A Glimpse of the Past

I was walking down the path that leads from Catch the Wind to Explore the Wild on the far side of that half mile exhibit loop. I glanced to my right and noticed a small tan-colored object dangling from a twig on a hornbeam, or ironwood, tree on the right side of the path, chrysalis. The tree is very close to a patch of partridge pea, which is host to cloudless sulphur butterflies in late summer and fall. I sawRead more

Assassin Bugs Hatch and Harvester Emerges

A few weeks ago I mentioned seeing an assassin bug on an alder in the Wetlands. This past Saturday (9/14) I spotted an egg case close by. The egg case is a dead ringer for that of Zelus luridus, the assassin which was spotted earlier. A close look at the mass of eggs revealed that they had already hatched. There was no sign of the hatchlings, they must have already disbursed in search of prey. I took several photos of theRead more

Harvesters Eclose

The subjects of the two images at right are what greeted me as I anxiously inspected the alder this morning. I’d been out of the “office” for three days and was hoping to find both Harvester pupae intact. The first chrysalis was indeed intact, but much darkened from when I last saw it several days ago. The darkening of the chrysalis is a sure sign that the butterfly within is soon to emerge. It’s actually transparent and what you seeRead more
2 Comments

Milkweed (Butterfly Weed)

The one, and pretty much only, Butterfly Weed plant out in Catch the Wind is about to cast its seeds to the wind. There are no leaves on the plant, just a bunch of scrawny looking stalks and some seed pods. But don’t pass by that one lonely milkweed plant out in Catch the Wind without stopping to give it the once-over. There are creatures present worth examining. A few weeks back I mentioned here in this Journal that thereRead more
1 Comment

Not a cloud in sight

As I mentioned in a recent post, Cloudless Sulphurs are laying eggs on our Partridge Pea out in Catch the Wind. Partridge Pea is a senna, a legume. If you have it growing in your yard you will have Cloudless Sulphur caterpillars on the plant, it’s a fairly certain thing in our area. The butterfly is common from about mid July to November, most common in August and September, right now! Cloudless Sulphurs presumably get their common name from theRead more
2 Comments

My, how they’ve grown!

A recent post to this Journal featured two caterpillars, one of those was the larva of a Cloudless Sulphur butterfly on Partridge Pea in Catch the Wind. On August 2, I noticed one of these large yellow sulphurs lay at least one egg on the plant. Fives days later I saw one, then two, caterpillars munching away on the plant’s flowers. It’s now August 15, and the caterpillars have grown considerably. They will probably crawl off to pupate within aRead more

A Lep Emerges!

Eleven days after a Cloudless Sulphur caterpillar was first noticed preparing to pupate on a Partridge Pea pod in Catch the Wind, it has emerged as an adult male butterfly. A Monarch caterpillar was pointed out to me on Butterfly Weed in Catch the Wind. I’ll have to keep an eye on that one too!Read more