rss Christmas tree
January 9, 2012
Location: This is in Jacksonville, Florida, on the banks of the beautiful St Johns River.
Hi Bugman,
I don’t remember if I sent this photo to you but even if I did, it’s worth a rerun.
Happy New Year,
Lane
Monarchs Hatch from Christmas Tree
Happy New Year Lane,
What a marvelous follow-up to your awesome Monarch Chrysalis Christmas Tree. Thanks so much for the update.
Heliconian emerges from Chrysalis
UPDATE: December 29, 2011
Location: Kinshasa, Congo
December 22, 2011 4:06 pm
Daniel and Keith,
We got emergence ! Unfortunately no one was home when it happened to get pictures of the process but we got pictures of the butterfly here :
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/globalvoyager/sets/72157628623329555/
Does it look like Acraea zetes after all ?
Thanks
Katy
Daniel and Keith,
We were lucky to find the butterfly after emerging yesterday. Unfortunately everyone was out of the house when the event occurred sometime between noon and 4pm. You can see pictures of the chrysalis that morning and the butterfly in the series created here. I hope species confirmation can be made with picture of the butterfly form.
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/globalvoyager/sets/72157628623329555/
Thanks again.
Dear Katy and her dad,
We would love to include the emerged imago on our site, however, we would like to request that you attach the images to your response as it is not possible to grab the images from Flickriver.
Daniel,
Please find images attached
Dear Katy and her Dad,
We are thrilled to get your new photos for our website. In addition to creating an addendum to your December 22 submission of the Acraea Caterpillar and Chrysalis, we will be creating a brand new posting that links to the original.
Large Spotted Acraea or closely related species
Keith Wolfe responds
Hi Katy,
Having little firsthand experience with Acraea adults (it is the unglamorous 75% of a butterfly’s life that fascinates me), I emailed noted authorities Torben Larsen (http://www.apollobooks.com/WestAfrica.htm) and, just to be sure, Dominique Bernaud (http://www.acraea.com/). Both confirm your butterfly to be the light form of Acraea zetes; A. z. zetes f. menippe to be exact. Also, please tell your father that I finally heard from the last of the four experts I contacted regarding this earlier Charaxes caterpillar – http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2011/07/26/charaxes-caterpillar-from-the-congo/. Unfortunately opinions varied, so my best guess after considering all the data is Charaxes (possibly) brutus.
Keep up the excellent effort, Katy and Dad! Besides being fun and interesting, especially when done together, bug hunting has the very real potential for discovering something new to science.
Best wishes for good health and happiness in the New Year,
Keith
Congo, Kinshasa spiked and yellow banded caterpilalr and pupa
Location: Kinshasa, Congo
December 22, 2011 4:06 pm
Mr. Bugman,
Can you please help us ID the caterpillar and pupa in the following photographs from Kinshasa, Congo ?
Thanks
Signature: Katy and her dad
Large-spotted Acraea Caterpillar from the Congo
Dear Katy and her dad,
Can you confirm if the caterpillar pictured metamorphosed into the attached chrysalis, or if they are different species? We will contact Keith Wolfe to see if he is able to identify this species which we believe is a member of the Brush Footed Butterfly family Nymphalidae.
Two views of a Large-spotted Acraea Chrysalis
Daniel,
We are not completely sure that they are the same but the chrysalis
was in the same place we left the caterpillar 3 days prior. Katy’s
mom says she thinks she saw it already attached there in yellow form.
Thanks for your help!
Keith Wolfe responds.
Dear Katy, Dad (plus Mom), and Daniel,
This is the larva and pupa of the Large-spotted Acraea, Acraea zetes. I will write more after returning home tomorrow. Merry Christmas!
Best wishes,
Keith
Daniel and Kieth,
Thanks much for the ID and Merry Christmas.
Katy and her mom and dad.
Keith Wolfe elaborates:
December 28, 2011
Hello again Katy, Dad, and Daniel,
Yes, with luck, your chrysalis will metamorphose into Acraea zetes (http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/nymphalidae/heliconiinae/acraea/index.html#zetes); here’s the same caterpillar from Gabon — http://www.flickr.com/photos/31963237@N00/455607804/. However, with something like 135 species of Acraea recorded from the DRC, most of whose immature stages are unknown, it’s entirely possible that my long-distance ID is wrong. Thus, please let us know the outcome, preferably showing the resulting butterfly to a local authority or carefully comparing it to a reliable reference. Disclaimer: the hyperlink appearing in my initial response was inserted by the ever-helpful Bugman.
Cheers from a chilly California,
Keith
Keith,
Thanks again for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us!! We brought the chrysalis into the house with hopes to see it emerge and if lucky, document the event as it occurs. At the very least we will get pictures of the emergent butterfly before releasing it .
Stay warm and Happy New Year to you both.
Katy and her dad.
UPDATE: December 29, 2011
Daniel and Keith,
We got emergence ! Unfortunately no one was home when it happened to get pictures of the process but we got pictures of the butterfly here :
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/globalvoyager/sets/72157628623329555/
Does it look like Acraea zetes after all ?
Thanks
Katy
Acraea Chrysalis prior to emergence
Daniel and Keith,
We were lucky to find the butterfly after emerging yesterday. Unfortunately everyone was out of the house when the event occurred sometime between noon and 4pm. You can see pictures of the chrysalis that morning and the butterfly in the series created here. I hope species confirmation can be made with picture of the butterfly form.
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/globalvoyager/sets/72157628623329555/
Thanks again.
Newly Metamorphosed Acraea
Dear Katy and her dad,
We would love to include the emerged imago on our site, however, we would like to request that you attach the images to your response as it is not possible to grab the images from Flickriver.
Newly Metamorphosed Acraea species
Daniel,
Please find images attached
Large Spotted Acraea or closely related species from the Congo
Dear Katy and her Dad,
We are thrilled to get your new photos for our website. In addition to creating an addendum to your December 22 submission of the Acraea Caterpillar and Chrysalis, we will be creating a brand new posting that links to the original.
December 22, 2011 @ 1:16 PM PST
Location: Mt Washington, Los Angeles, CA
It is currently unseasonably cold in Los Angeles, but the days are sunny. The wood pile in the front continues to be a magnet for Brush Footed Butterflies. This Mourning Cloak was soaking up the sun this afternoon. We first noticed it with its wings open, but by the time we got the camera, the critter got camera shy. In trying to coax it to open its wings for a photo (as well as to better soak up the sun) we merely managed to induce it to fly away. Recently this same wood pile served as a perch for Red Admirals.
Mourning Cloak
Black butterfly with yellow stripes?
Location: Doylestown, Pennsylvania
December 5, 2011 8:59 am
Hey there.
I’ve been lurking your site for awhile and appreciate your extensive knowledge of bugs.
Awhile back I came across a black butterfly with yellow stripes. I have not seen very many pictures of it online and I was wondering what it was. I’ve been told it was an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail but almost none of the pictures look like this guy.
Signature: Mister Sergei
Giant Swallowtail
Dear Mister Sergei,
Though they are found as far north as Canada, Giant Swallowtails, Papilio cresphontes, are much more common in the southern portions of their range where they have adapted to an introduced larval food plant, the leaves of citrus trees.
Damselfly and a… Skipper?
Location: Parksville, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
November 27, 2011 4:05 am
Hi Bugman! Just wanted to let you know how much I love your site. I was reading your NRAs and was thoroughly amused by how little patience people have. Why, I didn’t get a response from my inquiry 4 years ago, and I’ve never ranted about it! Unfortunately, I’ve lost the pictures, but they were small, grey larvae with casings that were stuck to the wall. The casings were made of… lint and dust, if you can believe that. Could they have been resourceful bagworm larvae that found novel building materials?
Arctic Skipper
The pictures I’m posting are ones that I took spring/summer 2009, on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, in Parksville, B.C. The first is a damselfly (a blue?) I found casually devouring a sand flea. It was quite confident, and only departed one perch before deciding I could watch it finish its meal. The next two are of a Lepidopteran, which I’d really like an identification of. From its appearance and its flight pattern, I thought that it might be a skipper. The pictures really are as close as you might think; it let me get almost up to its face, and even graced me a few lovely poses before darting off. The photos are just a tiny bit blurry; my camera’s not good with closeups. If you’d like, I have more pictures to send!
Signature: Geoff
Arctic Skipper
Hi Geoff,
We have so many things to address in your letter. First, we are happy to hear you are not holding a grudge regarding an unanswered email from four years ago, and even though there is not photo, we believe you are describing Case Bearing Moth Larvae, common insects found in homes. We are very excited about your photos, as we believe they are the first submissions we have ever posted of an Arctic Skipper, Carterocephalus palaemon, which we identified in Jeffrey Glassberg’s excellent book Butterflies Through Binoculars The West where it is noted they are: “marked rather like a miniature fritillary.” BugGuide lists the range as: “Central Alaska south to central California, south in the Rocky Mountains to northwest Wyoming, east across the Great Lakes states to New York and New England. Eurasia” and the habitat as: “Glades and openings in heavily forested woods, moist meadows, and streamsides.” We cannot determine the species identity of your Damselfly, but it makes a nice addition to our Food Chain tag.
Damselfly eats Sand Flea
Hi Bugman!
Thanks for your quick reply. It pleases me greatly that I was able to provide something new to your site.
I’m attaching 3 more pictures: the first is a full profile shot of the damselfly (hopefully, it might help with the identification); the second one is a close up of a cluster of spiderlings, probably of Argiope aurantia? The final one is of a jumping spider. Not technically bugs (or even insects!), but I thought I might send it in. All pictures were taken the same place as the skipper, along a rocky beach.
By the way, regarding the proposed case bearing moths, it was in Hong Kong that they were found (my friend took those original photos).
Geoff
Geoff,
please just one species per submission. Also, could you use the standard form?
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/ask-whats-that-bug/
I wreaks havoc with our system to continue a dialog through email if that dialog requires a new posting. We like to keep each post as a unique species.
Thanks
Daniel
P.S. Case bearing moth larvae are found worldwide
Caterpillar ID
Location: Scottsdale, Az
November 20, 2011 3:54 pm
We saw this insect at our home in Scottsdale, Az in early Nov 2011.
Signature: Stan
Orange Dog
Hi Stan,
This caterpillar that mimics bird’s dropping is commonly called the Orange Dog because it feeds on the leaves of orange and other citrus despite it being a native species and citrus being Mediterranean. The Orange Dog will eventually metamorphose into a Giant Swallowtail, Papilio cresphontes. Though Giant Swallowtails are native to the southeastern U.S., they have more recently been reported in parts of the Southeast, including Los Angeles, CA, most likely because of the cultivation of orange orchards and accidental introduction from Florida or natural range expansion because of the availability of citrus to augment the native diet of ” Common Pricklyash (Zanthoxylum americanum), and Common Hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata)” according to BugGuide.
Mating Gulf Fritillaries
Location: South Pasadena, CA
November 21, 2011 10:59 pm
While you have several really beautiful photos of these butterflies mating,I didn’t see any in this position. I found these on my pumpkin vine last weekend.
Signature: Barbara
Gulf Fritillaries Mating
Hi Barbara,
Thanks so much for sending us your marvelous photo of mating Gulf Fritillaries. How is your Green Lynx Spider population this year?
I haven’t seen too many full grown green lynx spiders. Here’s a seven-legged individual I’ve seen a few times.
Male Green Lynx Amputee
Thanks Barbara,
We wonder what caused this male Green Lynx, whose sex is evidenced by his well developed pedipalps, to lose his rear leg.
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