Congrats on your MC! We should all dance now; it's Hammertime! Cathy, I've never raised any either. I thought I had some one time, but turned out they were something else. Hard to tell in the very early instars. That is cool you've raised Commas! I never see them, though they are recorded here in Oklahoma. I only get Question Marks and Emperor's (Tawny and Hackberry) on the Hackberry trees. I'm surprised I haven't seen any Goatweed Leafwings yet. I've seen lots of Little Yellows, though, and the ubiquitous Cabbage Whites, always a sign of Springtime here. I started some garden cleanup yesterday, but didn't get very far into it. My water got turned off and I didn't want my hands to get any dirtier until it was back on. Someone's line up the street broke. Took them about 8 hours to fix it. Erg......... I am seeing lots of birds. One is a red - not a Cardinal, but kind of short and round, feeding on the suet feeder. Cute little thing. I also saw Green Lacewings yesterday, too. Gotta get more seeds started today - had to put that off due to the water issue yesterday - including my Japanese Morning Glories, White Cleome and White 4 o'clocks for the moths, some Tropical Milkweed, Asclepias physocarpa, and a few more tomatos and other veggies. The Ribes odoratum and Dianthus is blooming, the butterfly bushes are putting out new foliage, the Blueberries are about to bloom, Spring has sprung and lot of things are in the early stages of spring growth. My 21 month old GD is now noticing all the flowers in her yard, since Nanny started to point them out to her last year. By flowers I mean the Dandelions, Henbit, Spring Beauties, Lepidium (Pepperweed), Daffodils. She will find them and go "Awwwwww, petty Nanny". Thru the eyes of children, we see everything as brand new and fresh! She's such a joy to Nanny!! Everyone should experience a toddler grandchild IMHO! As adults we seem to become immune to the beauty around us, but it is renewed thru the eyes of our babies' wonder and innocence. This is my last little GC so I am trying to be particularly attentive to these things. The tiny little tubular flowers of a Henbit bring such excitement to her little eyes. Susan

Nice! It is still cold up here in Ohio (except this past weekend, where it was over 70 degrees). I am excitedly waiting! It is nice to see a healthy Luna. I have been preparing a talk on disease and parasitoids over the last month and looking at a lot of icky pictures of caterpillars. It seems that the Tachinids are taking a toll on the large silk moths of the North East forest. They released a species of Tachinid (Compilisura concinnata) to deal with the gypsy moths, only to find it was a generalist and kills silkmoths. The pictures all show poor little luna caterpillars with eggs on their faces (that gives a new meaning to "egg on your face"). Something scary I read is that some Tachinids broadcast eggs on plant leaves in response to herbivory. This means that we can bring in clean caterpillars and possibly contaminated lunch leaves. Yikes!! I will have to post this separately some time and see if anyone has experienced this. Thanks again for the beautiful picture, Elisabeth

I always figured the best time for any moth or butterfly to emerge in spring was when their host plant has started to make new growth, Tiffy. Big moths are only supposed to live about a week, so if they emerge too early, even if they manage to find a partner and mate, what would the female lay her eggs on? She could lay them on bare branches and maybe the eggs could last long enough in cold weather, but wouldn't it make more sense for her to be able to lay her eggs on new growth, which is what they like? So, I put my cages on the front porch when new growth has begun - if I were you, whenever that happens where you are, that'd be the right time. Dan, I saw my first female spicebush swallowtail yesterday, and I think I saw a black female tiger today - I know it was a big black swallowtail, so maybe things are starting to look up. The cecropia and the luna males both left - maybe I'll get a female moth soon. Sherry

Now is definitely the time for hummers in the Central Florida area (Zone 9 and above). Those of you farther south are saying goodbye to yours for the summer, most likely. We in Orlando have had them showing up since late February, and by now, we are well into their spring and summer season. They'll be with us until August/early September, then they will head farther south. Mark saw one on our purple firespike about 3 weeks ago, but I haven't seen one yet. I know they are out there. But unless they are really hanging out in your yard, you have to be in the right spot at the right time to catch sight of one. This year, I'm hoping to pull in several so that maybe I can get them back each year. At my old house, we would often see 5 or 6 at a time, which isn't bad for this area. And we do have just as many down here as there are farther north, but for some reason, they are less noticeable in our gardens. I don't know why, but they seem to be more plentiful in Florida wild places than in Florida gardens. That's my experience, anyway. Marcia