u/Beautiful-Fondant-61

Well I did said it will emerged any day now this week and he is gorgeous.

My parents, my aunt and I were out of town this weekend which is why there hadn'tt any updates. But the chrysalis is still look healthy and the emerge day is any day this week.

Also sadly the other three have still not been found. I do hope they are okay and still healthy somewhere in that vegetation though.

Sorry if the butterfly blurred. This is the only close enough it will let me to get a picture of it.

I also saw a lot of yellow butterfies in galveston this weekened but they will not sit still and are very fast. Plus it was hot were I can't stay out for very long.

Sorry for the poor quality but I finallly found one of the chrysalis.

- Scientific name: Pyrgus communis

- Also known as Checkered Skipper

- Description: The males common checkered skipper is dark gray above, with long blue-gray, hairlike scales on the body and wing bases. Numerous white spots checker the wings above, while the fringes of the wings are also checkered. The female is usually somewhat darker, her wings checkered black and white. She also lacks most of the long basal hairs. Both sexes are whitish below, with bands of dark gray or olive-gray spots across the hindwings.

- Size: .75 - 1.25 inches.

- Range: The common checkered skipper occurs as a pernament resident from the central states through much of tropical America. In summer it strays northward as far as Canada, establishing short-lived colonies that do not survive the winter.

- Pyrgus communis may well be North America's most abundant skipper, a status reflected in its scientific name.

- Communis is Latin for "common." Most books call it simply the "checkered skipper," but many recent authors prefer "common checkered skipper, " distinguishing it from other closely related species which is the Tropical checkered skipper.

- The common checkered skipper is one of the first butterflies to appear in spring from late Feburary or early March through November. In warm winters without a freeze, it may be on the wing in smaller numbers throughout the year.

- The common chechered skipper visits a wide variety of flowers fror nectar and also flocks to mud puddles and damp places to drink often perching with wings spread. And Because the larvae feed on a wide variety of plants in the mallow family, including both wild species and such cultivers as hollyhocks and hibiscus, this charming skipper can occupy almost any open, sunny habitat. The skipper moves readily into yards and gardens as well as fields and weedy roadsides.

- Males are extremely pugnacious, darting out at anything that invades their territories. Active through most of the day, they patrol extensively for females from midday until midafternoon.

- Females lay their greenish eggs singly on buds or young leaves of plants in the family Malvacea and mallows. The larvae live in nests of rolled leaves.

- The larvea are tan or greenish brown, with dark and light stripes and are covered with tiny white tubercles, each with a short hair. The head is and collar is black and the head is covered with yellow-brown hairs.

A week ago they were teeny tiny. Now they are the size of my index finger. I don't think I will be ready when it is time for them to pupate. I am still enjoying them as caterpillars. 🥲🤧

My mom took a picture of the backside of this caterpillar and I noticed the white spots on its legs making it look like its wearing shoes making them more cuter than ever

They have successfully molted and are now 4th instars. Usually it takes monarch caterpillars 9-14 days to reach its pupa stage but thanks to this Texas heat, it istaking mine 7 to 10 days to reach their pupa stage.

5 days ago they were 1 instars and the heat made them grow like weeds.

These babies are growing so dang fast. It was like yesterday they were teeny tiny.

- Scientific name: Danaus gilippus

- Description: Slightly smaller than the more familiar monarch, the queen is a darker chestnut or orange-brown, with white spots across the outer portion of the forewing and in the marginal black borders. The male has a black androconial scent patch on the upperside of the hindwing, as does its monarch counterpart. Like the monarch, the queen sequesters toxic compounds from the milkweeds and is distateful and emetic to birds and other vertebrete predators.

- Size: 3-3.5 inches.

- Range: Two different subjects of the queen occur in the United States. Houston's form, Danaus gilippus strigousus (aka Striated Queen), ranges northward from Mexico through Texas and the Desert Southwest and occasionally wanders into the GreatbPlain. It has white scaling bordering the narrow black veins of the hindwing. The Southeastern subspecies, Danaus gilippus berenice (aka Florida Queen), ranges from Florida and the Gulf to the Mississippi Valley and sparingly northward along the Atlantic Coast. Other forms occupy the lowlands throughout most of tropical America.

- The queen frequents open fields, dunes, deserts, and stream corridors, and its habits are much like those of the monarch.

- Queen butterflies does not stage dramatic migrations, however, and occurs primarily in the southern states. Vagrants that wander northward may briefly colonize an area, but they cannot survive the freezing winter.

- Most courtship and mating activity takes place in the afternoon. The male flies around the female, extending the "hair pencil" scale tufts on his abdomen to waft pheromones around her head. The scent stimulates the femalevto land, and the male continues his fragrant offerings until she closes her wings, exposing her abdomen for mating. If they fly during copulation, the male carries his mate with him as he sails along.

- The female lays her eggs on milkweeds and less frequently on twinevines, or climbing milkweeds, which are members of the same family, Asclepiadaceae.

- The larva is brownish white with red-brown and yellow transverse bands and a yellowish stripe along each side. It has three pairs of long, fleshy tentacles; the larval monarch has only two.

- The short, rounded chrysalides of both danaids are both green with golden spots.

- Season: March - December; erratic from year to year.

A Monarch had laid eggs on my grandmother's milkweed again were I found this teeny tiny baby caterpillar. I also looked under all the leaves and found five more teeny tiny baby caterpillars.

I will ask my mom to take a picture of them every few days to keep ya updated.

- Scientific name: Megisto cymela

- Description: Two large, yellow-rimmed eyespots on each wing, both above and below, distinguish it from other local species. The upper spot on the hindwing above may at times be reduced or absent, however, and smaller eyespots often cluster around the larger ones on the hindwing below.

- Size: 1.625 - 1.875 inches.

- Range: The little wood satyr inhibits most of eastern North America, southern Canada to the Great Plains. It occurs in eastern and central Texas, where it prefers open woodlands and brushy fields but often wanders into urban parks and yards.

- In spite of its name, the littele wood satyr is larger than most of the other small satyrs with which it was once grouped in the genus Eupytychia.

- On the wing from April to September most of the deep South, the little wood satyr has a leisurely bouncing flight. Unlike most of the grass-loving satyrs, it may soar high above the trees; at other times, it darts low into the underbush when pursued.

- Active through most of the daylight hours, this pretty satyr basks with open wings in patches of sunlight early in the morning and late in the afternoon. For the remainder of the day, it seems to prefer shady locations.

- It takes nourishment from tree sap and decaying fruit, nectaring at flowers only on rare occasions. When it does visit flowers, it seems to prefer white or pale-colored blooms, usually in late afternoon.

- The female lays her eggs singly on various grasses, and the larvae hide by day and feed actively at night, making them extremey difficult to find.

- Pale brown tinged with green, each caterpillar has a dark dorsal stripe bordered with brown. The head and anal fork are dirty white.

- There is apparently a single brood in the North, two or more in the South, and the larvae hibernate through the winter.

- Although the littlevwood satyr is the most widespread of the satyrids in the eastern U.S., and at the most abundant, much remains to be learned about its biology.

- Scientific name: Phoebis agarithe

- Also known as Orange giamt sulphur and Cloudless orange.

- Description: The male is a clear, unmarked golden orange above. Females vary from yellow-orange to creamy white, the latter form shaded with salmon-pink scales. The forewing of the female, both above and below, and the underside of the male's forewing bear a distinctive straight, continuous submarginal row of dark smudges.

- Size: 2.25 - 2.75 inches.

- Range: This large, showy butterfly ranges throughout much of lowland tropical America, from Peru northward to South Texas and Florida, and occasionally stray beyond in mid to late summer. Less migratory than the cloudless sulphur, it is nevertheless a strong flier and has been reported on rare occasions from as far north as South Dakota and Wisconisn.

- The large orange sulphur frequents a wide variety of flowers, including those of suburban gardens, and descenda readily to sip moisture at puddles.

- Larval food plants include woody legumes placed by many authors in the mimosa family, Mimosaceae. Other botanists considered this group to be a subfamily of the Fabaceae. Members of the genus pithecellobium, appear to be the most frequent hosts, but Inga and Cassia (now Senna) are also listed in several references.

- The Larva are green, with yellow stripe on side edged below with black or dark green.

- The large orange sulphur can be easily missed among the much more abundant cloudless sulphurs. Its large size and great beauty, however, make it worth the painstaking search.