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Emperor, but which Emperor?

On May 20, 2013 · Category: Brush Footed Butterflies · Add Comment

Subject: A Tawny Emperor, I think
Location: San Antonio, TX
May 20, 2013 7:07 pm
Hi, guys, had a visitor to my patio garden today, and I was able to get a couple of good shots. I think it’s a Tawny Emperor, Asterocampa clyton. But I can’t tell if it’s a Louisa Tawny or a Texas Tawny. I’m leaning toward the Texas Tawny because the colors were pretty subdued. On the other hand, it was pretty sizable, an inch and a half at least. Any way, you haven’t posted a photo of a Tawny in a couple of years, so I thought I’d submit her. Thanks for all you do!!
Signature: Melvis & Laugh

Tawny Emperor

Dear Melvis & Laugh,
Here at What’s That Bug? we tend to be generalists more the specificists, so we are not certain that we can correctly identify your Emperor to the species level. We will leave that for the Lepidopterists among our readership. We did consider your comment that the colors were pretty subdued” so we attempted to correct the situation. The wall appeared green to us so we neutralized it which added some warmth to the Emperor’s wings. We do believe it resembles this particular Tawny Emperor on BugGuide.

Think you’re right, Daniel. Missed that one. Thanks for taking the time to look! Hope we have more to send you soon!

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Monarch

On May 9, 2013 · Category: Brush Footed Butterflies · Add Comment

Subject: Daniel – Monarch Butterfly Sighting
Location: Hawthorne, California
May 8, 2013 6:04 pm
Here is our first sighting of a Monarch Butterfly in the back this Spring. She spent a short time feeding on the Mexican Milkweed and there was a bit of ovipositing involved. Don’tcha love this time of year?
Signature: Thanks, Anna Carreon

Monarch

Hi Anna,
We haven’t seen a Monarch yet this spring, but the Painted Ladies and Mourning Cloaks have been about and the Swallowtails appeared earlier than usual this spring. No Anise Swallowtails yet, but we have seen a Western Tiger Swallowtail flying around the yard.

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Whitelined Sphinx and Painted Lady

On April 4, 2013 · Category: Brush Footed Butterflies, Hummingbird Moths, Sphinx Moths or Hawk Moths · 2 Comments

Subject: What kind of a moth is this?
Location: Palmdale, CA
April 4, 2013 7:24 pm
These are on my lilacs, and I can’t find any on-line that look like them.
Signature: 6614920451

Whitelined Sphinx

Dear 6614920451,
We are envious of your lilacs. We planted two varieties that were allegedly bred for Southern California, but despite a cool north facing garden, they have not bloomed in the two years we have had them. Your diurnal moth is a Whitelined Sphinx, Hyles lineata, and one just buzzed us in the back garden and to others are at the front door where they were attracted to the porch light, a phenomenon that happens each spring. The butterfly is one of the Ladies, either a Painted Lady or a West Coast Lady.

Painted Lady

Thanks so much. I thought the one looked like a painted lady, except that the body looked big like a moth. Is that common?

The body of the Painted Lady is obscured by the blossoms of the lilac and we cannot see it to compare it to typical Painted Lady bodies.

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Theona Checkerspot

On March 18, 2013 · Category: Brush Footed Butterflies · 2 Comments

Subject: Possibly a Crescent or Checkerspot Butterfly
Location: Coryell County, central Texas
March 17, 2013 9:06 pm
Hello, I’m stumped on this one. This beautiful butterfly may be a crescent or checkered butterfly, but I’ve been unable to find a close match on Bug Guide or the web. Perhaps it’s a Pearl Crescent, Phaon Crecscent, or Checkerspot, but I just don’t know. I wish the images were clearer; I had the camera on a ”new” setting and it didn’t work well. Thank you for all of your help. Same plant as usual, lately, perhaps a native Corn Salad; it has tiny flowers, 3-4 mm across.) Gorgeous weather, sunshine and in the seventies.
Signature: Ellen

Theona Checkerspot

Subject: Same butterfly inquiry, update: Theona Checkespot?
Location: Coryell County, central Texas
March 17, 2013 10:04 pm
Aha! Is this our pretty friend? I sent an inquiry about a butterfly an hour ago, and I just found the Theona Checkerspot butterfly on a ”Butterflies of Dallas, Texas” website and checked it with Bug Guide. http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=theona+checkerspot&search=Search
I really enjoy your website, thank you so much!
Signature: Ellen

Theona Checkerspot

Hi Ellen,
We agree that this is a Theona Checkerspot, Chlosyne theona, and we can’t tell you how appreciative we are that you wrote back once you had the identification. We also want to commend you on getting views of both the upper wings and the underside. That is quite a feat with elusive butterflies that often have drastically different markings on the dorsal and ventral surfaces.

Theona Checkerspot

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Monarch Eclosion

On March 1, 2013 · Category: Brush Footed Butterflies, brush footed butterfly caterpillars Tagged With: Milkweed Meadow · Add Comment

Subject: Daniel – Monarch Butterfly Eclosion
Location: Hawthorne, CA
February 28, 2013 4:35 pm
Hi Daniel,
First, I’m sorry I haven’t sent photos before now. We lost our first Monarch and it kinda threw me for a loop. It was my first time seeing this wonderful process but I could tell at the beginning that something wasn’t right with him. Another eclosed just behind us just afterwards and flew after a few hours. The first was still around the next morning. When we got back from our weekly grocery shopping, it was on the ground with a back leg folded up underneath itself and dragging its right wing. It has a place of honor in back and I hope to grow a milkweed plant at that very spot. That said, I’ve now seen two more eclose and there are still two left. Maybe another 5-6 days left for them. We spotted six chrysalides total but maybe there are more! The two remaining chrysalides are definitely the last two caterpillars and I will be glad to be able to get out back and clean up the garden once they’ve completed their metamorphosis. So far, one we don’t know the sex of, two males and one female. It’s been difficult to choose which photos to send as this is such a wonderful process. The first of the three is the first butterfly just starting to pump the fluid from his abdomen into the wings. The other two are from a different eclosion. Also, I have a very good friend who was visiting from Oregon last week and she took the three remaining already eclosed chrysalides home with her. She wants to cast them in silver and make jewelry from them. We don’t know if they are too delicate for this, but I’ll get a necklace if they aren’t.
Hope all is well with you and that you have been enjoying our beautiful ”winter” weather.
Signature: Anna Carreon

Mature Monarch Chrysalis

Hi Anna,
This wonderful documentation of your Monarch population is greatly appreciated and we are certain our readership will find them helpful. We are sorry to hear that you have not had 100% survival rate.

Monarch Eclosion

Your adult male Monarch is surely a comely specimen.

Male Monarch

Hi Daniel,
Thanks very much and I’ll try to keep you posted when the last two eclose. It’s been a great experience, one I wish I’d had as a kid.
Anna

I think I was a little off on the remaining chrysalides. One looks as though it will eclose today, tomorrow at the latest. The other won’t be far behind, as they pupated within a day of each other.
Anna

Update March 1, 2013
I did notice that the site looked not quite right and I couldn’t navigate as before, but waited a few days and then all seemed to be better. We did have eclosion of the fifth Monarch Butterfly about an hour ago. I wasn’t around for it and am not sure why it was not hanging from its chrysalis when I discovered. It’s slowly crawling up the Mexican Milkweed stalk that it pupated on, so I’m keeping a close and protective eye on it. Could have been that a finch or a wasp disturbed it, but I’ll never know. Back out to the back, and thanks for letting me know your site is experiencing problems.
Anna

Hi Anna,
The webmaster is away and there are some technical difficulties preventing new postings and additions from showing live.

Update March 2, 2013
So, our last butterfly eclosed today. It was a boy. Seven known chrysalides: 1 unknown, 2 female, 4 male. Three didn’t make it. I don’t know if that’s a good ratio or not.
Anna
I should say seven known. Hopefully there were more that slid out under our radar.

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METAMORPHOSIS: WTB? upgrades for mobile device users

On February 21, 2013 · Category: Administrative, Brush Footed Butterflies · 4 Comments

We will be undergoing a Metamorphosis
February 21, 2013
We are planning some upgrades for the next 48 hours that we hope will improve your abilities to use our services in the future. With more and more of our users communicating to us on phones and iPads, we wanted to create a more user friendly platform for our mobile readership. We do not anticipate any major interruption to our services, but we anticipate emerging from this transition with a shiny, new appearance that doesn’t differ too radically from the aesthetic we have developed over the years, albeit with more flexibility in the way we can reach you. Please bear with us through this transition. We will not be creating any new posts during this transition, however, we will still be receiving your mail. Thanks for your understanding.
The Bugman

Monarch Butterfly Emerging from its Chrysalis

Update: February 23, 2013
Well, we appear to have gotten through our transition intact, and we hope that you like the subtle changes to the design and functions of our website. This posting has already gotten its first comment from some facebook fan who felt compelled to tell the world that Alex “saw big bug” and we now anticipate even poorer grammar and syntax in the ever shorter communications that will come our way. We wish breathalizers could be installed on cellular telephones and other mobile communication devices because then perhaps communication from afar would be so much more civil once again. What’s That Bug? does not want to get left behind as the digital revolution makes us ever so more out of touch with reality, but we promise our readership that we will continue to make our postings and comments from an office desktop computer even though that might be considered too old fashioned by all the techies and hipsters now clogging the information superhighway.

Subject: love the new mobile version
March 7, 2013 9:58 pm
Thank you thank you thank you for the new mobile version of your website. My children and I can now enjoy whatsthatbug when we find ourselves with a few free moments and are away from our home computers. Bravo!!
Huskers Kim, Rachel and Emma
Signature: Kim

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Variegated Fritillary

On February 6, 2013 · Category: Brush Footed Butterflies · Add Comment

Subject: Maybe a Variegated Fritillary Butterfly
Location: Coryell County, central Texas
February 5, 2013 4:28 pm
Hello, gorgeous day in the seventies, with sunshine and butterflies which distracted me from work… again! I’m thinking that this beauty may be an Euptoieta claudia, a
Variegated Fritillary. It was feeding from the same wildflower that is attracting so many butterflies right now, and which may be a native Corn-Salad. For size reference, those flowers are tiny, 3-4 mm across the cup of the flower.
Signature: Ellen

Variegated Fritillary

Hi Ellen,
Your identification of a Variegated Fritillary is correct. Your individual looks very much like this specimen on BugGuide.

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Pansy Daggerwing from Costa Rica

On February 2, 2013 · Category: Brush Footed Butterflies · Add Comment

Subject: Costa Rican Butterfly
Location: Tuis, CR – 2 hours east of San Jose, Costa Rica
February 2, 2013 4:24 pm
I took this picture near Tuis, Costa Rica a few weeks ago. I’ve been unable to identify it without buying a book.
Any help you can give me would be great.
Thanks!
Signature: Jody G

Pansy Daggerwing

Hi Jody,
This is surely a striking butterfly with a stunning color combination. We did a web search for “orange purple butterfly costa rica” and quickly found this framed specimen on Etsy where it is identified as Marpesia marcella. We then searched that name and found a lovely photo on TrekNature where this information is posted: “This butterfly is relatively easy to find at the edges of rain forests and near rivers. It is usual to settle on the sand and sedimentary rocks, from which it seems to draw sales. Usually only found above 800 meters in elevation above the sea.” Learn about Nature Butterflies of the Andes refers to it as the Pansy Daggerwing and states: “This species is usually encountered as small groups of up to about 6 males, visiting wet sand or mud to imbibe mineral-laden moisture. In hot weather the butterflies tend to constantly flit from spot to spot, fanning their wings, but occasionally settle for a while and feed while holding their wings erect. In cooler or shady conditions they feed with wings outspread. Females are elusive, spending most of their lives in the forest canopy, but in overcast weather will sometimes descend to settle on foliage along forest trails.” Your individual appears to be puddling to derive moisture and minerals from the moist earth.

Thank you so much! This is great. I’ve spent hours on every website I can find without success. I was just in your Carnage section. Too bad people don’t get it about spiders. They are our friends (for the most part)!! And the glass and postcard trick works great.
Thanks again.
Jody

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Emperor, but which Emperor?

Monarch

Whitelined Sphinx and Painted Lady

Theona Checkerspot

Monarch Eclosion

METAMORPHOSIS: WTB? upgrades for mobile device users

Variegated Fritillary

Pansy Daggerwing from Costa Rica

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