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Butterfly Garden

Where did THAT butterfly come from?

12 years ago

I know many of us play this game and I am sure that in my house if/when we ever move our dresser/armoire we will find a number of empty chrysalides under and behind the furniture, probably under the bed, etc...

So the other day I got our butterfly guide book out to look something up and the pages were stuck together. At first I thought the book had probably gotten wet or something. It was because a loose BST had pupated on the pages, sticking the book closed with his pad. The butterfly had eclosed at some point and I'm sure was of course one of those I came home to find flying around the kitchen and said "where'd he come from??"

On a related note, today I found a lone egg on some dill, which is similar in color to a BST egg but seems awfully big for a BST. I guess I'll see when it hatches.

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Comments (6)

MissSherry
12 years ago
A book certainly IS an unusual place for a cat to pupate alright! Mine generally stick to tables and window casings.
'Must have been a smart black swallowtail! :)
Sherry
terrene
12 years ago
It makes me rather anxious when the cats go AWOL! I thought for sure there would be a butterfly flying around the kitchen this year, because a couple large Monarch cats seemed to disappear, but it didn't happen. I did smush a chrysalis that had just eclosed on the back of the chair, when I pulled the chair out to get close to the aquarium tank. Drat! It hadn't hardened at all yet, and I had no idea it was there. I didn't realize the chrysalises were so soft when they first pupate, having never touched one!
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Beautiful Anne!!!!! Which proves my point,,,things don't always bloom right for a couple bloom cycles! Rosie
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bev2009
12 years ago
This conversation would definitely disturb some OCD people. However, since I've had one AWOL cat (which I found) I can understand. To funny.
butterflymomok
12 years ago
CalSherry had the best stories about escapees. Have missed her this summer.
christie_sw_mo
12 years ago
Lids People! lol

I guess it wouldn't be too bad to have a butterfly fluttering around the house but have you seen how many chalcid wasps can crawl out of a chrysalis?

I've only had a couple escapees that I can think of. The first one (a few years ago) ended up getting squished so I was very careful after that. A tiger escaped this summer and pupated on the underneath side of my cedar chest but I found it before it emerged thank goodness. I was worried that it would get smushed or that a wasp would hatch out of it instead of a butterfly so I did quite a bit of looking to find it.

I like using the clearish 6qt and 16qt size Sterilite containers. The lids aren't airtight like Tupperware which is good because there's more air circulation. I think I got them at Dollar General. I have had a couple first instar cats crawl out from underneath the lid. Ok those would count as escapees too but they didn't go far. And they didn't fly around the house. lol
fighting8r
Original Author
12 years ago
Yes containers are good, but I like to let them live on live plants if/when possible, which don't often fit into containers. I try and containerize them when they are close to pupating but of course I don't always catch them. I too am always afraid of moving anything when one has gone missing for fear of damaging him (one day we were headed out for errands and an orange barred sulphur was in his sling on the handle of one of my shopping bags-luckily my son saw him before I hurt him).

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?what to do with this little guy?

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