Saturday, April 14, 2007

Operation: Make a Butterfly


Sweet Mother of Pearl. What is that? That's my happy solution in the trying-to-grow-a -butterfly saga. Last Saturday, snow was on the Texas weather menu and caterpillars don't do well in possible freezing temps. I couldn't bring it in and I was fresh out of teeny-tiny parkas. Duct tape and a faucet cover sufficed nicely. And the elevation in property value...priceless.

I discovered Jay or Jaynette on Friday, April 6th. The little orange and black striped 'cat' was rippling along the siding. I thought- aw, wouldn't it be neat if it were about to make a chrysalis. Bingo.

About an hour later I found it in the "J" position, hence the original name. Apparently, this is butterfly lingo in the Entomologist world. The best I can tell from fuzzy pics on butterfly sites, is that it is some type of Fritillary.

Butterflies are treasures at my house. I love to watch them dance through my property bringing Spring on their wings. Last year, I had a Monarch hatch from my porch railing and I let the Milkweed re-seed itself.

I'll keep posting updated pics as he/she develops. Hopefully, I will be on hand for the unveiling.

This is just an hour after noticing it wandering about.

This was on Wednesday the 11th.

2 comments:

ShabbyInTheCity said...

Wow! I probably would have missed this! My mother wouldn't have though.
You didn't post your award! The little button on my page is take-able you know. And you can name 5 more winners if you like.

Shaun said...

Oh. I'm not very bloggy and hip. Of course, me using the word "hip" already speaks to that. I didn't really know what to do. :) Thanks again for the honor. You really can't know the depth that things like this mean to me...