Here’s a nice PDF from MJ about a wasp that she found inside the stem of a plant.
Blog Posts: New Life Cycles
Baltimore Checkerspot – Euphydryas phaeton
New MJ PDFs
I just put up lots of MJ’s PDFs – here are links to them:
Butterflies:
Moths:
Bugs:
Wasps:
Beetles:
Milbert’s Tortoiseshell – Aglais milberti
In most years this butterfly is fairly common in our part of Wisconsin, but in some years we see hundreds of caterpillars and butterflies. The caterpillars eat stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), and in peak years the caterpillars can completely decimate the leaves on our nettle plants.
2005 was one of those peak years. In our July 21 butterfly count, we saw 134. We would have counted even more if we had walked the driveway earlier in the day, before the sun got too hot.
Caterpillars feed in groups, on top of nettle leaves.
The chrysalis has a beautiful gold sheen.
Adult butterflies
Nectaring on Common Milkweed
And basking on the driveway – where I most often see them.
Butterflies on the driveway – Milbert’s Tortoiseshells along with Red Admiral and Compton Tortoiseshell
Marcie O’Connor
Buffalo County, Wisconsin
Silvery Checkerspot – Chlosyne nycteis
I found numerous small caterpillars on some small sunflower plants that were growing along a path through our woods. Â Most of the caterpillars were on top of the leaves.
I brought them home and fed them more sunflower leaves. The caterpillars had some color variation – I don’t know if it was individual variations, or differences in instars.
After about a week, they began to make chrysalises. There were two color variations in the chrysalises. I wonder if it was because of the different materials they were formed on.
This one was formed on the underside of a sunflower leaf.
This one formed on the screening at the top of the cage.
The butterflies hatched about a week later.
Here’s one with its old chrysalis in the background.
And one that’s ready to fly
Marcie O’Connor
Buffalo County, Wisconsin
New Life Cycles
I just put in a big group of MJs PDFs. Here are the new ones:
We also have a new contributor: Michael Cook. He raises silk moths and spins their silk.  He contributed two Giant Silkmoth lifecycles:
Marcie