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Dingy Purplewing: imago and caterpillars

Dingy Purplewing
Here are photos of a Dingy Purplewing butterfly and some caterpillars in one of my Gumbo Limbo trees Assassin bugs will eat all the caterpillars so I raise them in the house if I can get to them in time. Normally you can only see where they were. We released almost 30 butterflies from the batch in the picture.
Tad Swackhammer

dingy purplewing tad Dingy Purplewing: imago and caterpillarsdingy purplewing cats tad Dingy Purplewing: imago and caterpillars

hi Tad,
Just imagine our elation to read your subject line for a species we did not have represented on our site. Then we were crestfallen to realize you did not provide us with a location. We are guessing you may be in Florida as all the submissions to BugGuide for the Dingy Purplewing, Eunica monima, originated in Florida. Your story of intervention is quite touching.

Posted 14 August 2008 § brush footed butterfly caterpillars ‡ Comments (0) °
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Mating Monarch Butterflies

monarch love
Hi Bugman,
I just took these photos of a pair of mating monarchs in Ann Arbor, MI. I looked through the Bug Love pages and didn’t see any monarchs, so I hope these are a useful addition to your site. One question: one of these butterflies has been patrolling my garden for the past week or more, chasing away all the other monarchs until tonight. I’m assuming that’s the male? Just curious.
Martha H.

monarchs mating martha Mating Monarch Butterflies

Hi Martha,
We actually do have other mating Monarch Butterflies buried in the archives of our numerous Bug Love pages, but your beautiful image is still a welcome addition to our site. The behavior you describe is consistant with that of a territorial male butterfly trying to attract a mate. The male Monarch butterfly, like the open winged individual in your photo, can be identified by the conspicuous black scent glands on his lower wings. According to a Monarch website we found: “Males use the pheromones produced by this gland to make themselves attractive to females.” This is a bit of a role reversal among Lepidopterans. Most female moths release pheromones to attract the male, and the male has bushier antennae to better sense the pheromones. In the case of the Monarch, based on your description, we would deduce that the male located a likely food source and staked out the territory. He then released his pheromones and attracted a mate. Thanks for the wonderful account of your observation.

Posted 29 July 2008 § ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Carolina Satyr

Carolina Satyr
Mr. Bugman,
Just wanted to reiterate how much I enjoy visiting your web site and reading the comments by those who send in nice photos of butterflies they have taken. It’s such a nice relaxing way to spend a little leisure time. Taking my camera along and looking for butterflies while I walk or ride my bike, is a fun way to enjoy the moment. I have seen this little “Carolina Satyr” many times but have not been able to keep up with it as it flutters low to the ground and just keeps moving. It doesn’t seem to stop anywhere long enough for me to take it’s picture. But, today was a different story. After spotting it flying, I followed it until it stopped in a sunny grassy spot along the path. It seemed not to care as I moved slowly closer to get a picture. I managed to get several good pictures as it profiled itself on a leafy plant perpendicular to the sunlight. It wasn’t there long before what looked like a “Fiery Skipper”, darted at it and it flew away. I didn’t see a picture of a “Carolina Satyr” posted on your web site and thought some might enjoy seeing a picture of it. It was photographed on 4/29/08 here in Charlotte, NC on one of the city’s Greenway trails. I am hoping that many more people will send in butterfly photos and comments so that more pages can be added to your Butterfly section. I love going there to look. Thanks,
Patrick Crone

carolina satyr patrick Carolina Satyr

Hi Patrick,
Thanks for sending your kind letter and your photo of a Carolina Satyr, Hermeuptychia sosybius. Readers who want to know more about this woodland and grassy meadow species can search BugGuide.

Posted 29 April 2008 § ‡ Comments (0) °
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Eight Spotted Forrester and Red Spotted Purple

Eight Spotted Forrester Photos
Greetings!
I found this moth flying in our home in northwest Florida and waited for it to land on a surface I could photograph — two days later, it finally did! I couldn’t ID it with our reference materials, so I searched the ‘net and found your website…very cool! Since you indicate that there are few photos of these beauties, you are welcome to post them–but please do not remove the photo credit ( © Lynne Shelfer) . Besides finding a useful resource, I was excited to learn that Lisa Anne and Daniel are from my home in SoCal (relocated about 10 years ago but return frequently). I have family, friends and former colleagues who are alumni from Art Center, LACC and SC.
Cheers,
L. Shelfer

8 spotted forrester lynne Eight Spotted Forrester and Red Spotted Purple

P.S. I also included photos of a butterfly which I can’t ID. From a pix on your site, it resembles the Red Spotted Purple. Please confirm or correct. Thanks!

redspottedpurple lynne Eight Spotted Forrester and Red Spotted Purpleredspottedpurple lynne 2 Eight Spotted Forrester and Red Spotted Purple

Hi Lynne,
You are correct on both of your identifications. Coincidentally, a day after your letter, we received another image of an Eight Spotted Forrester, but we have been so busy with work this week, we are a bit behind in both posting and answering letters. Your Red Spotted Purple photos are quite spectacular. We had a bit of a problem removing all of your images from the word document where you included the copyright information, so we had to go to the image file you enclosed. We do reduce the size of all images on our site to 72 dpi so if someone “steals” an image, it will not be of a very high quality. Since we post images with letters, and your name is in print, anyone who sees the image will know that you are the author.

Posted 17 March 2008 § Moths ‡ Comments (0) °

Gulf Fritillary: Newly Emerged Butterfly and Caterpillar about to Pupate

Gulf Fritillary
I love Passion Vine, though I rarely get to enjoy the flowers. Instead, I have tons and tons of Gulf Fritillary butterflies, and encourage their growth by moving the caterpillars around my garden so they can all get a decent meal. I was thrilled to find this newly emerged butterfly in between the other two developing chrysalises, and wanted to share the picture with you.
Emma
DeLand FL

gulf fritillary emma Gulf Fritillary: Newly Emerged Butterfly and Caterpillar about to Pupate

Hi Emma,
Thanks for sending us your photo of two stages in metamorphosis of the Gulf Fritillary, a newly emerged butterfly and a caterpillar about to pupate.

Posted 26 October 2007 § brush footed butterfly caterpillars ‡ Comments (0) °

Buckeye Metamorphosis

Our Caterpillar Turned into a Butterfly Today….or is it a Moth??
Hello,
I had written a few weeks back (see below), and hadn’t heard back from you…I completely understand why…no worries really icon smile Buckeye Metamorphosis But my four year old and I decided to “keep” the caterpillar. I was going to put him outside the next morning, but woke up to him in a cocoon! I figured he’d be fine if we kept him until he emerged. And today it happened! My daughter noticed the cocoon was empty and his short visit was over. Thought you might like a before and after shot icon smile Buckeye Metamorphosis
Brittany Clarke

buckeye brittany Buckeye Metamorphosis

(09/28/2007) Caterpillar Question
My four year old found this little guy in the grass. We live in the northwestern part of Virginia & was wondering what kind of caterpillar this is. After looking through your site, the closest I can guess is a Mourning Cloak or Brush Footed??? Your help is much appreciated!!!! icon smile Buckeye Metamorphosis
Brittany Clarke

buckeye cat brittany Buckeye Metamorphosisbuckeye pupa brittany Buckeye Metamorphosis

Hi Brittany,
Thank you so much for your patience, both at our lack of response, and with the wait for your Common Buckeye caterpillar to metamorphose into the adult Common Buckeye butterfly.

Posted 10 October 2007 § brush footed butterfly caterpillars ‡ Comments (0) °

Monarch Project: Caterpillar, Crysalids, and Butterfly

Monarch Project
Dear Bugman,
I thought I’d share with you this photo of my 6-year-old grandson’s butterfly project. The monarch emerged this morning from the first of 46 chrysalises (with more to come). Thanks for your great website!
Nancy Codere
Cumberland, ME

monarch project Monarch Project: Caterpillar, Crysalids, and Butterfly

Hi Nancy,
We only wish your letter had included a more detailed description of what the Monarch Project is. We are guessing your grandson collected Monarch Caterpillars off of milkweed plants and kept them in a cage to observe the metamorphosis.

Dear Daniel,
I thought I’d share with you this photo of my 6-year-old grandson’s butterfly project. He collects the caterpillars from a stand of milkweed in back of our house and keeps them in a 10-gal. terrarium with screen cover. Everyday 3 to 4 fresh milkweed stalks are added as food. When the caterpillars are ready, most crawl to the cover to begin their metamorphosis (an occasional one will hang from a milkweed stalk and make his transformation there). When a chrysalis turns black (it’s actually clear but the unborn butterfly’s coloring shows through), we suspend the screen cover from a hook on the ceiling to observe the critter’s emergence. The monarch in this picture emerged this morning from the first of 46 chrysalises (with more to come). Thanks for your great website!
Nancy Codere
Cumberland, ME

Posted 18 August 2007 § brush footed butterfly caterpillars ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Mating Monarch Butterflies

mating monarchs
I am SOOO happy to have found your site…I have seen craneflies my whole (long) life and didn’t know what they were….until today, thanks to your site…I recieved my first digital camera abt. a year ago, and haven’t put it down since…what fun!! The mating monarchs were quite high in the tree and these were the best photos I could get…she would keep her wings folded up like the males and then would open them out flat occasionally…what a beautiful site they made…thought I would share this with everyone on your “Bug Love” page…I noticed you haven’t had any recent posts tho’, so maybe you aren’t posting there anymore…anyway, here they are…hope you can use them….thanks for such a wonderful and informative website!
Pat, Hawk Point, MO

mating monarchs pat Mating Monarch Butterflies

Hi Pat,
We have five bug love pages, and we have posted very recently to the fifth page. You must have looked on an older page. You will find your image of mating Monarch Butterflies on our most recent bug love page as well as our most recent butterfly page.

Posted 02 August 2007 § ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

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