"Desk Top Monarch" Hatches from Cocoon

A while back we had Monarch caterpillars spinning their cocoons on a stand of Milkweed in the yard.

Here's a shot of one such chrysalis:
One of those caterpillars didn't quite understand the concept of attaching to something before "going full-cocoon".
I was waking through the yard and found his cocoon, just lying on the ground.

I was afraid he might get stepped on, so I put the cocoon in a cup and placed it on my desk.

For about ten days, I watched for signs of development.
Eventually, I noticed a change in color.
As the chrysalis became darker, I began to see black and orange colors showing through.
Then, one day last week, I noticed that the cocoon had broken open.

I placed the cup out in the sun and took the following four photos:



Then I placed him on a Milkweed plant and took photos while he unfurled his wings and filled them with epoxy-like fluid.

Notice in the next photo how the wings are small and shriveled and the Monarch's abdomen is enlarged.
When butterflies and moths emerge from a cocoon, their wings are loose and need to be...well...for want of a better word - "inflated".
So the abdomen, which is full of fluid,
pumps that fluid into the veins of the wings.

The fluid hardens in a matter of hours, like epoxy, and the butterfly or moth is ready for flight.

Take a close look at the Monarch's wings in the next shot, and you'll see the veins, which are black, filled with fluid.
The butterfly now waits patiently for his wings to dry before flight.

So after our "Desktop Monarch" had completed the wing-drying phase, he seemed reluctant to fly.
I'm guessing he needed some extra energy.
I sure would after such an ordeal.

So we decided to move the butterfly to a Penta plant that is popular with butterflies in the yard.
My eight-year-old daughter was tasked with the job of butterfly moving.

Amazed at first.

Smiling for the camera with her new buddy.

Notice the two black dots on the lower wings?
Those are scent glands that only male Monarchs have.
They attract female Monarchs.

A butterfly also makes a nice broach.
Just ask my daughter.

Here's our "Desk Top Monarch" on a Penta plant.

He spent the night there, but in the morning he was gone - probably out there using his scent glands to find himself a date!

The "Armchair Cocoon" Opens Up

When you encourage butterflies to lay eggs in your yard, you get a lot of caterpillars crawling around.
Now and then they choose odd places to spin their cocoons.
Such is the case of the one in the following photo:So for the last two or three weeks since I spotted that cocoon, I've been watching to see when it would open up.

Today was the day.
Unfortunately the butterfly was awake this morning a lot earlier than I was, so I missed the stages leading up to this image.

But there you have it - the "Armchair Cocoon" opened up to reveal a shiny, perfect, brand new Gulf Fritillary.

Right Place, Right Time?

Every now and then, I find myself in the right place, at the right time.
This afternoon, I walked out into the yard, and there, on a leaf of one of the milkweed plants, was a Green Bottle Fly.

Creeping up behind that fly...was an Assassin Bug.

I ran back inside and got my camera.
There was no time to set up the tripod and activate the remote trigger, so I just held real still and started shooting.
The Assassin Bug is a very patient and stealthy hunter, often laying in wait for just the right opportunity.

You'll notice a strand of spider-web attached to the leaf. It has nothing to do with either insect here. Assassin Bugs share some hunting traits with spiders, but they do not spin webs.

This shiny green fly (which was probably waiting for a chance to get inside my house with all of his buddies), was the perfect "customer" for the Assassin Bug.

He was completely oblivious of his imminent fate.

In the time it took me to grab my camera and start shooting, the hunter had crept from two inches away, to just within snatching range.

The snatch happened so quick, there's no way I could have captured it.
But I got the "before and after".

Here's the duo just before the snatch.

And here's the "assassination"

Assassin Bugs are members of the "True Bug" family known as Hemiptera.
They can inflict a painful bite if not handled correctly.
Many species of Assassin Bugs exist.
All share the same method of hunting and immobilizing their prey with a venom-injecting beak.

Here's a link to a good description page on Assassin Bugs:

http://www.kaweahoaks.com/html/assissin_bug.html

Like I said:
every now and then, I find myself in the right place, at the right time.
Today, the fly was in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

If you ask me,
the fly had it coming.

Two Fuzzy Bees in Seattle

I shot these images in my brother-in-law's backyard in Seattle.
I'm not certain of the exact species of the bees here, but they're some type of Bumble or Carpenter Bee by my estimation.
Two different species, I think.

Dragonfly

A few days ago a blue dragonfly visited the yard.
It was a magnificent creature, and not easy to sneak up on and photograph.
The head was almost completely coverd with compound eyes, and the abdomen (that's the tail) looked like some kind of Navajo jewelry. Actually, the whole bug looked like it was sculpted from turquoise stone.
If you click on the image, you'll notice that all six legs are mounted to the thorax as far forward as possible, giving the dragonfly the ability to more effectively capture other flying insects in mid air.
As beautiful as they are, these insects are fierce predators.
I remember about ten years ago there was a product on the market that was designed to deter mosquitos.
How did it work?
By emitting a small sound that resembled the beating of dragonfly wings. I don't know if it worked, but if I were a mosquito, I'd stay the heck away from one of these little flying monsters.

Planting Day

photos by Cassandra Mohr


Well, today we got serious.
My daughters and I set out to plant the seeds that had been sitting in a little pile on my desk for two weeks.
I started out with nine of them.
Then, one day, my eight-year-old asked me out of the blue: "Daddy, could we eat some of the sunflower seeds on your desk?".
When I told her that we wouldn't be eating them because they were for planting, she followed up with: "but what would happen if we DID eat some?"
When I got back to my desk, I noticed that I was down to eight.
Hmm.

When we sat down to crack open the shells so we could plant the seeds, my eight-year-old reached for the pliers and utterly destroyed another seed.
We were down to seven.

I was actually pleased with this because I'd been thinking for some time about writing a post entitled "It all started with seven seeds".
From that point on, we decided that the best way to open the shells was with our teeth.

Then we opened the other ones.
As far as I can tell, my daughter ate and crushed two of the three good seeds.
All the rest were empty shells with little nubs where the seed should have been.

"What the heck?! that's not a seed!"

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you THE seed!

Bella showing off her gardening shoes.
As an added bonus, they're waterproof!

Because I'm a little obsessive-compulsive, we went ahead and planted the seven remaining "seeds". I'll be surprised if we get more than one plant. Heck! I'll be pleasantly surprised if we get ONE plant!

I let Bella, the seed-eating, watershoe-wearing wonderchild do the watering.

The Inspiration

Sunflowers.
They've always caught my attention, but lately I've found a reason to contemplate them further.

You see, recently I discovered photography, and while I'm a novice at best, I do have a few areas of interest:
My kids - yeah, I'm a typical dad
Gondolas - see my gondolablog and you'll witness a new level of obsession
Old buildings - especially in Italy and New York City
none of the above subjects surprised me - I'd been taking photos of them with cheap cameras long before I upgraded to a more serious one.
What did surprise me, was how I was drawn to photograph insects, and many of God's other small creations.

As a child, I would spend hours each day obsessed with insects: reading up on them, observing them, chasing them down, and pretty much obsessing over them like I do these days with gondolas. In fact, this tendency to focus so completely on one area of interest seems to run in my family.

Even though it's been decades since I was a "junior entomologist", my appreciation for bugs has found new life, with a camera instead of a butterfly net.

What does this have to do with sunflowers?
the best place to observe many insects is on or near flowers.
Flowers are designed to attract pollinating insects, and there's no bigger attractant than a sunflower.
It's a whomping-big beacon that screams "HEY! POLLINATE ME!" to any flying thing in the area that pollinates.

So after spending some time taking pictures around sunflowers in the neighborhood, I've decided it's time to plant some in my yard, and tomorrow's the big day.

Post #1

Welcome to the "Sunflowers in the Yard" weblog.

The primary purpose for this page to chronicle the planting of sunflowers in my yard.
I know - "Whoopee"
it doesn't sound very exciting, but my hope is to make it interesting and entertaining to anyone willing to read my ramblings.
I'll probably throw some other yard-related things up to try and amuse readers.

This weblog is also an experiment; because at this writing I know very little about sunflowers, so as I learn and experience things, you'll get to hear about it.
The learning experience is as fresh for you as it is for me.
That really is just a fancy way of saying that I'm flying by the seat of my pants here.
I'm used to only writing about subjects I'm well-acquainted with, so this experiment should prove to be interesting and challenging.
At the very least, it ought to give readers an opportunity to laugh, either with me or at me.