Eyes Up, Heart Open

     We have been wondering where the butterflies are. We have been worrying the butterflies. Did the cold and rainy spring disrupt their life cycles? Have the paper wasps been feasting on their offspring? Is climate change hitting them harder for some reason? Or more benignly, have they just been missing us, obliviously fluttering by 50 yards upwind? Who's to know, nature being nature. One builds. One tries to trust. One hopes. But above all, one must be present, and with eyes open.  
     So this morning, the sun was hot, the flowers were open, and the lone cabbage white was fluttering out of camera range. We surveyed the slight chaos brought on by the torrential midnight rain. And then, as Rick walked by the bronze fennel tucked in by the Joe Pye Weed, he spotted a caterpillar. And another. And a couple more, munching on the delicate leaves. Two, seen below, were on the same stalk, one upright and the other upside down. 
      Doing a little jig, he called Stephanie over. She looked, and not quite processing the unexpected sight, said, "but they don't eat fennel." 
     "Monarchs don't, but Black Swallowtails do." And there were six of them!

     We had ordered the plants in the spring knowing that along with parsley, fennel was one of their host plants (each butterfly species has its own distinct sets of host plants). The problem was that true Black Swallowtails have been among the rarer visitors to our garden. Though unseen, there was the proof that the mother had arrived, as the web tells us, under cover of darkness and had laid her eggs in darkness. There they had hatched and grown through four out of five molting stages, or instars. They are nearly to the chrysalis stage! 
     Now we really can start worrying!
     When our friends Laurence and Sally came by for a visit, we excitedly shared the new find and hoped for some flying versions as well. A pearl crescent did oblige us, sipping at one of the marigolds we grew from seed.
     The next surprise did not come in on butterfly wings, but rather on translucent sphinx moth wings, furiously beating, and in two flavors to boot!

       They look very much like bumble bees,  hover like hummingbirds, and draw nectar through a proboscis, the long absorbant wicking tube they carry coiled, ready to deploy expertly into flowers. There are two in particular, very similar, that visit us. Most common is the Hummingbird Moth, above. Similar, but slightly smaller, is the delightfully named and more uncommon Snowberry Clearwing.  We had both today. At one moment they were together on the same butterfly bush blossom. 
         The easiest way to tell them apart is by their legs and the different stripes around their eyes.. The Snowberry Clearwing's legs are black, and the Hummingbird Moth's legs are white. See below in two shots from today. First let us enjoy the Hummingbird Month. Note the white stockings, and note the eyes for comparison to the Snowberry. 

        And now the Snowberry, with its black legs and bandito eyes. 

        Now you will never mix them up again! And always be ready for the unexpected visitors! Happy Fourth.