the bark tree

Late season Lepidoptera

We observed a few butterfly species we don't regularly see in the garden well into December this year, due to lingering fall temperatures.  The Queen butterfly looks like a smaller brown monarch and also feeds on milkweeds.

A Varigated Fritillary takes nectar from a self-sown Echinacea purpurea.

 

I recently purchased this wonderful butterfly field guide by well known bird author Kenn Kaufman and lepidopterist Jim P. Brock.

 

Also check out this interesting butterfly website:
www.butterfliesandmoths.org

Please forgive these two horrible iphone photos of the Gulf Fritillary and the Buckeye butterfly.  If you run inside for the better camera, the lovely butterfly will be gone by the time you return.  Anyway, I thought it was interesting to show the range of visitors and remaining fall nectar sources.

Mourning Cloak

From a pile of wood brought indoors for a fire, something flew from the underside of a log.  A Mourning Cloak butterfly had flown over to the window!  

He seemed rather sleepy and confused so Brandon carefully captured him, brought him back outside and snapped a few pictures. Mourning Cloaks prefer tree sap, especially that of oaks, only occasionally feeding on flower nectar.

Butterflies spring 2012

Ligustrum lures lepidopterans

On a springtime visit to my dad's, I passed his neighbor's gigantic privet shrub (Ligustrum sp.) which was covered in blooms and butterflies!

Hundreds of Red Admirals, Painted Ladies, Commas / Question marks and a few Buckeyes were all guzzling nectar from the fragrant blooms.

The neighbor promptly chopped down the whole enormous shrub once the flowers were gone.  Even considering that it is an invasive plant, I was still sorry to see it go.

Caterpillar identification

Found these guys crawling on my fading pansies and used the caterpillar photos on DallasButterflies.com to identify them.

Judging from their photos, this is a Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) caterpillar, which is in the same family with the Gulf Fritillary and the lovely Julia butterfly.  I'm not sure this is the right food for them, but perhaps it was suitable.  The pansies are all gone.  

Looking forward to seeing the butterflies!

Migrating monarchs

Our large Abelia shrubs have provided nectar to migrating monarchs.

At one time, I counted up to seven butterflies.

Since the spring, the large old-fashioned Abelia has lured bees, hummingbirds and butterflies to our yard.

Spring butterflies

Behind on posting as usual, these are pix of butterflies we saw in the spring: Giant Swallowtail.

In August, the Dallas Morning News ran this interesting article about the effects of the record-breaking hot summer on butterflies.

Pearl crescent.

Not a great photo, but I had to include this shot of one of my favorites, the Buckeye butterfly in the left, middle.

I never cared much for Hackberry trees (Celtis occidentalis), but when I learned about the Hackberry butterfly (above) which uses the tree as it's host plant, I decided they weren't so bad.

By no means an expert, I got in the habit of calling all of these small gray butterflies Hairstreaks, but the family called Blues/Azures has similar markings on their outer wings.  A commenter on an older butterfly post recently corrected me.

Hairstreak visits salvia

Before I even planted this little Salvia (S. nemorosa 'Caradonna'), a little hairstreak butterfly was already partaking of it's flowers.

That's my kind of plant!

Butterfly rescue

Almost every day this summer, I had to rescue a butterfly that had flown into our greenhouse at work and become trapped.

Eastern Comma butterfly

This butterfly called the Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma) came by for a visit and started feeding on the part of our buddleja that pokes through the fence into our neighbor's yard. They are named for the white comma shaped marking on their ventral wing much like their relative, the Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis) which I photographed last year.

I couldn't see him/her too well from over the fence, but finally he moved over to our side where I got a better look.

 

Butterfly season!

We spotted a new butterfly species in the garden! 
From this ventral view it looks very much like its relative, the Hairstreak which we have seen here before.

 

This tiny Summer Azure (Celastrina 'neglecta') showed it's blue-gray namesake coloring when flying ...or at least we never saw it rest with its wings open.  Brandon patiently took these photos in the few moments when he did pause on our bush clover (Lespedeza sp.) which hasn't begun blooming. 

According to my butterfly book, there is a great deal of variation and therefore confusion in this group called Azures or Blues so hopefully we have correctly identified it.  Anyway, we were excited to see a new species finding something of interest in our small garden.

Another (or perhaps our resident) Tiger Swallowtail visited the echinacea, which has seen a good bit of insect action lately.

 

These sweet visitors are so charming I can't help photographing them repeatedly.

June update

Sometimes it seems laughable that I would have so much to say about such a small patch of ground. It's certainly aesthetic, but it is not only pretty flowers.

This garden has connected me to so many other aspects of life: to nature as a whole, to my husband, my neighbors, my long deceased cotton-farming grandparents, to books and learning, to food and cooking, to my background in art and design...  I could go on.  It is truly wonderful and I'm ever grateful for this little spot.

Gertrude Jekyll said, "What is one to say about June — the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade..."

 

Texas critters

More butterfly sightings

Commonly mistaken for moths, Skippers are more or less drab in color, have more robust bodies than other butterflies and a skipping flight pattern. These Silver-spotted Skippers (Epargyreus clarus) are very common in the Flower Garden at Wave Hill where I work. According to my butterfly book, they are probably the most widespread and adaptable skipper species.

We briefly saw this Question Mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis) in our garden. Only got a ventral shot, but you can see the little white marking for which it is named.

The Buddleia is finally blooming and we had another visit from a slightly tattered Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes). This one appears to be a female. The other one we saw was likely a male.

Last, but not least for this week is the first Monarch (Danaus plexippus) we've been able to photograph. I've just started seeing a few, both in my neighborhood and at work. This was in our neighbor's abandoned looking yard full of weeds down the street. Anyone know that plant?

Butterfly utopia

It's amazing how many little events happen in a single day devoted to gardening. When we first walked out to the garden with our coffee yesterday morning, amongst a flurry of insect activity, we spotted a stunningly beautiful Black Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio polyxenes) enjoying our Echinacea.

Nearby were three smaller Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) butterflies. These are frequent visitors to our garden, but we're always pleased to see them.

A little later we watched this slightly tattered Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) on our neighbor's lovely Agastache and Verbena bonariensis.

While we were were watching and photographing the swallowtail, another tiny black butterfly flitted around and caught our attention. This one I had seen before last year, but wasn't sure of the name. I looked it up in my butterfly book, it's a Common Sootywing (Pholisora catullus).

It was all quite exciting. I was telling any neighbor who passed that we'd seen FOUR butterfly species in one day! Special thanks to our neighbors, Douglas and Anna for opening their garden to us. Brandon took all of these gorgeous photos.

Butterfly books

Butterflies of the East Coast: An Observer's Guide
by Rick Cech and Guy Tudor

The book I own on the subject from which I've learned a great deal about this most delightful of insects.

Another one I like:

Butterflies Through Binoculars
by Jeffrey Glassberg

Hairstreak butterfly

Check out this cool Gray Hairstreak (Strymon sp.) feeding on our salvia! [Photo credit: Brandon]

They are quite tiny - maybe only 1 inch (2.5 cm) across with their wings spread. Usually I see them closed like this and/or rubbing their wings together in an eerie way.

I'm delighted that it's butterfly season! Even before the Buddleia blooms, we've been seeing a few in the garden. Also spotted, but unfortunately not photographed: Tiger Swallowtail and Red Admiral.

Question Mark butterfly

Walking towards my workplace, I spotted this beautiful butterfly called the Question Mark – (Polygonia interrogationis). It is named for a tiny silvery marking on its mottled ventral hind wing (not visible in these photos) that looks like a question mark. A 'cousin' is called the Comma for a similar marking.

Straphanger butterfly

Brandon and I spotted a little white butterfly the other night – on the subway. It was flying around the train-car and landed on some man's shirt. It took him a while to notice, but then he just brushed it away. It flew over near us and as we prepared to exit, I asked Brandon to catch it.

He grabbed and held it in his hand until we reached our stop. Then we tried releasing it once we were outside, but it's antennae was damaged and it wouldn't fly away when we tried to lure it onto a tree leaf. It seemed bewildered – possibly because it was nighttime, possibly because it had just arrived in Brooklyn by a means it couldn't possibly understand.