What a beautiful picture, Sandy!

Red admirals are interesting butterflies - they'll land on you sometimes! :)

Sherry

Nice capture! Wish I could track a few more of them down they sure are pretty.

SCG

I was surprised it tolerated me being so close when I was cleaning up the garden. Within a couple inches at times, and it didn't seem to mind at all.

I hope I get some more, I love the coloration. I need to find out what it could possibly be hosting on.

I'm not sure what they host on, but we had a swarm of these on the neighbor's basswood tree a few years ago. There must have been several hundred butterflies. I think the tree was releasing sap at the time, and that the butterflies were feeding.

They use nettles, both stinging and false. I get the impression from what posters have said on the forum that stinging nettles are the ones to have up North, and false nettles, down here in the Deep South. Years ago a poster sent me some stinging nettles for RAs, I planted them, and when the weather got hot and humid they died. I found some false nettles/Boehmeria cylindrica growing in a low wet area nearby, I took a cutting, which rooted quickly and easily, planted it, and they've been expanding ever since. Others up north have said their false nettles wouldn't live.
Every year in the spring, sometimes in summer, I get RA eggs and cats. Their biggest enemy is a type of tiny parasitic wasp that does its evil VERY early on - maybe to the egg? - that leaves a very small white cocoon besides the dead caterpillar in the RA leaf nest.

{{gwi:465966}}

Sherry

I am so impressed with all of your open wing shots folks. The one I chased would NOT open them except to fly.

Great photo's.

SCG

Oh my, they sure are beautiful! Wonderful photos, both of you. I'd love to see one around here.

My yard is still not set up to be a real draw for butterflies, so I am mainly going out to local parks to butterfly watch. The new one for me yesterday was a Viceroy. It sat quietly for a long time, which was a good thing because it took me a couple of minutes to realize it wasn't a monarch! Finally I noticed the black line in the hind wing, plus it was much quieter and less flitty in its behavior. Another great sighting for me yesterday was a white lined sphinx moth. Those sphinx moths resemble hummingbirds so much I do a double take every time I see one.

Congratulations on the new visitor, monkeybelle. Send his sister up north for me, okay?
Liz

Here is a link that might be useful: White lined sphinx moth

Great shots!
I have seen them on Basswood as well. I think they like the nectar as well as the sap.
We have had RA blooms in 2007 and 2011 due to mild winters.
Stinging nettles are the ones to have up here in early Spring when RAs are flying, as False Nettles come way later as reseeding annuals. A combo of both assures food for both early and late Red Admirals.

Sandy,
That's a very nice photo of a Red Admiral! I think that they're so pretty. I usually see them here every year, if only for a very brief time, but I haven't seen any at all here this year. I have false nettle growing for them and raised some last year. I haven't seen any at all this year though. Like Sherry said, those darn parasitic wasps don't waste any time in finding the nests and killing the tiny RA cats. I always open up the nests to see if those tiny white cocoons are inside; if they are, I destroy them to try to cut down on the number of wasps to get after future RA cats.
Cathy

Well, I definitely don't have nettles of any sort. Maybe there are in the surrounding area. I will keep my eye out!

SCG, I was dying to get a shot of the underside of the wing, the pattern is gorgeous, similar to American Ladies, with a flash of blue. I wouldn't cooperate, the opposite of yours!

Liz, I'll see what I can do, haha. I'd love to see a sphinx moth. For whatever reason, my husband is always the one to see big moths, and they're usually while he's at work. He saw a big green one the other day that he thought was a crumpled dollar bill until he tried to grab it and got quite a surprise!

Sherry-mine was perched upside down on my house for a while, like yours. Any idea why some species tend to do that? I've noticed buckeyes do that was well.

Try hops as a host plant this admiral. Lots of hops commercial acreage out this way, lots of local microbreweries.

LOL monkeybelle...i have hundreds of underside wing shots I am willing to trade!

I also knew there was an underlying reason I planted hops this year. hehe.

SCG