The martha of all butterflies

Live your wildest dreams with Martha - that is if you, like me, dream of B.O.U.S.s (Butterflies of unusual size)

Want to bring all the splendor of a summer meadow into your bedroom? Well apparently you can with the new...GADZOOKS THOSE ARE HUGE!

I doubt very much that Martha consulted her entomologist before publishing this advertisement.  Not only do mutated butterflies adorn the wall, but also multiple size variants of what looks like Urania ripheus - a cool day flying moth from Madagascar.  The scene recalls to mind the classic tabloid headline: "Farmer shoots 6-ft. butterfly!"

Thanks to my grandmother for thoughtfully putting this advert aside for me!

First monarch sighting of 2012

A 2010 monarch lays an egg on milkweed

 While the Journey North webpage indicates that my old friend Danaus plexippus has been in Delaware for some weeks, I saw my first female this past week.  The migratory female that I saw was drab colored and ragged, which suggests to me that it may have traveled quite far this Spring.

  Some of the common milkweed that we planted 2 years ago is just barely starting to poke through the soil, but it's a ready target for ovipositing females.  We may have the only Asclepias in the neighborhood, and a female kept circling back and searching for an open spot to place an egg.  The tip of the milkweed ramet below already had 7 pinhead-sized eggs on it!  Monarchs have high mortality in the early caterpillar stages, and milkweed grows quickly from its underground rhizomes, so there should be plenty of food for everyone when they hatch.

Monarchs are good at finding their Asclepias host plant, even when it is barely poking above the ground.