It's the season for Monarch caterpillars to be munching away on the Milkweed, and we have several just outside the living room window. Then a neighbour who's one of my loyal blog readers brought me in a quite dead insect they has taken from a spider web at the church. It turned out to be a damselfly.
A Monarch or two have been dancing through the air over the backyard garden, but never stopping for long enough for me to get a picture. But I guess they do stop long enough to lay eggs on the Milkweed, though they feed on various different flowers. This is a picture I borrowed from a previous year.
This is the first photo Mrs. F.G. took of a Monarch caterpillar munching its way up a leaf.
This is all I got a shot of that morning, a little head emerging from beneath the leaf and munching away.
The next day I got a couple of much better shots. These caterpillars are getting fairly large and will soon be hanging under the leaves as a chrysalis.
A final shot, those yellow, black and white stripes always marking Monarch caterpillars. I am still very pleased with my new camera's zoom ability.
And this is the insect a neighbour brought over, quite dead, but interesting to look at up close.
Look at the blue colour on that long narrow abdomen.
So I looked up Damselflies, which I thought it was, and confirmed my suspicion. Damselflies are light, narrower than Dragonflies, with smaller eyes. It fit all the pictures.
However, when I tried to narrow it down to a species, I was stumped. There are 23 species of Damselfly in Ontario, and a lot of them feature the colour blue! I can rule out about half if them, but that leaves me with a dozen to choose from. So you'll have to be happy with knowing it's a Damselfly. And thanks Ron.
What vivid blue for the body, and those delicate wings. Monarchs, did I read somewhere they are getting low in their population, due to the plants they feed on being in short supply? I read that the count in Mexico where they winter over was way down on previous years , but that was some years ago.How does anyone count monarch butterflies in huge numbers?? Maybe you will have some good reasons as to how they do this.So here, this summer, I will plant lots of goodies for their food.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a Monarch caterpillar (or just not noticed them). Mind you I'm not sure I've seen a milkweed either. The damselfly is an interesting looking bug. I bet you could lie about the species and none of us would be even the wiser. :p
ReplyDeleteI believe I read somewhere that damselflies fold their wings when they alight on a stem of something. Poor little one has no control of her wings any more. Yes, I also read that Monarch butterflies are now an endangered species. I too love your new camera on your phone! Keep on taking pictures!
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures, especially of the Monarch caterpillar!!
ReplyDeleteYour cellphone's camera does a nice job. The deceased appears to be a male ebony jewelwing damselfly; the females have more subdued colors and a white spot on the end of the wing -- he was beheaded at some point and has lost several segments from the end of the abdomen.
ReplyDeleteAwesome photos of the caterpillar!!
ReplyDeleteWow, Woody seems to really know his stuff. I was in an industrial area off highway 400 this morning and there were several Monarchs flitting around where I was parked. A good sign.
ReplyDeleteThe Monarch caterpillars look hand painted!
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about getting a new Samsung phone and also a new sony camera to use on vacations, and after seeing the pictures you have been taking with with your SR 22, I decided I could combine two things in one and went ahead and got a new SR 22. It will take as good a pictures as I will ever need and will be easier to carry around than a heavy SLR. Thanks for showing us what a really good camera phone cn do.
ReplyDeleteThree years ago I was delighted to witness Monarchs emerging on three different occasions. Of course I posted about it. This was the first https://anvilcloud.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-release-of-monarchs.html
ReplyDeleteFabulous photos of those caterpillars. And I also read that monarchs are now an endangered species, so I'm happy to see you still have some. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt has been many decades since I last saw a Monarch caterpillar but I recognized it right away when I saw your pictures. It seems once again this summer that Monarch butterflies in our area are about as rare as hen's teeth. I could even push that a wee bit farther and include all butterflies. Just not seeing them like other years.
ReplyDeleteNicely done with your phone! I spotted my first caterpillar this week. We seem to be on a later flight path. Congrats!
ReplyDeleteI have been searching for Monarch eggs or caterpillars over the last couple of weeks but my milkweeds are caterpillar free. Not sure why.
ReplyDeleteawesome snaps!! i really enjoyed seeing the monarch caterpillar, i too have read about their decline. i have the new iphone and have been using it for a lot of my pictures. the zoom capability is awesome and i think it is taking better pictures than my camera!!
ReplyDeleteSplendid!
ReplyDeleteI see damselflies around here too and just kind of ignore them. Since we are having any sightings of any good butterflies I should appreciate seeing them more. I need to get some milkweed plants.
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