u/Beautiful-Fondant-61

I don't live there 24/7 so I don't know when it went into a j-position and had my mom take a picture of it for me. There is one caterpillar left on the milkweed though. The others might have went sonewhere to pupate and my mom doesn't want to go searching the whole garden for them which is understandable. It is hot oursude afrer all.

- Scientific name: Calpodes ethius

- Also known as Canna skipper and Canna leafroller

- Description: Dark brown above, it has long, pointed forewings marked with several large translucent spots. The hindwings have three or four more hyaline spots- a pattern mirrored on red-brown undersurface of the wings.

- Size: 1.75 - 2.25 inches.

- Range: Resident throughout the year in southern Florida and deep South Texas, the Brazilian skipper occurs from about April until the first frost, usually in December. A tropical species, it also ranges through the West Indies and tropical America to Argentina. Because of its fast, powerful flight, it has colonized many islandsvand is one of the few butterflies on the Galapagos Islands, six hundred miles off the coast of Ecuador. With this tremendous dispersal fapability, Brazilian skipper also move northward each summer, establishing new colonies anong abundant canna plants in cities and suburban areas. Their range then expands through North Texas and as far as Illinois along the Mississippi Valley and New York along the Atlantic Coast. Their the females lay their eggs and quickly leave again, winging off to yet another location.

- The robust Brazillian skipper is the largest of our common closed-wing skippers.

- Most homeowners and gardeners know this large skipper better as the "canna skipper" or "canna leafroller."

- This is the species whose larvae live within the rolled leaves of cultivated cannas and consume the foliage, sometimes to the point of becoming destructive pests.

- (skip this fact if you want to) In the observation to see which colored bloom cannas does the female Brazilian skippers prefered to lay eggs on, one scientist named Scott states the female preferentially lays her eggs on plants with green leaves and red flowers, seldom utilizing red-leaved cannas or those with yellow blooms. The second scientist named Williams concurs with his observation and notes that "orange-blossomed plants with green leaves are also used, but yellow and orange-spotted yellow bloomed plants are never used, in my experience." The third scientist named Ajilvsgi, hovever, writes that she has never found the skippers to show a preference. In their observations, these butterflies seem to avoid red-leaved cannas, but they freely use those with multicolored flowers. Many of their subjects originated in a canna patch with orange-spotted yellow flowers, a form Williams found unattrelactive to the species. Some of these differences may be attributable more to location and habitat, or to other variations in leaf chemistry or scent, than to the color of the blooms.

- The Brazillian skipper can be fascinating to watch. Adults seem almost secretive, perching for a moment and then darting off with their fast, extremely poweful flight.

- Brazilian skippers not only visit canna blooms for nectar, but a wide variety of other flowers as well. They also seem to employ "trap-linning," returning periodically through the day to individual flowers along a carefully selected route.

- Females lay their pale greenish eggs singly on leaves of the host, and each newly hatched larva begins almost immediately to fold a small segment of leaf as a shelter. The larger caterpillar rolls an entire leaf into a cylinder, tying it securely with silk. It starts by stretching a strand from side to side, swinging its head back and forth and reaching as far as it can without losing its secure foothold on the upper surface of the leaf. As it repeats its movements, it lays down other strands until they form a silken cable, gradually tightening them to roll the leaf together. Moving up an down the surface, it secures other cables until the role is securely bound.

- The caterpillar rests within their protective cylindercthrough the day and feeds nocturnally, usually eating away at the top of its shelter. Ajilvsgi writes that when a large number of caterpillars are feeding, "their nighttime chomping can be heard for some distance."

- If its tent is opened, the disturbed larva has yet another defense. It regurgitates a pool of dark, distasteful liguid, inhibitating attack by a potential protential predator.

- All of these protective adaptations, however, fail to ensure the survival of more than a few of the larval skippers. Parasitic ichneumon wasps and tachnid flies both take a heavy toll, entering the open end of the rolled leaf to lay their eggs within the body or on the skin of the caterpillar. Viruses may also wipe out entire colonies.

-The Brazilian skipper caterpillar is pale green gray, becoming darker green as it ingests leaves; the orange head bears black spots. So translucent is the body that its internal circulatory system is clearly visible, pulsing rythmically away.

- The larva pupates within its leafy shelter, the skender green chrysalis fastened with a girdle of silk and dusted with a powdery white exudate. It has a long tongue case that extends beyond the tip of the abdomen and a red-tinged spike on its head.

- The butterflies may be scarcely niloticed as they swirl through a flower garden, but their caterpillars can readily be found as they roll and consume the canna leaves.

Southeast Texas

- Scientific name: Brephidium exile

- Also known as Pygmy blue

- Description: The wings of the western pygmy blue are mostly brown above, usually with some blue scaling at their bases. Females average slightly larger and browner than the males. The hindwing beneath is whitish at the base, and the outer fringes of the wings are white. These features distinguish Brephidium exile from the eastern pygmy blue, B. Isophthalma, which has brown wing bases below and brown fringes. A submarginal row of black spots centered with metallic green scales further ornaments the ventral hindwing of both pygmy blues.

- Size: .375-.75 inch

- Range: Southwestern United States (from California through Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico to Texas), extending south through Mexico down to Venezuela.

- The western pygmy is the smalest butterfly in the world with a wingspan of about one-half inch were it is easily overlooked by the casual observer. However, its delicate beauty and gemlike markings make it well worth searching for.

- The western Pygmy blue has long been classified as B. exilis, but the name has recently been changed to exile to conform to the code for zoological nomenclature.

- The pygmy blue inhabits coastal marshes, and dunes, roadsides, and waste places throughout the region.

- In deep South Texas it occurs throughout the year; farther north, it has several broods from at least May until November.

- It flies weakly and low to the ground, but its tiny size makes it almost impossible to follow. It usually visits small flowers, its short probabscis dictating its choice of nectar plants.

- Larvae are yellowish green with numerous small brown tubercles. They consume species of saltbush, pigweed, glasswort, and other salt- and alkali-tolerant plants that grow profusely along the coast and across arid inland regions

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The way it is poking out from inside the flower is just too cute 😍

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Whoever took this photo really did a good job.

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Thete was no name on the photo

- Scientific name: Nathalis iole

- Also known as Dwarf yellow

- Description: The forewings are elongated, giving the dainty sulphur a different shape from others with which it might be confused. Both sexes are yellow above with black markings, although the wings of female are more heavily dusted with dark scaling. Occasional white or orange forms are rare. The underside of the forewing is yellow at the base with black spots. Summer broods have the underside of the hindwing pale yellow; the winter brood is dusky green below.

- Size: .75 - 1.125 inches.

- Range: The dainty sulphur is a year-round resident from Guatemala and the West Indies northward to Florida and the southwestern states, where it inhabits dry, open areas such as weedy fields and sandy coastal flats.

- The dainty sulphur is the smallest of all North American whites and sulphurs with a wingspan of only an inch. It is also the only pried to feed in the larval stage on plantsnof the aster family than on members of the pea or mustard families. And the chrysalis lacksbthe head spike of other pierids, and the adult butterfly differs in wing venation and other structural features.

- This tiny sulphur is so distinctive that some taxonomists feel it should be accorded a separate subfamily of its own.

- For some unknown reason, the Florida population is not highly migratory, but that of the Southwest expands northward during summer months. Migrating along stream corridors and colonizing weedy patches, this tiny butterfly breed rapidly and continue their way.

- Pyle (1981) notes that the dynamics of the migration remain to be explored, and it is not yet clear whether individual adults fly long distances or whether the successive broods leapfrog along the route. Whatever the mechanism, dainty sulphurs reach the northern teir of states by the end of summer, only to perish in the winter cold. The northward flow will begin again the next year.

- Flying just a few inches above the ground, the dainty sulphur sips nectar from a number of different flowers, especially those of the Asteraceae, and congregates at mud puddles and patches of damp sand.

- The caterpillars are green with purple stripe on back, fused black and yellow on side and pair of red tubercules behind the head.

- The caterpillars develop on dogweeds, sneezeweeds, sheperd's needle, garden marigold, and other low planta of the aster family.

My silk moth plush have been delivered today and omg it's so cute 😍.

Aslo I think my cat is jealous of it.

This is a Small white that my took while she was in Hungary. I thought I share with ya.

- Scientific name: Lerema accius

- Description: Both sexes have a brand of three white dots in a straight line near the tip of the forewing. The male usually has one or two other small white spots; the females has several larger ones. This pattern is visible on both forewing surfaces. A strong black stigmma marks the male's forewing above, but this scent patch is inconspicuous against the dark ground color. The hindwings of both sexes are beautifully shaded and mottled with violet-blue, especially on freshly emerged butterflies.

- Size: 1 - 1.5 inches

- Range: The clouded skipper ranges accross the southeastern coastal plain and through Texas to South America. It also wanders northward as far as New England, Illinois, and Kansas, sometimes producing another brood before succumbing to freezing weather. Reccent experiments in northern Florida also suggest there may be a return fall migration, for directional malaise traps have captured numerous adults flying south.

- The clouded skipper can be found regularly from February through November in grassy fields, woodland clearings, roadsides, and urban gardens.

- Its low, swirling flight is difficult to follow, but the clouded skipper readily visits a wide variety of flowers, sitting passively to feed and allowing close examination and people to take pictures of it.

- Several grasses, including St. Augustine, have been reported as larval food plants, the female laying her eggs singly on the leaf blades. Shortly after hatching, the larva folds the leaf and stitches it with silk, living and feeding within this shelter. When it consumes that leaf, it moves to another and quickly builds a new refuge.

- The caterpillar is white or pale greenish, finely mottled and stippled with dark green. The white head is bordered and striped with black.

- Pupation occurs within the leaf shelter, and the chrysalis is pale green and dusted with a powdery with bloom. The long, free proboscis extends to the tip of the abdomen; the head is tipped with a sharp horn.

It's smaller than the nail on my index finger to be precise. But it won't let me put my finger next to it for scale amd will fly away when I do.

And I'm surprised that I was able to get a good picture of it. Usually the quality is terrible when I try to get a picture of a moth that is small.

Taken in Southeast Texas

- Scientific name: Cercyonis pegala

- Aslo known as Wood nymph, Large wood nymph, Southern wood nymph, Blue-eyed grayling, and Goggle eye

- Description: This butterfly has a rectangular yellow patch on the rich cocoa-brown forewing, enclosing two large black eyespots that have white or blue pupils. The wings beneath are paler and mottled with brown striations, the forewing mirroring the pattern above, the hindwing bearing a series of yellow-rimmed eyespots. Females are larger and paler than than males and have larger forewing spots.

- Size: 2-3 inches

- Range: Across most of southern Canada and the United States, skirting only peninsular Florida, southern Louisiana, and much of eastern and southern Texas.

- The largest of the satyrids, the common wood nymph ranks as one of North America's most variable butterflies.

- The common wood nymph inhabits prairies, overgrown fields, open woodlands, and roadsides.

- Its flight is slow and erratic. When disturbed, it often dives into the grasses or nearby thickets, sitting with tightly closed wings on a stem or twig where its cryptic pattern provides near-perfect camoflauge. In spite of its large size, it can be very difficult to relocate.

- Males patrol open, grassy areas all day in search of females, which land to mate if they are receptive to the males' advances.

- Some authors state that adults visit flowers only rarely, relying mainly on sap and overripe fruit for sustenance. Others contend wood nymphs nectar voraciously at a variety of flowers. Indeed, the habits undoubtedly vary with individual populations and with resources available.

- The common wood nymph has but a single brood each year.

- Adults appear in May in the South, as late June or July farther north. Some remain on the wing until September or October.

- According to Opler and Krrizek, males live no more than two or three weeks. Females, however, emerge a few days after the male and are capable of living for several months. These authors suggest this female lengevity may be an adaptation for deferring egg-laying as long as possible after mating.

- The female deposits her eggs singly on a variety of grasses, producing as many as three hundred eggs and dispersing them widely across the fields. Caterpillars hatch in fourteen to twenty-five days and enter hibernation almost immediately. Only after emerging the next spring will they begin to feed on the leaves of the grasses, going through six instar stages before pupating. Thus summer is well on its way before the year's crop of adult wood nymphs emerges once again.

- Caterpillars are green, with paler stripes and a reddish anal fork.

This is taken at my apartment is southeast Texas. I had a hard time trying to get a picture of this little stinker but I finally managed to do it and biy look at how gorgeous his wings are. Wow.

Also I'm kinda surprised to see one due the wrens and grackles that are present in my area which are known to eat tussock caterpillars. This male somehow avoided being eaten and managed to make it into an adult.