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Release counts
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Posted by fighting8r 10 Fort Myers Florid (My Page) on Wed, Oct 28, 09 at 14:50
| I'm always amazed at the numbers mentioned here "I have fifty chrysalides" or "I released fifty such-and-such BFs one day." Anyway since it seems to be the end of the season for much of the country, how many did you release this year?? Our friends and neighbors think we raise a lot but it is nothing compared to some of you guys, so I am curious. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Release counts
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| Haha, I have released one GST thus far, and she was released today, and not a moment to soon as I was starting to wonder if I would ever actually see the end result of this process!!! I have 6 more GST chrysalides and I have 17 cats... 12 of them are last instar (pretty sure they are anyway), 2 are third instar, and the other 3 are in their second instar. And I am hoping that I will have all of them released within 4 weeks, which is probably not going to happen, but I am hoping anyway, lol. |
RE: Release counts
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Funny you should ask, since this is the first year I've kept records.
My numbers have been greatly reduced this year. I'm no longer getting any question marks at all, and I didn't bring in but three sulphurs to raise myself, I left most of the gulf frits to raise themselves, and I was sick when the monarch laid eggs on my MW, so they raised themselves, also. Still, many of these cats that raised themselves did successfully pupate and emerge -
 Here are my paltry numbers - American Ladies - 19
Red Admirals - 19
Giant Swallowtails - 26
Palamedes Swallowtails - 4
Red-spotted Purples - 12
Sleepy Oranges - 3
Spicebush Swallowtails - 6
Pipevine Swallowtails - 12
Gulf Fritillaries - 83
Black Swallowtails - 6
Buckeyes - 12
Tiger Swallowtails - 1
TOTAL - 203 I've got around 60 pipevine swallowtail chrsyalides overwintering now, so next year they should be up to their normal numbers. This count also leaves out moths and the question mark and comma chrysalides that I received from a friend that successfully emerged. Sherry |
RE: Release counts
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| Guess I'll include mine, although I hope to release a lot more before end of the year. I have a bunch of zlw cats, monarchs, queens, polys (always!), sulphurs, and gsts in cat or chrysalis form still going. And we released quite a few in Nov/Dec last year, so I anticipate lots of releases for the next couple of months. Anyway, it's our (me and my five-year-old son) first year (actually raised our first cats last fall and started keeping numbers in January). This doesn't include a few where the chrysalids were left outside to release themselves or the ones my neighbor released while we were on summer vacation. Anyway, here they are: Monarch 33
Gulf Fritillary 24
Zebra Longwing 3
Polydamas Swallowtail 52
Queen 2
Black Swallowtail 18 Total: 132 Doesn't seem like much after all that! Oh well a lot more than there would've been if they'd been on their own. |
RE: Release counts
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| Interesting that you ask as I was just telling my hubby that this year I decided NOT to keep records of the numbers I release! It got to be too cumbersome...I did release a lovely female Cabbage White this morning. I'd released six Monarchs the other day at school and released several more the day before. I also released a Gulf Frit the same day. There are just too many to keep count of; between collecting and counting the eggs and all. I do know this has been a landmark year for me as far as Monarchs go, though. :) My hats off to all of you who did keep records. :) |
RE: Release counts
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| I released 11 monarchs and 12 BST...and have 3 BST chrysalises that are overwintering outside in a metal locker. This is only my second year. |
RE: Release counts
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| I use a spreadsheet that automatically tallies for me each time I make an entry. I guess there is no way to share excel docs on here but could email to anyone who would like... |
RE: Release counts
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| The season here started (for caterpillars) in June, and is quite thoroughly finished by now. Here are my (rather small) release numbers: Black Swallowtail (Papilio polexenes): 1 - eclosed 9/8
Sulphur (Colias eurytheme or philodice, probably): 1 caterpillar overwintering
Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus): 4
Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia): 9 or 12 - my records are unclear
Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui): 12 healthy adults
Monarch (Danaus plexippus): 20
Sphinx moth (Paonias myops, I think): 1
Geometrid: 1 The 20 Monarchs don't include 5 caterpillars and a small number of eggs that I gave to a neighbor. As an interesting note, the neighbor is a high school biology teacher, and she took the caterpillars to the school where she teaches. Another teacher "borrowed" them at times to show her class. Between the two teachers, I believe I was told that about 200-300 students saw the caterpillars. I was also told that they were quite popular with the kids. As far as I know, they eclosed successfully (the butterflies, not the kids). I did not attempt to id the geometrid. It ate Black Medic (Medicago lupulina) at first, then changed to cherry of some kind (Prunus serotina?); it had three pairs of prolegs. In addition to these lepidoptera, I also found a queen ant in July, and I now have a colony going. The second generation of workers is starting to emerge. -Jmcat |
RE: Release counts
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| I am now up to 6 gsts!!!! I released 4 yesterday, one today, and one a while back. the one I released this morning, was a TOTAL surprise, and I am so thankful she is okey!! She is the one that pupated on the side of a plastic container rather than on the sticks I had placed in the container. I debated on whether or not to try and remove the pupa from the plastic and try to reattach it some cardboard and place in reptarium, but I decided against it, because I was too afraid that I would damage the pupa. I put some sticks in the container (plastic pitcher) and a small towel at the bottom so it would be able to climb when it emerged, and have kept a close eye on it, especially since I have had so many emerge this week. Checked it monday night and still didn't look any different, came home from work yesterday and fed the other caterpillars and then checked the container to see if the chrysalide looked dark or like the butterfly was getting ready, and to my horror, noticed that it was empty!!! I was afraid to look in the bottom of the container because I just knew I was going to find either a dead or deformed butterfly, and I saw her wedged between the towel and the side of container at the bottom, and i almost started crying, i carefully moved the towel and to my surprise when I did, she flew out and was flying all over the house, lol. I was so happy she was fine, I guess she must have crawled onto the tulle covering the contaier and hung upside down before Isaw her and must have fallen down in between the towel and side of pitcher after her wings had already dried, THank goodness!!! Because she was obviously fine, lol. It took me a while to catch her and get her into the reptarium, she landed on my head several times, tv, window seal, ceiling fan, you name it, haha. Finally she landed on my hand and I was able to put her in the cage!! I was so relieved she was okay, when I saw her there in the bottom of container, I just knew she had been there since she emerged and was going to have deformed crumpled wings. I am surprised at how tough they seem to be even though they are so delicate. The two little "tails" at bottom of her wings were slightly bent, but she didn't seem bothered by it! She flew off this morning and landed in a tree, and sat there probably 5-10 minutes, I was worried but she finally flew off and started nectaring on some wild flowers! Haha, raising these creatures has been the most amazing experience! |
RE: Release counts
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| It's exciting to read about other people's releases. I didn't keep count this year after my accident. I think every butterfly we raise and release is a lucky one! |
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