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Is This a Silvery Blue, Spring Azure, or Eastern Tailed-Blue Butterfly?
10 Jul
Or another species all together? At first glance, I dismissed it as a plain old cabbage white, but looking closely I realized it was more colorful (esp when it spread its wings and blue, exposing a pretty baby blue color.) Unfortmately that happened off camera…Research suggests this is likely a Spring Azure, I will keep reading…UPDATE: This appears to be a male Eastern-Tailed Blue Butterfly.
In other butterfly news, the Monarchs should emerge from their chrysalises later this week. Be sure to check on them when you walk past or visit the play area.
Purple Caterpillar: Friend or Foe?
26 Jul
Found on bee balm, close to tomatoes, so I don’t want to assume this thing is harmless… Shall i detain him?
Seen these Signs of Nature Babies?
29 Jun
Butterfly larva. (Looks like a painted lady butterfly. See more info about development stages here)
Teeny tiny egg shelll! Seen any new birds nests?
Here’s the egg next to a sharpie, for scale… I will leave this egg on the raised herb beds outside the play area in case anyone wants to take a peek! –
Solved! Mystery of the Yellow “Eggs”
27 Jul
It’s a good news/bad news type explanation. I’ll start with the good: The plant I marked as Joe-Pye weed is actually milkweed. (Swamp milkweed or Asclepias incarnata) Ansley had insinuated as much, but two years ago when I bought plant starts for milkweed and butterfly weed, one of them didn’t make it. I assumed it was the milkweed but in retrospect it must have been the butterfly weed that failed to thrive.
Bad news: these are not ladybug eggs but aphids, common milkweed pests. Shari: The lady bug we spotted near the “eggs” must have been eating the aphids! I will treat the plant with soap today so we can get the plant healthy now that the Monarchs are here. I saw one in the garden yesterday, along with a bunch of red admirals and a couple white cabbage. -Denise
Update 7.29.14: After two days of soapy water spraying, the aphids appear to have perished. I’ll keep checking up, but I think treatment worked.
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Hollow Joe-Pye Weed or Trumpetweed (Eutrochium fistulosum)
23 JulHollow Joe-Pye Weed Image: Wasowski, Sally and Andy, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Flowering in late summer to early fall, Joe-pye weed (Eutrochium fistulosum) shows pale purple or pinkish florets. The stems are purple or greenish, and the plant can grow 5 to 12 feet high. This member of the Aster family is known to attract “scores of butterflies,” according to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center‘s database, as well as honey bees and swamp sparrow birds, which eat the seeds.
Related: What’s In Our Butterfly Garden
Sources: wildflower.org/gallery/result.php?id_image=22448; plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=EUFI14; missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=c720
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Green Monster! Orange Eggs!
19 JulKen Haim and Ella rescued this big boy from Borough Hall. It wasn’t on a plant, but on the concrete, so we don’t have too many clues…. Eastern Tiger swallowtail? Zebra swallowtail? He was last seen heading from the caterpillar dill/parsley (near the persimmon tree, where we placed him) toward the felt orange bed that previously held garlic..
Next question: Are these ladybug eggs? They’re on the dittany or stone mint plant, which is just starting to bloom.
Special thanks to Mike, who took these photographs with his new camera! –Denise
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