Butterfly Weather

As expected, the two final butterflies emerged in the dining room this morning. There was a small complication with releasing them, however: today the remnants of hurricane Florence passed through our state, and it rained most of the day. The forecast was for it to rain all day, and we were told we could expect up to 4 inches of rain, so I didn't think I could release the butterflies. But I didn't want to keep them until tomorrow, because that seemed like too long a time. I wasn't sure what to do about it, but then it stopped raining in the middle of the afternoon. I still wasn't sure if I should release them, because I worried about them if it started raining again, but then it occurred to me that if I had not raised them in my dining room they would have eclosed in the rain, and been out in the rain from the beginning, and millions, no, billions, no, more than that many butterflies over the millennia have burst out into the weather and been absolutely fine. I was being overly cautious, I told myself. Butterflies can handle the weather. In fact, last week one of the news articles I read about Florence as she approached landfall was one that was trying to reassure people that the monarch migration would not be wiped out by the storm because any butterflies caught in it would just find a roost and wait it out. So surely they could handle going out into the world in my backyard during a lull in the rain? I could put them in a sheltered place, I told myself.

So, I went and opened the back door in preparation of releasing the butterflies and saw... a butterfly. A monarch, I thought at first, until I recognized it as a viceroy. It was fluttering around on my back porch, landing on the leaves of the back porch tree (I thought maybe laying eggs, but I didn't find any). Then it fluttered around the back door for a while and then flew away. Perfectly fine (well, it had a torn wing, but still). The rain had only stopped a few minutes previous. I don't know where she was before that, maybe she was sheltered on the porch the whole time, but she might have been flying in the rain. Obviously, I was worried about nothing.

Now, about those two butterflies...

 I discovered somewhere between three and four in the morning that it had already emerged. The leaf to the left in this picture is where its chrysalis had been, and it apparently crawled from there to the upright of the rack to stretch its wings. I had been very concerned about it coming out and possibly being deformed because of where it had made its chrysalis, but so far, it looked fine.

 Here you can see the butterfly and the other chrysalis, in the leaf above it.

 I moved it onto a leaf of the plant so it would have more room as its wings continued to expand. It was obvious that its wings were completely normal.

 By 8:30 in the morning this is what I found in the enclosure. The one on the right is the one that emerged first, a female. The other is male. One of these is the one that I raised from an egg I found outside, but I have no idea which one. It was raining by this time, and I was still of the mind that they had to stay inside while it was raining, but by around 2:00 the rain had stopped (or paused, as it turned out), so I figured it was time for the butterflies to fly. Indeed, the female, who had emerged so early, was flying in the enclosure.

 I brought her outside and the moment I released her she flew, right up to a high tree branch. Less than a minute later she flew away.

The male was not so ready to head off when I brought him outside a few minutes later:

 He was happy to sit on my thumb for a while, even as I walked around the backyard a bit; the viceroy had come back and I wanted to have a look at it where it landed in a tree. It flew away before I could get a picture–which would have been tricky with a butterfly on my thumb–and shortly after this one flew, too...

 ... Right up into this tree. And there it sat as it started to rain again a few minutes later, and there it stayed for hours and the rain poured down. It was only later, when it stopped raining again, that it eventually flew away. I did not see it go, but I was outside doing my bug walk at the time; it was in the tree when I went out, and it was gone by the time I went back inside (which was not so long after, since I did an abbreviated bug walk).

However...

 After releasing the butterfly I happened to notice yet another butterfly, this one an eastern tailed blue, resting on the side of the house. So I guess butterflies don't mind the rain as much as I had thought. I don't think they fly in it, if they can avoid it, but they are hardy enough to deal with it.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 The ladybeetle larva that I posted yesterday in a phase of preparing to pupate is now a pupa. It looks more like a ladybeetle as a pupa than it did as a larva.

Another insect that I would think would dislike being out in the rain would be fuzzy caterpillars:

 I don't know how much they can feel that, but to me it looks like it would be uncomfortable. They just go on with their lives, though. This one is a woolly bear.

 

 This one is a fall webworm.

 

 White hickory tussock moth caterpillar.

Other Bugs:

 Female tree cricket. The dark spike coming out the back is her ovipositor. Based on the roundness of her body I think she is going to be laying eggs soon.

 Wasp

 Those tiny bugs I can't identify were running around on their rock again, obviously not caring about the weather. There are ten of them here, two of which are nymphs. They are not all in focus, if you're trying to find them now.

 Long legged fly

 Cricket

 Gnat

 This is the first ragged ambush bug I have seen in a while.

 I found several bumblebees that were hanging onto plants, absolutely drenched. They looked miserable. There were not many bees flying and feeding today, but there were a few. Mostly, though, it was these bedraggled bumblebees I saw.

 I saw a lot of candy striped leaf hoppers. I can't help but wonder if they were out when it was raining, or if they came out when it stopped and that is why I saw them. Since I didn't go walking around looking for bugs while it was raining, I have no way of knowing!

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I think this is the first I have seen this spider this week, so add it to the list of species.

Note the red/orange larvae on the leaf.