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.

Some Texas Printables

A sample free sample coloring page from the Deadly Insects & Arachnids Coloring Book by Dover Publishing--FIRE ANTS.  *Shiver*

Also on the Dover sampler I found this Texas Wordsearch from the All About States Wordsearch Books.

Butterfly

And here's a video I caught of these beauties sheltering from the wind.

Wildflower Wednesday - Goldenrod

These wild goldenrod are actually looking pretty gangly in my yard, and I'm in the process of cutting them down before they went to seed, but they sure look pretty up close, and attract some interesting insects...like the beauty above.  Never seen a bug colored like this before!  (Sue of A Corner Garden tells me it's a Ailanthus Moth ...and here I was thinking it was a beetle!)


You can check out more beautiful wildflowers, and link up your own wild finds at Wildflower Wednesday.  And you can find more bugs (and animals) at...

Also linking up at...

Throwback Thursday

Green Spider

Found this in my yard.  It's a Green Lynx Spider.
If you're shuddering at these pictures, you're not the only one! 
This spider was about an inch long!  Pretty though, in it's own way. 

I'm now selling some fun gifts with this spider on it
at my Texifornia Zazzle shop here.

Mellow Yellow Camera Critters - More Caterpillar Pics

Surprisingly the dill plant survived the first set of caterpillars that call it home...then recently two more came, and pretty much finished it off.  When they were done with nearly everything green on it they crawled away.  We caught one crawling out of the pot and placed it gently on the grass.  Later that day we found it crawling on a plastic pinwheel that had fallen over in the grass, and together we took some kinda trippy pictures of it.  This first picture I'm pretty sure is by my son (age 7 - and yes, I was impressed).

And then, an amazing thing happened.  While we were still

taking pictures of the caterpillar, a grasshopper jumped onto

the pinwheel right next to him!   He stayed just long 

enough for us to take a couple shots.

Throwback Thursday at Living Life...

Caterpillars!

 There were 6 lovely caterpillars on my dill plant.

This was the lone dill that survived all winter...but honestly

I don't mind them munching on it.  It had already flowered, 

so it was a little late to use the leaves anyways.

When we first found them they were tiny and fuzzy
...just slightly bigger than a dill flower.

But they grew!

My kids have loved watching them.

If you tickle their back with a blade of grass these slimy orange antenna come out 

of their heads and they will bend back and try to hit you with them...

 You can see those orange antenna a little bit in the picture above.  It gets longer and comes out further than that but this was the best picture I got of it.  I originally thought it might be poisonous (couldn't think of another reason it would it do that) but I found out it's actually a gland that releases a foul smell to repel predators.

Unfortunately, some neighborhood boys came by and smooshed all but two of our caterpillars .  :-(  But, still hoping to see the last two turn into cocoons and then butterflies.  I just found out they'll turn into Black Swallowtail Butterflies!  (Thanks Laura P. from Lavendar, Literature and Lace).

This post is listed in the following memes:

Worldless Wednesday
Kludgymom Wordless Wednesday

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by A Southern Dreamer

Throwback Thursday

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