Monarch and cicada

[Ally]

My neighbour's car is parked right behind it, she flies around my neighbours who are busy washing their car, but she wouldn't be anywhere near me. Do they know people?

[Ally]

This cicada has a crown on its back. The bluejay just noticed his brother has a peanut.

[Dinusaur]

Beautiful photos of the Monarchs - what caused this vivid red background?

[Ally]

Beautiful photos of the Monarchs - what caused this vivid red background?

My Italian neighbour has a red car.

[Ally]

so hard to shot her in flight

[Howieh]

Cicadas are mean looking bugs but in reality they are very docile and provide a good food source for other insects, birds, etc. Here is something I never thought I'd see - a damsel fly eating a cicada! Shot in Bestview Park a few weeks ago. I've had a couple of cicadas in the backyard this week but, so far, no photo-ops.

[Ally]

Wow never expected to see that, I didn't know dameselfly was that big, or it was a small cicada.

[Howieh]

It was a small cicada but this is also one of the smaller damsel flies! I probably should have started a new thread but here are a few from my first round of raising monarchs. The orange device is actually the inner spinner from an old lettuce dryer (my wife told me to save it cause you never know when you might need it?). The chrysalis with the fully formed butterfly had been moved to a frame on the computer room window. My camera was in the kitchen after a sunrise shoot and while I was retrieving it the monarch emerged, but I have lots of stills and videos from previous years so I wasn't too disappointed that I missed the actual emergence.

[Ally]

that is amazing! How were they attached to it? are they going to eat something?

[Howieh]

that is amazing! How were they attached to it? are they going to eat something?

These guys are finished eating (thank goodness!) until they become butterflies. The middle one is in a j-hook position and became a chrysalis the next day. The other two pupated the following day. All 5 were released last week but I have another 5 in various instars that will become butterflies by early September. After that who knows....?

[Dr. John]

We raise monarchs too - just the ones we find in our garden milkweed.  We released our third this weekend (not much laying happened earlier in the season in our garden).  I'm impressed you got them to make J's all close together.  Ours seem to want to wander to the ends of the earth first.

We are waiting on a black swallowtail pupae right now.

[Howieh]

We raise monarchs too - just the ones we find in our garden milkweed.  We released our third this weekend (not much laying happened earlier in the season in our garden).  I'm impressed you got them to make J's all close together.  Ours seem to want to wander to the ends of the earth first.

We are waiting on a black swallowtail pupae right now.

The last time I tried to raise a swallowtail I ended up with an orange (ichneumonid?) wasp! I've lost a few milkweed cats to parasites or diseases but never when I've raised them from eggs. We used to collect large caterpillars on the Leslie Spit but now it's only eggs from my front lawn milkweed. I also limit the number of eggs I bring in because my setup is pretty small and, as I'm sure you know, large caterpillars require LOTS of food, i.e. many clean healthy milkweed plants! I don't know why the five caterpillars pupated so close together; I guess there is safety in numbers. I haven't seen any recent reports but based on a couple of recent visits to Rosetta McClain Gardens I don't think this will be a very good year for migrating monarchs,  but lets see what September brings.

[Dr. John]

We try to raise from eggs too, but some have been duds.  We have lots of milkweed growing in our gardens, so lots of food supply for the hungry caterpillars.

[Howieh]

I have one chrysalis, two weavers and two munchers still on the plants. The weavers are even closer to the chrysalis than the previous bunch and the two munchers are feeding on the same leaf! They are a very close knit group!

[Dr. John]

Unfortunately our swallowtail pupae gave birth to some kind of parasitic wasp or fly.  We let it go because that is how nature rolls, but we felt badly for our poor caterpillar.