nice $701.00 vet bill. That’s the bad news. The good news is that her x-rays looked really good and internally she looks the best she ever has (since beginning treatment anyway). Should find out her blood work turned out in about a week and if that looks good then we will finally begin reducing her medications. It’s been a long 9 months worth of treatment but I think we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Something a little different. Here is Coco, our African Grey Parrot. We have been treating her for aspergillosis during the past 9 months. For those that don’t know the story, shortly after Hurricane Ike came roaring through I noticed that Coco was acting pretty lethargic and she was hardly talking at all (this for a bird who doesn’t make hardly any bird sounds, just talks..and talks..and talks).
Turns out she has/had aspergillosis, which is a respiratory disease (fungal) that occurs most often in African Greys and Amazons. Honestly, we thought we were going to lose her as she wouldn’t hardly eat and could barely stay awake. The vet suggested that Hurricane Ike stirred up those mold spores that cause aspergillosis and with no power for 9 days and the additional stress on her body, she became vulnerable to this disease.
Fast forward 9 months later and about $5500.00 in vet bills (not including medication costs) and Coco seems to be doing pretty well. She is talking more than ever and her weight has been steady for several months now.
Part of her treatment, which I have to do twice per day, is with a nebulizer. She’s become quite accustomed to going in this small “reptile” cage, eating her vegetables and fruit, and enduring the nebulizer treatment for 20 minutes. Actually, she seems to “enjoy” the treatment as she knows it’s her time to get fresh fruit and veggies.
I’ll find out this Thursday whether or not her treatment needs to continue and for how long. Oh, I should plug her vet (Dr. Natalie Antinoff) as well at Gulf Coast Avian and Exotics. They’re not cheap, but they are GOOD!
Whatcha Lookin At?
Due to popular requests, here is a picture of my “weapon of mass destruction” that I use to squash the bugs that I don’t particularly care for.
Weapon Of Mass Destruction
This weekend I tried to do something a little different with my camera. I pulled out my Canon Macro Lens (EF 100mm f/2.8). I haven’t used this lens in quite a while so I had forgotten that it definitely takes a tripod to be able to get clear photographs with this lens. I spent alot of time on Saturday using this lens without a tripod and every one of them was blurry. This is a nice lens and if you do have a Butterfly garden, or any type garden, taking pictures with this lens is actually quite fun.
I’ve got 4 decent photos using this lens I’d like to share, and it really adds another dimension to photographing Butterflies. For example, take the Skipper Butterfly on the Penta plant below. Looks like just your typical Skipper Butterfly getting some nectar right? Click on the picture to enlarge it. See the Ants crawling around below? I didn’t see them while I was taking this shot, I only saw them afterward.
Skipper On Penta Next is a Gulf Coast Fritillary egg.
Fritillary Egg Last but not least I have a couple of macro shots from our Fennel plant and some Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillars. Within the last two weeks the Eastern Black Swallowtail has been a regular visitor to the garden. I’m not sure how many are out there laying eggs, but we’ve probably got close to 30 caterpillars right now. What I thought was kinda cool about these next two shots is that it really shows how scary these caterpillars may look to potential predators, and it also shows some things that I have never noticed before.
One is how much pollen sticks to these caterpillars and how different they will look in just a couple of days (I’ll post follow up shots tomorrow or the next day so you can see the difference).
Baby Eastern Black Swallowtail The other interesting thing that I didn’t notice before is…right where my copyright info is normally at (bottom right of the picture). Can you see it (click on the picture to enlarge).
Eastern Black Swallowtail With Bug
I’m apparently on a roll with critters that are considered pests in the garden or at leasts things I don’t particularly care for when it comes to gardening. I’ve got two more examples. First is a very small grasshopper that was on my Cassia tree which is one of the host plants for the Sulphur Butterflies. You can’t really tell from the picture because I was using a macro lens on my camera, but this guy was very small. However, what he may lack in size, he can more than make up for when it comes to eating leaves from my plants.
Baby Grasshopper The second pest I’m going to highlight is the very common Milkweed Bug. If you have Milkweed to attract Monarchs you are going to have these bugs as well. They don’t do any specific harm to the Monarch caterpillars, but they do tend to suck the juice out of the Milkweed plants.
Just like for the Assassin bug, I squash these guys with long tweezers. It’s my own version of Organic Pest Control.
Milkweed Bug
Remember that picture of the young Mockingbird doing the crane (see earlier posts)? Well here’s some kind of Black Bird doing the same thing. Just like the Assassin bug, I don’t care much for these guys either. Why? For whatever reason, these particular kind of Black Birds (I don’t know what the official name of this bird is so if you know, please tell me) like to pick at my lemons. They don’t seem to pick at the lemons so much that it destroys the fruit, instead they just scratch up the skin of the fruit. I’m guessing it may also make the fruit more vulnerable to other insects, but I don’t know that for sure.
Anyone know what kind of bird this is?
Black Bird Doing The Crane
And every other part of your body is the mantra of this bug. Depending on what resource you read, these are either good bugs or bad bugs. Personally, I view them as both, but if I see them on my Butterfly plants they get squashed. This is an Assassin bug. From what I understand they stick that long proboscis into their prey and suck them dry, guts and all. I’ve seem them go after some small Butterfly caterpillars quite a few times. I photographed this bug on my Passion Vine. He was obviously eating some other insect but I don’t think it was a caterpillar.
My weapon of choice for these guys? A long pair of tweezers works perfectly:-).
Assassin Bug
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by texdr
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