Zowie! Those look like late instar cats, and they've stayed hidden? They usually move around so much they won't let you ignore them.
Oh well, I'm jealous! I got a LONG visit from a beautiful male yesterday, but no female/no eggs.
Congrats, Sandy! They're such gorgeous turquoise beauties!
Sherry

First the Diana Fritillary. Now these guys. You are just showing off. :D

Only thing new I've had this year is a unicorn caterpillar on my chokecherry. The kids like the cat but, IMO, it ranks nowhere near your two finds. That Diana Fritillary was just gorgeous.

KC

You know I've been scouring my passionvines every day for eggs and cats. Well, today I went out to check on things, and look what I found two of at the top of some very thick 'Lavender Lady' passis!
{{gwi:481558}}
I guess they were hiding deep in the thicket of leaves - amazing!
Sherry

WOW! They are huge, butterflymomok. You certainly found a treasure.

Cool, Sherry. What a great surprise. I have lots of passion vine. It's to the point where it's become invasive. I don't know if we have BF here or any that lay eggs on passion vine. Even if I did, it's so full of spiders they wouldn't survive.

Hee hee, what fat little devils. Those are my favorite caterpillars. Miss Sherry didn't ask us that!
-Elisabeth

Whoa. I'm guessing they didn't all three get so fat on one poor little A. serpentaria plant. :)

Jeff

Wow, that's great, Sandy! Are PVS always that FAT?! I don't remember them being that big in other pictures. Good grief, what are you doing to that pipevine?! ;-) I think it's great that you found them.

My serpentaria has really taken off this year. I noticed that the plant blooms are at the ground level and the little seed pods set on the ground. Something seems to come along and bite into the seed pods releasing them. I have hundreds of little plants around the big ones. I do have tomentosa and macrophylla growing in the same area. The tomentosa is starting to sucker and put up new vines. One new vine has been stripped.

I purchased a bunch of roots from Loess last fall and potted them to sell at the Farmer's Mkt this spring. They didn't like being potted, so I put them in the ground. I will soon have quite a colony of Serpentaria and be able to dig my own roots! I thought I might have lost my investment, but it seems to be working, just not the way I planned it. LOL

I also have clematitis which is spreading and has become a large colony as well. I grew lots of fimbriata from seeds and have made dish pots with this vine to sell at mkt. Fimbriata is the easiest to grow from seeds. Tomentosa sprouted fairly easily, and Clematitis takes about 6-9 months to sprout.

Now for the ultimate blow, no one knows what all of this is, so the demand is nil. But, I'll keep on putting it out there and sharing about all the different plants. Farmer's Mkts don't make you rich! But you get to meet lots of wonderful people and share your passion. I try to have caterpillars with me each week, and I give chrysalides and milkweed plants to the kids. I feel like the Johnny Appleseed of Butterfly Gardening!

Sandy

Or maybe the Pied Piper of OK leading the children to a mysterious land of wonderment, learning and to an appreciation of the natural world.

Do you do mail order? :D
Sherry

No. I'm not sure if I will get a website up this fall. I don't want to be overwhelmed. I want to enjoy what I'm doing. Send me an email, Sherry. I still share with friends!

Sandy

I was just teasing, Sandy!
But thanks for the offer!
Sherry

Only we would think they are adorable--it's funny--looks like you are holding up a bunch of grapes. They can barely be bothered to stop eating! Congrats on your find!

Thanks, BG. They are all pupating, plus two more that I found. So there were 5 in all.

Sandy