Butterfly Transit, June 15, 2013

We saw a Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) on the sidewalk before we started our official walk.  It was in  the transit section Ruth has designated as the last one so she didn't list it on the official transit list for the day.  But I think everyone else listed it in their mind.  Tom took these photos a few years ago.  The milkweed are not blooming yet this year.  I wanted to get a photo of the one on the sidewalk with its wings open but it flew when I moved.  Fortunately, I didn't move until others did get photos.

Its wingspan is 2.9-3.8 inches (7.1-9.7 cm)

We were standing talking in the first section when someone said, "There's a butterfly on Pauline's shirt.  Oops, it flew."

Butterfly enthusiasts expect a butterfly which lands on people to be a Hackberry  ( Asterocampa Celtis) or a Tawny Emperor (Asterocampa clyton).

I found its landing spot.  It was a Hackberry, (Wingspan: 2.0-2.6 inches or 5.1-6.6 cm).

We saw other butterflies but none that were different from what we have seen in previous weeks.  And we still had to really search for those we did find.

But the larger dragonflies are fun to find.  Here are two we saw.  I haven't searched the dragonfly field guides for their names yet.  When I do, I will come back to this post and update it.  There are two photos of the second dragonfly.  One shows the insect in general.  The other gives a better view of the face.

Ruth found this caterpillar on a False Indigo.  I don't remember if she said it was False Blue or simply False.  These are two different plants.  A spot of light washed the color from the head end so I colored it with the clone tool.  The caterpillar was so small I didn't see the bit of pattern toward the rear until I enlarged it on the computer so I don't know if the pattern continued up the back.  I expect that it did.  The skin was smooth, not hairy which is typical of many moth caterpillars so I think this is a butterfly caterpillar.

July2 Update.  The green caterpillar is that of the Wild Indigo Duskywing.   Thank you, Ruth Bowell.

Sometimes, a person just has to be looking at the right spot.  As we were returning to the Interpretative
Center, I saw motion on the center flower.  A half -inch long caterpillar was humping along in inchworm fashion.  Then it seemed to be trying to find a way to move to another stem.

Not finding what it was looking for, it settled back on the flower it was on.

As always, click on the photos to get a better view.