A Study in Sunflowers

These pics should warm me up--forecast is for 35 tomorrow night with potential frost... a good 2 weeks ahead of schedule. I had a nightmare a week ago that the asters were covered in snow. If it comes true I'll just have to put space heaters in the garden. And I bet you think I'm kidding.

As always clicking on the pics and expanding them may be a treat. Look for Waldo while you're at it.

Afterglow

Bee's Knees

Centrifuge

Flight

Mantis

Pollen

Shyness

Sunrise

Yellows

Female monarch on stiff goldenrod

Video--Monarch Caterpillar Into Chrysalis

Here's monarch number 2 turning into a chrysalis. A bit grainy, but fascinating every time. Hopefully, black swallowtails are next.

A Sad Discovery

I have a habit of piling up mail order nursery boxes on my patio / deck. They might stay there for two months, protected from wind and rain. A few days ago, though, the last of my fall cleanup days was spurred on by 70 degrees and rare sunlight, so I went out to toss some trash and cut down the cardboard for recycling. Here is what I found.














A female monarch, crisply dessicated. I'm not sure how a caterpiller found its way up the deck, up a chair, then around and into this box, because it was closed with another box stacked on top. The cat could apparently get in, but, of course, the butterfly could not get out. I wonder how long she struggled--being buried to death by her own drive to survive. And why did she have to be female? Tooth and claw I suppose, but I have a special affinity for monarchs. You can rest assured my boxes won't remained piled out there from July to September--prime monarch season for me here in Nebraska.

Swallowtail Deskinning, Monarch Assassinated, Spider v. Grasshopper

Lots of insect intrigue and gore pics to follow. You ready? I promise some nice garden pics too, though.

This is the first year I've tried raising black swallowtails inside, and lo and behold, it's a lot like doing monarchs. See?

















Unfortunately, the above swallowtail came out yesterday and couldn't inflate one wing. We put him in the garden anyway--freezer euthanization isn't my thing yet. (Yes, I know it should be.) It could've been a virus, or maybe it's because he never could attach his derriere to the stick so just hung there for two weeks.

Did have a swallowtail and monarch do their thing at the same exact time:


















Though I think we have far fewer fall monarch cats outside this year, my wife insists it's because they're dispersed on almost 20 various milkweeds. Last year one cat pupated on the siding, and this year there's one on my storage chest. I best be careful opening it these next two weeks:













Ok. Here we go. Some sort of assassin bug--I do believe--got a monarch cat. Notice the green blood trailing down the leaf under the body like some bad horror flick on Scifi, oops, I mean SyFy.













But below is something joyous. With so many grasshoppers (hundreds, millions) every time I walk through the garden I stir them up. A few inevitably jump into spider webs. Here you can see this spider pouring silk out and pasting it on to the victim. Huzzah!













I have two 'Chocolate' eupatoriums, and one has almost lost all of its buds due to grasshoppers eating them. These are the last plants to bloom in the fall, and I am pissed off (better than on, right?). I'm worried about how many grasshopper eggs might be in the garden.

Speaking of eupatorium, here's one called 'Wayside' I am in love with. The blooms are either an irredescent blue / purple--much like blue lobelia--or they are a dusted grey / purple. Only thing bluer in my garden is the 'Nekan' sage.













Angelica gigas never sets seed for me--no idea why--so I have to buy 1 year old plants every year. Worth it, though:






























That was a gratuitous cat image. He likes to fold laundry with me and play with the socks.













I enjoy this combo and this angle. The globe thistle seedheads pick up the grey of the switchgrass and little bluestem, while the 'Baby Joe' eupatorium does the same with the grasses. By the way, Baby Joe is nearly 6 feet tall--I assume the wet clay is to blame for its girth.


















Say it with me--the favorite view. We should just call it TFV from now on since I use this shot so often. Doesn't the sedum way off bring the eye in by reflecting the color of the bridge, mulch, and steppers? Humor me.

Monarch Dive Bombing a Swallowtail

Enjoy the pictures. I took dozens to get these few. Three monarchs didn't like this one swallowtail competing at the various liatris. (Which is why I'll be planting much more this fall--liatris I mean, not butterflies.)





















This monarch cat had nothing to do with the above, but you know in about two weeks it will. Tasty milkweed flowers. I've noticed monarchs are placing eggs between flower buds, not just on leaves.













Unrelated, I just think the black chokeberry shrub's berries look nice--not black yet, but soon.

Low Monarch Populations This Summer

Apparently, they aren't the only butterflies suffering (and we must include moths). One guess from the Monarch Watch blog is the incredibly wet and stormy May / June much of the central part of the country experienced. In any case, the blog states that their best guess is that there will be less egg laying and butterflies in late July / early August; this last batch of monarchs is the one that makes it to Mexico and overwinters before heading north again in spring.

Of course, being a conspiracy theorist and fan of any canary in the coal mine hypothesis, I think other issues could be involved. But then again, what the heck do I know--I ain't nobody nohow. I might go check out Robert Michael Pyle's logs on Orion to see if he's noticed anything on the general ebb and flow of North American butterflies. (Pyle is traveling NA for a year in an attempt to i.d. as many butterflies as possible.)