Butterfly Sightings

I love "fall" in Texas.   It really is sort of like spring.  I saw SO MANY BUTTERFLIES on our lantana bush this week (the one nature planted outside our front door several summers ago).  Here's my son trying to lure one on to onto a flower we cut.  That one didn't take his bait, but another did...a little brown jet like butterfly I didn't get a picture of, which I think was a Little Glassywing.


There were 6 types of butterflies that came to visit all on one day (the ones shown here and also a Monarch, a little Yellow Butterfly, and lots if Little Glassywings).   I had never seen some of them before, but with the help of some online friends we found the names for most of them...

Tawny Emperor

These brown butterflies are a frequent visitor to my yard.

Gulf Fritillary

This is Gulf Fritillary...a male one, to be specific (the people in my local garden forum are amazing...that's the only reason I know this).   These have been in my garden many times before, but I just now learned their names.  Isn't "Fritillary" the best name for a butterfly?  Sounds positively Victorian.

Giant Swallowtail

The caterpillars from these  beauties LOVE my dill and parsley, and are just as fascinating to watch as they are in butterfly form.

Pipvine Swallowtail

But this blue/black stunner stole the show.  What a beauty!   She was always in motion so it was hard to get a good picture of her, though I sure tried.  And every time she moved she shimmered!    I had never seen this type before, but several have visited since.

Here's a picture of her in flight.  I didn't realize when I took the picture that this butterfly nearly became dinner.  Can you find the giant green spider in this picture?


No?  Keep scrolling...

Still have trouble seeing it?   Keep scrolling...but warning, it's creepier up close.  If you do not like spiders you will want to skip this (there's no more butterfly pics).

This is a Green Lynx Spider, sitting on it's egg sack, which looks pretty close to hatching (you can see all the little spiderlings).  The mother, like the other one I've seen, was over an inch long.