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Friday, March 23, 2012

Butterfly brigades


You all know about the no-good, very bad year – 2011.  Pitiful amounts of rain resulted in very few blooms. Very few blooms meant no food for traveling butterflies.

Over the winter months, however, we have had rain, and lots of it. The trees, grasses and wildflowers are rejoicing, and putting on a great show of life. And like old friends we haven’t seen in awhile, butterflies have come a-visiting.

Red admiral. The picture isn't upside down, the butterfly is!
In particular, we have an army (battalion? squadron? platoon?) of red admirals (Vanessa atalanta). These are regular visitors here, but this year their numbers are impressive. As I walk or drive on the driveway, they rise up in waves. They flutter around everywhere we walk.

According to Greta Ajjilvsgi in Butterfly Gardening for the South, “the Red Admiral is one of the best known and most widespread butterflies.” Its larval food plants are nettles. It spends time on the ground at moist places (hence its presence on my driveway), and rests on vertical surfaces with its head down. It feeds on sap, fruit and animal droppings, along with various flowers.

Yesterday, I went out to snap pictures, thinking these fellows were sipping nectar from a large patch of prairie verbenas. They were, but really they were more interested in the blooms of the nearby Texas persimmons (which have a heavenly scent, by the way).

Butterfly Central!
Checkered skipper
Painted lady










In the process of documenting the red admiral invasion, I discovered other butterflies visiting, also:  painted ladies, (Vanessa cardui) Checkered skipper (Pyrgus communis), and other unidentified ones. Oddly enough, butterflies don’t hold still for my camera like flowers will.

Most interesting was an eye-catching moth, black with large white patches on its wings. I’ve never seen this critter here before, but (thanks to Peterson First Guides Butterflies and Moths) it is an eight-spotted forester  (Alypia octomaculata).  This moth is diurnal (instead of nocturnal like most moths), with two pale yellow patches on each forewing, and two white patches on each hind wing. It has “tufts of orange hair-like scales” on its legs and yellow shoulders (who knew moths had shoulders?). Quite a few of these are fluttering around the persimmons. Larval food sources are grapes and Virginia creeper, both of which grow here.

Butterflies make me happy. Sounds sappy and cutesy, I know, but I can’t help it. They make me smile.

Welcome home, old and new friends. My outlook is sunnier for your presence!

10 comments:

  1. I've seen more red admirals this year than every before!

    Re: Anique Rose Emporium...those pics were taken at Independece, Texas just north of Brenham.
    David/:0)

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    1. Huh, guess I've not been there in too long - they've added new stuff. Better put it on my to do list!

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  2. Send those butterflies north would you?

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  3. Cynthia, I agree, butterflies make me happy too. I really did not stop to think about those migrating through the drought-ridden South in 2011. Very good point, also your description of 2011 was accurate. The moth really is a beauty. I have never seen one like that except in butterfly conservatories.

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    1. Yes, it was very sad how few butterflies we saw last year, and this year's invasion is very welcome!

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  4. I've been seeing the Red Admiral, too.
    And, more of the other butterflies this year.
    I haven't seen that pretty moth, though. Good catch!

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    1. Thanks! Now I find I'm staring at butterflies whenever I'm outside, to see if I can identify more!

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  5. I've been noticing more butterflies this year, too. And we've even had a visit from an eight-spotted forester. We have tons of painted ladies, too. They are always a wonderful sight to see!

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    1. A local outdoor theatre/arts place here does a Butterfly Festival in April and release thousands of painted ladies. I'm sure they are appalled by all the people surrounding them!

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