Garden critters
Feb. 4th, 2013 01:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rose_catTwenty-two monarch chrysalises out in the garden now. TWENTY-TWO!
I doubt if they'll all make it to healthy adulthood -- chrysalises die, or the butterflies don't emerge properly, or are deformed, for all sorts of reasons -- but I've got my fingers crossed. If at least half of them come out looking good and fly away strongly, I'll be happy.
I've got pictures back of all the chrysalises but one, and I'll get them up ASAP. I'd like to make a map of the yard and where they've ended up, but that's going to take some time.
I want to do one more search (crawling around at caterpillar level), and maybe I'll find a few more. All of the caterpillars -- except for one that doesn't look like it's going to make it -- have gone and done their thing now.
I'm hoping the nice weather will hold for a couple more weeks so they can finish developing, emerge and get on with their lives.
I've gotten back some more nice pictures of the green lynx spiders too. The babies are all out, and Mom has stopped protecting what's left of the nest, although she's stayed in the general area at the top of the geranium. I don't know if she's reaching the end of her life, or just likes it there. She's been catching bees fairly often. (Green lynx spiders are very fond of bees.)
Two of the little spiders seem to have settled nearby, one on a leaf near Mom's territory, and one a few inches away on another plant, in a sprig of flowers. I've seen them three days in a row now. They're getting gradually bigger, so they must be hunting successfully.
I doubt if they'll all make it to healthy adulthood -- chrysalises die, or the butterflies don't emerge properly, or are deformed, for all sorts of reasons -- but I've got my fingers crossed. If at least half of them come out looking good and fly away strongly, I'll be happy.
I've got pictures back of all the chrysalises but one, and I'll get them up ASAP. I'd like to make a map of the yard and where they've ended up, but that's going to take some time.
I want to do one more search (crawling around at caterpillar level), and maybe I'll find a few more. All of the caterpillars -- except for one that doesn't look like it's going to make it -- have gone and done their thing now.
I'm hoping the nice weather will hold for a couple more weeks so they can finish developing, emerge and get on with their lives.
I've gotten back some more nice pictures of the green lynx spiders too. The babies are all out, and Mom has stopped protecting what's left of the nest, although she's stayed in the general area at the top of the geranium. I don't know if she's reaching the end of her life, or just likes it there. She's been catching bees fairly often. (Green lynx spiders are very fond of bees.)
Two of the little spiders seem to have settled nearby, one on a leaf near Mom's territory, and one a few inches away on another plant, in a sprig of flowers. I've seen them three days in a row now. They're getting gradually bigger, so they must be hunting successfully.
