Misc Irvine August 13 2010

Madagascar Hissing Cockroach molting. The dark part is the old shell and the white is the new roach. It will darken in time.

The little Skink has a drink!

Some days, like this Eastern Kingsnake, I just want to take a nice bath and crawl under a rock!

Emergence and Release of the Monarchs! Aug. 5 2010

The monarchs emerged this morning! Things happened very fast for the first 2, the third emerged about 2 hours later. As you can see in the pictures, they come out  with very fat abdomens and shriveled wings. The fluid in the abs is "pumped" into the wings to enlarge them and strengthen them, and the abs get mush smaller.

They spent the day in a mesh laundry basket filled with milkweed, butterfly weed and butterfly bush flowers. I went to Irvine, and they had the whole day to dry out their wings prior to release.

We released them at 6pm, when Steve got home. The first one landed close by and then took off across the yard towards the trees fairly quickly. The second flew to the woodpile, and the third we placed on the milkweed. The second flew off in about an hour, but the third didn't budge. Finally, just before dark, I made the decision to put her back in the laundry basket for the night. I felt that she was too close to the ground and feared a toad or something would eat her in the night. I'll let her go in the morning. I suspect she was the last one to emerge and just a couple of hours behind her sisters, as she has been in each stage of development. And they were, in fact, all females! I thought the third was a male at first because it looked like it had spots on the hind wings, but it must have just been the crinkle in the still wet wings that I was seeing.

I must say, I was a nervous wreck this morning! Many thanks to my wonderful Eaglet Momsters who have done this before, and to Kathy at Irvine for guiding this nervous mom through the process. I have loved being amazed by these creatures, and hope that I will be lucky enough to find more caterpillars to raise! I feel like I have done my small part to help the Monarch's, whose numbers are declining due to overwintering habitat loss in Mexico. I hope these 3 survive to lay many eggs...those eggs will be the generation that migrates this fall! I will be planting LOTS more milkweed for next year, too! Only 2 or 3% of eggs laid by Monarch's reach adulthood. Sadly, as I mentioned before, the caterpillars that I left outside on the plants were all lost. But these 3, and the 2 that I took to Irvine (which will be emerging tomorrow or Saturday) HAVE made it! I wish I could know where they go, and how they do. But of course, I can't know. I hope someday when I go to the Lord, he'll clue me in on how they did!

THE BIG DAY!!!! August 5, 2010

LOOK WHAT I FOUND THIS MORNING!!

It appears that later today, my babies will be emerging as butterflies!!!

I didn't count the day they formed the chrysalises as day one, but I think I should have. That would put them at day 9 today, which my research tells me likely means they are all females!

More later.....

New Visitors Today

A new and never before seen by me in person visitor to the milkweed today....a Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly! I'm not sure if it's a male or a female, but it's beautiful! Almost as big as the Tiger Swallowtail it's dining with!

*************************************************************************************

Never in all the 12 years that I've lived here have I seen a Luna Moth. Earlier today, when Steve was cutting the grass, he found one struggling under an old truck in the field. He thought it may be dying. We later took a flashlight out after dark, and it was still there, barely moving. We brought it to the porch where it made a relatively unsuccessful attempt to fly, and landed on my...well, you can see that for yourself!

This is a female, another soul at the end of her life span. Too tired to even crawl much, I was able to coax her onto my finger. Then she made another attempt to fly, and landed on Steve's shirt where she promptly made a poopie. We have secured her so she doesn't get hurt and I think she'll pass quietly in just a short time.

A Fading Glory

She was on my milkweed this morning, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. There have been so many this year, it seems to me. But this one touched me. Her end is very near.
She has probably visited hundreds of flowers, and laid up to 1,000 eggs in her short adult life.

She surely was once as bright and beautiful as any butterfly could be.

But, her beauty is clearly fading, almost transparent are her wings, and tattered as well. She flies, but slowly, and not very far. She never moves far from my garden....it's probably too much effort for her now. She was there this afternoon, just as she was this morning, staying close to the milkweed.

She flew off around sunset, to where butterflies sleep. I wonder if I'll see her in the again, in the morning.....

Such is the cycle of life.

Monarchs...the big CHANGE! July 27 2010

Well, they did it! All three within 3 hours, although the first 2 changed fairly close together. These still shots are much better than the video. It just can't show all of the movement! SO much movement once the skin started to come off....wriggling like mad! Then the skin at the head (bottom) split in the back and they just wriggled that old skin clear up to the top and part of it stayed to cement their hold and the rest fell off.
These pictures show the development of the chrysalis from just after skin is off (and they wriggled and wriggled then, too...going from head down to head up!), to hardening, about an hour later. SO beautiful is the color...Jade green, with golden flecks!
Today, the very top portion is turning a bit darker. Hope that's normal!!

So, now we wait........

Monarch caterpillars in the wee hours of the morning July 27 2010

Surprise!!!
I got up at 1:30ish this morning and checked on the babies, and look what I found! So it seems they were indeed looking for a place to "hang out"!!
When I went to bed at 10:30, 2 of them were lined up on the same stick, just still. The 3rd was on a milkweed leaf but not eating. He found his spot later, and right on the same stick as the other two!
The first 2 pictures show the first two caterpillars as I found them (sorry for the blurry one, but I wanted to get a good side view, and the container is a bit dull) and the 3rd picture shows the last one resting in front of the other. For the next 45 minutes, he wriggled and fussed a bit as he began to let go of the stick and finally, he too was in the hanging "J" formation!
Under the skin, and amazing transformation is taking place. The chrysalis is forming! I can just barely notice the pale green color of it showing under the skin near the head. According to my research, they should hang in the "J" for about 12 to 15 hours. About an hour before the skin begins to molt, the antennae, currently still erect, will "wilt". In a while, the skin will split at the head (which is the part NOT attached to the stick) and in a matter of moments, they'll wriggle the skin all the way back to the silk pad that holds them onto the stick and form a "cremaster" to hold them on there. From there the chrysalis will harden. And if all goes well, in 10 to 14 days, we will have 3 beautiful adult Monarchs!

On an unhappy note.....I have to be out today from 3:15 to 9:30. UGH!!! I have no idea when 1 and 2 actually started to hang in the "J". Only that it was between 10:30pm and 1:30am. If I am VERY lucky, it was closer to 10:30, in which case I may get to see 1 and 2 shed that skin. If not....well, there won't be any pictures of that to share...sorry!

BUT WAIT!!!!!!!!!!
I have just checked them and the one in the middle has wilted antennae!! I am so excited! He is wriggling around!

BBL.......