Just a couple more critters

Syntomeida epilais Walker

Oleander Caterpillar

Danaus plexippus

Monarch Caterpillar

Have been busy in the garden getting some things planted and other things moved and just getting rid of others. But one plant that we are adding, we just can’t get enough of right now and that is Milkweed. Right now I have some Scarlet Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica), but hope to be planting native milkweed at some point.

It all started when I went to Home Depot to look for native and/or Florida friendly plants, and I came upon the milkweed. I had previously read that it was a nectar food as well as a host food for butterflies, although at the time, I didn’t know which ones. So, I purchased four plants about a foot to two feet in height, thinking at the time, that I’ll plant them, and be able to watch butterflies in my gardens, not thinking that it would lead to anything else, except hopefully some photographs.

When we got home I stuck the plants underneath one of the trees until I could figure out where I wanted it and went inside. One of my sisters was visiting, so planting really wasn’t where my head was, so decided to worry about it the next day. Had a late night, so the next day started out half gone. :-) The day was relaxed, so I decided to do some planting and grabbed the four milkweeds, asking my mom where she wanted me to move her azalea plants, then laughing as she got flustered because I wanted to move her azaleas! So, we got that worked out, only had to move one azalea and toss another, and started planting the milkweed. Got one plant in the ground when I had to go inside for something, went to run inside telling my mom not to touch the shovel, I’d do it when I came back out. Got back outside and found out that my mom had tried, and my sister took the shovel away and she did it. We now have two plants planted and I went to pick up the third plant, when for some reason I looked up at it.

And there staring back at me was this caterpillar, obviously not happy that I was mere inches from it, and he was twitching at me. I hollered to my mom and sister and then we started searching the other plants, and trying to figure out where to put him so he wouldn’t get eaten! I had seen over on the Hummibgbird and Butterfly forum at Dave’s Garden where people used different containers, some used mesh houses, some made wood houses with mesh inserts, but they usually did it before they needed it. I knew nothing, and certainly didn’t know how long I had, what kind of caterpillar I had, nor what to expect. Boy, did I learn fast!

And that is where the story begins…

Well, we have a new visitor to the garden, this is the first time I’ve seen this thing here and I wasn’t sure about getting this close to him, or is that her?

I thought it was some kind of mutated dragonfly, you know, orange groves all around, pesticides… mutation? But after searching for about 3 hours for a name, I finally found it… Robber Fly!

I’m still going through tons of images and information so that I can narrow it down even further. I do know that it is a female though!

These things are, uhm, creepy. When they fly they sound like a giant mosquito, buzzing. One of the things that fascinated me though was, even though they may look big, this one was probably about an inch and half long. I hope it decides to come back so that I can capture better images, but what I got will have to satisfy my curiosity for now. :)

Robber Fly Asilidae

Green Lynx Spider Peucetia viridans (P. viridans)

Black and Yellow Garden Spider Argiope aurantia (A. aurantia)

Gulf Fritillary Agraulis vanillae

I had forgotten about these from my old gallery, it will be interesting to see if I can find these visitors again this year, and see if there is any difference in my shooting techniques. These images were shot in 2006.