Is it a girl or boy?

Remember the post about our new baby? I said we had a girl and someone wanted to know how I could tell the difference. Well, no, I didn't turn it over. Can't tell that way. hehehe Here is how you can tell. Look at my picture and then hop on over to Applie's Place and see the handsome guy she posted about.

I have the Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America and it shows the two. It says in part, that males are mostly black with yellow spots along wing edge and a submarginal yellow band of varying width. On females the band is reduced to small spots on forewing and replaced by blue scaling on hindwing.

There you have it. I had girls and over at Applie's Place they have the boys. And there is another nature study completed.

Our New Baby

Remember the post about some caterpillars eating my parsley?

Those of you that commented on the other post were right. It's a swallowtail. Black Swallowtail to be exact and even more precise it's a girl. We have a girl. She will finish drying out her wings tonight and tomorrow she will be on her way.

We have three more to go. By the way, my parsley is growing back.

Ending to our Nature Lesson

Last year at the end of October and beginning of November we found some caterpillars eating our lemon tree leaves. So like any good homeschool mom would do I brought them inside for us to observe. Our lemon tree grew bare as we tried to feed their voracious appetite.

What happened was that they started their metamorphosis. We had two and one went from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly in less than a month and left the nest. The other decided to wait out the Texas winter. We were just talking about it last night since I have his little hotel next to my desk and the kids and I were thinking it was not going to come out.

Well, we were wrong. This morning my middle son came and saw it in its little hotel with its wing all spread out.

We still can't believe how something all squirmy becomes a chrysalis that looks like a piece of a branch then becomes something so beautiful. We are so grateful to our creator for such a beautiful creature to look at.

I posted about it in November where I have more pictures. We'll be talking about this all day. We were all excited to finally have our baby grow it's wings but sort of sad to see him go. Our nature books are coming out today and we are adding a drawing of today's butterfly to it. My little one wanted me to take a picture of the underside of the butterfly which "the colors are better" as he said.

Remember This?

Remember I posted about this eating my lemon tree? Well remember I posted pictures of the chrysalis? Guess what happened today?
We had a butterfly come out today. Remember what it is? It's a Giant Swallowtail!

We put it outside but before we did my baby wanted to take a close look. Isn't it beautiful?

I just had to show you an update on the final outcome. We were totally surprised to see it out of it's slumber. I guess it's time for it to hurry and finish off it's life cycle.

Update on caterpillars

Remember those caterpillars that were eating our little lemon tree? Remember that I put them in one of our bug hotels to see what they do? Well, here are a few pictures that show you what they started doing. See those strings attaching it to the top?
This is what both look like after attaching and they still look like this after a week. They look like a piece of wood. It is amazing how well they would camouflage into a tree.

Now I have to look up for information on how long it will take for them to open up.

I saw a black witch!

What do you think I am talking about? hehehehe This moth is called a black witch. I looked on the internet at this site and learned some interesting things about it. This thing was amazingly huge. I didn't get too close and I am so glad I was able to get my zoom lens. This thing had to be about 5 inches from tip to tip of wing. At least 5inches! Since this is a tropical moth don't forget to look at the Mexican superstition at that site I mentioned. Mexicans have lots of superstitions but I never heard of this one. hehehehe By the way, this is a male moth....figures more men at my home....like I don't have enough already. hehehe

Nature Picture Quiz

This post will stay on top till Friday. Scroll down to see new posts.

What can this be? Can you name it? I am still unsure of it. I know there are a lot of these that look almost the same but with few differences. Take a look and see if you can figure this out.

Post a comment with your guess and maybe together we can figure the exact name of this beauty. Don't forget to look back here on Friday for the update.

Don't forget to involve the kiddos. Give them a look. Have them look through the websites with you. Share ideas on what it may be. Look at the eyes. Look at the spots. Maybe have the kids draw a picture of it. Then you also can go out looking for butterflies. If you find some take some pictures and share them on your blog. Don't forget to let me know and I will go take a look at your butterflies. This is a wonderful way to learn a little about this beautiful creature. A very easy and natural way of learning. Have fun with this quiz!

Don't forget to enlarge the pictures to take a closer look.

UPDATE: Ok, I've looked and looked in different guides and online to identify this one. It is a hairstreak. You all know that. There are so many different hairstreaks though. Some differences are just the markings and some may be the color of the eyes. It is sort of like looking at those books that have two pictures of the same thing and you have to look at what is different in them. Well, some differences are obvious at first glance and some you really have to look at. Here is another picture that shows another clue. I think this is a Dusky-blue groundstreak. What do you think?