There’s something cheerful about seeing queen caterpillars in January.
It seems optimistic.
Hopefully spring — and queen butterflies — is around the corner.
Category: butterflies (Page 5 of 43)
Even though we’re well into the new year, here are a few photo favorites from 2019. By the way, none of these photographs have been edited.
Honey bee flying with loaded pollen baskets (legs)
Butterflies love zinnias.
Dragonfly perching.
Flower fly on a brittlebush flower
Cabbage butterfly caterpillar
Queen butterfly chrysalis
Web on a leaf
Let’s end with another honey bee.
Happy New Year!
It is common to find caterpillars in Arizona this time of year, but during a recent trip to Pennsylvania and New York State I was surprised to find both moth and butterfly caterpillars active in late October.
My sister still had lovely kale plants in her garden, as well as a caterpillar or two.
These are the larvae of the cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae.
The butterflies were also flitting about. My sister didn’t need to worry about this one, though. It is a male. I can tell because it has a single dot of black in the middle of each forewing. The females have two dots.
It isn’t quite so unusual to see goldenrod in bloom.
If you know where to look, you can also see a caterpillar.
If if it finishes developing in time, this caterpillar will likely become a moth.
Want to learn more? Try some of our Moth Blog Posts at Growing With Science:
- Investigating Butterflies and Moths
- At the Growing Website: Butterflies versus Moths in detail
- Moth Caterpillars
- Life Cycle of a Moth
- Moth Identification 1
- Moth Identification 2
- Older, but popular post about raising caterpillars
- Gardening for Moths
- Moth Poem
- Tiger Moths
- Tufted Bird Dropping Moth
- Butterfly Papercrafts book
Perhaps I should have named it caterpillar week!
Related posts for Moth Week:
- Monday: Not a Bean book about Mexican Jumping Beans
- Tuesday: New adult-level book, Moths: A Complete Guide to Biology and Behavior
- Friday: Not a Butterfly Alphabet Book
For more information, see Roberta Gibson Writes.