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Post by bluemoth on Jan 21, 2014 12:09:58 GMT -8
Well it is record setting heat wave and drought with no rain in central coastal California. A butterfly must have been confused and thought it was spring. I found two Painted Lady larva on my mallow plants. I put up my black light last night and had nice number of winter moth spices. Over wintering Monarchs are having an easy time this winter. But drought will result in less food plants in spring for Monarchs and other leaf feeding insects.
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Post by admin on Jan 21, 2014 12:30:31 GMT -8
I got cabbage whites ovipositing on my nasturtiums in January, so things are looking up. And I just received a report that the Sonoran blue and Sara orange-tips have made their first appearance in my local mountains (San Gabriel Mountains). When you see these butterflies then you know that spring has sprung already.
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Post by joee30 on Jan 21, 2014 14:38:22 GMT -8
You guys are lucky to have stuff flying. Here in Reno, the days are mild, but it's cold at night. Not much flying yet. We only had a couple of days of snow. It's gonna be a dry year here.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2014 15:26:33 GMT -8
Wow. Its 17 degrees here in Illinois right now! I wont see a butterfly for another two months at least.
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Post by palaeogama on Jan 21, 2014 19:54:37 GMT -8
Do not complain guys... Here in Montréal, it will be like in Artic for the next 48hres.
-26 celcius , = feel like -36 with the win. To simplify for you, -32 in Fahrenheit. It is time of the year
you stay inside and only dream of butterfly. Pierre
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Post by gauthier on Jan 22, 2014 0:21:10 GMT -8
Painted Lady isn't an overwintering Butterfly?
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Post by Zacatak on Jan 22, 2014 12:00:21 GMT -8
yes the painted lady is a overwintering species.
i have quite a tale of this species, vanessa kershawi (the australian painted lady) well about a month ago a friend of mine caught a wild female that had been blown from Australia to New Zealand. it happen to lay eggs and now i am raising the larvae. quite often most years australain butterflies find the way across the tasman sea to our country. finding them is a rarity, to have them breed is a hope. ive also had the same thing happen with australian lesser wanderer butterflies.
cheers zac
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2014 15:18:14 GMT -8
Minus 32 degrees. Yikes
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evra
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Post by evra on Jan 22, 2014 16:04:43 GMT -8
I think V. cardui generally colonizes from Mexico every year. During some springs, the Mojave desert on the AZ-CA border can have clouds of tens of thousands of them that you hit with your car on I-10.
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Post by boghaunter1 on Jan 23, 2014 9:05:19 GMT -8
Soooooo TRUE!... especially this winter! John K.
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Post by bluemoth on Jan 23, 2014 12:24:37 GMT -8
Here in Santa Cruz County CA there should be no Painted Lady Butterflies this time of year. Sense my first post I have had two adult Painted Ladies visit my lantana. Some spring moths also making an apperence at this time of year way to early like Lappet and Emerald moths.
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Post by admin on Jan 23, 2014 13:08:12 GMT -8
Here in Santa Cruz County CA there should be no Painted Lady Butterflies this time of year. Sense my first post I have had two adult Painted Ladies visit my lantana. Some spring moths also making an apperence at this time of year way to early like Lappet and Emerald moths. Thar' ya go! We might be having an early spring here in California. It's happened before. Unfortunately we are experiencing an extreme drought in this state so the leps are not going to find much host plants or nectar plants as they are used to.
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Post by joee30 on Jan 25, 2014 11:48:35 GMT -8
It's going to be the same here in the Great Basin. We had one big snowstorm, and a couple of snow showers a month ago. Now, it's been in the 50's in the day, and 30's at night. Unless we get some real good rain in the spring, this winter is about done here, and it's going to be a very dry, and very fiery summer. :/
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Post by suzuki on Jan 25, 2014 12:48:18 GMT -8
From flooded Great Britain we would be happy to export water to California.
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Post by davemoore on Jan 26, 2014 14:45:29 GMT -8
Hi Suzuki You have a message Dave
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