It was a warm winter here in Central Florida and I have never seen so many different butterflies. Yesterday I saw a Palamedes and a Tiger. I have been seeing Giants, Sulphurs, Monarchs, Pipevines and Fritillaries pretty much every day. It's incredible! The Polydamas are around, but not in large numbers. The one butterfly that I have not seen in about a month is the Zebra Longwing. Last year I didn't see them until late May or June. This year I was seeing them in early January, but they have disappeared since then. The state park near me did a controlled burn last autumn and now there are lots and lots of new Paw Paws. A few days ago I saw several Zebra Longwings there. I have never been able to attract them to my property in spite of the fact that I have many Paw Paws. I think I don't have the right type. A very exciting February and March here in Central Florida. I wonder how many of you have had warm winters.

I'm glad you're still raising cats, Dan! There are a good many moths whose caterpillars are beautiful, while the adult moths are plain brown things, roper. Some of the slug caterpillars, like the stinging rose cats, are quite beautiful - the adults aren't. Here's a picture I made several years ago of a dagger moth cat that I thought was quite fetching - The little pipevine swallowtail caterpillars are growly rapidly, and I released my first adult PVS from the second batch of 2014 today, a female. This will be my third batch! We've had a lot of rain lately, so maybe the pipevines will be able to keep up. Sherry

Yes, Mary, I've got lots of pictures of male spicebush swallowtails, but only a few of females. There's been a female nectaring in my garden off and on for the past several days, but she won't be still long enough for me to get a decent picture of her. So here's an old picture of a female, who happened to rest on some gravel long enough for me to get her picture - she's got the typical, true blue female coloring on her hindwings - Here's a picture I took of a male at high noon, and the sun REALLY glistened off his wings - Here's a picture of a male that I took in early spring when the wild azaleas were in bloom. He had to have been a newly emerged butterfly, but he's gray - Here's the most typical male - And here's an individual who appears to be green. Maybe the blue in his coloring had just faded, or maybe the camera made him look this way - Sherry

kc, Glad to hear that the GST left you some eggs. It seems like they start out slow and then after a few days they really go gangbusters. The female was here again today laying more eggs. Oh, I think about 2009 was the last time that I saw a Viceroy too, either that or 2010 but I know for sure that none was here last year. Good luck with your cat raising. I've never raised any Polys. Susan, Ha, yeah, that's a good way to describe the PVS and GST in a race! :-D It was slow here for the longest time in the way of butterflies, but now they're finally showing up here and they're so fun to watch! I'd love to see some Gorgone Checkerspots! You're lucky that you get those and Gulf Fritillaries. I plant passionvines but I'm almost certain that I'll never see any frits on them other than VFs. I think about you a lot too. You ought to see how my pussytoes and pipevines have grown...many many times their original size! They feed lots of cats, and as a matter of fact my son was walking past the pipevine today and spotted a bunch of little piggies, and now I also have 22 PVS to raise. Oh, and counting the 27 GST eggs that I collected today (mostly off the gas plants), I have 56 GSTs to raise. When I have GSTs and PVSs to raise, the Monarchs take a back seat, but I do have several dozen of those too. Christie, I hope that you soon get some GSTs to raise. It is actually pretty hard for me to spot eggs on the rue flower heads. I have to look out over my glasses or else take them off (gotta love bifocals). It takes me pretty long to comb through the rue and guess what...I'm itching again! Arg! I even washed my arms real good right after I came in, but it doesn't seem to have done anything. I also found eggs on the gas plants (actually a lot more on those today than on the rue), and maybe I'm allergic to those too. Ooh, lucky you to be raising a Tiger Swallowtail! I only had one of those one time and it ended up dying. I read later on where someone said they mist theirs, so if I ever get any again, I'll try that. It was nice reading about all that you have there. mostone, Nice pictures! I think Black Swallowtails are very pretty! I just had 3 pupate that I found in the rue when I was looking for Giant Swallowtail eggs a few days ago. Congrats on the BST find! It will probably eclose this year yet, but swallowtails are so unpredictable that I can't say for sure. Sherry, It sounds like the butterflies sure love your place! That's nice that you get such a wide variety. I haven't seen any Viceroys here this year either or last year. I also had Variegated Frits last year but not this year. Here I planted a whole bunch of violas for them (they loved them last year), but now they're pretty much spent. So if the VFs show up, they probably won't have much to eat. I can feed them passionvine leaves though. Yes, I most certainly will have fun raising the Giants! Now I also have about 2 dozen PVS to raise that we found on the A. macrophylla today. I also have several dozen Monarch cats and could have many dozen more if I'd collect them more regularly, but some things just can't be done and so something has to fall by the wayside. I figure what I raise is already more than what would have made it on their own. Almost every medium to large Monarch cat that I found and brought in this year had been parasitized by those darn tachinid flies. I brought them in just on the off chance that they were okay and also so that I could destroy the fly pupae in case the Monarchs weren't okay. It was nice hearing about others' butterfly adventures. I always enjoy reading about the kinds of butterflies that other people have in their yards/gardens. Cathy