BELTED WHITEFACE DRAGONFLY. LOUISE NICHOLS. JULY 14, 2014** Louise Nichols made a very productive visit to the White Birch Ducks Unlimited impoundment near Sackville on Tuesday. She walked mainly along the road through the impoundment. Shorebirds there were notably present including SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS and LESSER YELLOWLEGS.A nice surprise was an OTTER that was very inquisitive, as otters usually are and seemed interested in getting Louise on its list.A BELTED WHITE-FACED DRAGONFLY was also cooperative.** A very rewarding scenario to do and watch in progress is raising caterpillars in an enclosure with their food plant to watch them go to through instars to their full-size then develop into the chrysalis stage. The colorful BLACK SWALLOWTAIL caterpillars use the parsley family including dill and carrot as their food plant. The Black swallowtail goes through two broods per season so those caterpillars going into the chrysalis at the moment will emerge as an adult in 2 to 4 weeks to repeat the process with the second chrysalis overwintering.Marguerite Winsor did this in 2012 and 2013 to find the adult emerged in 13 days for one and 22 days for the second. We both have several chrysalis in waiting at the moment. Marguerite and Bill were able to witness the transformation from caterpillar to chrysalis in front of them in a mere three minutes and captured much of it in a video. Two of the videos are added to the BlogSpot today as the size is much too large to email. If it doesn't go properly to the BlogSpot try checking the attached URLS. It's amazing to watch the transformation takes place.https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7bgYtr7-cxtM0xvTy1qeDRPdzQ/view
** More on caterpillar rearing.Rheal Vienneau, who gave a presentation to Nature Moncton, is a master of the art. Brian Stone and I dropped by his yard last week to get photos of COLUMBIA MOTH caterpillars that were growing on their food plant tamarack. CERCROPIA moth caterpillars growing on pin cherry foliage and POLYPHEMUS moth caterpillars feeding on maple. All were protected from predators. Rheal also has a STINGING NETTLE patch in his yard that is the food plant of the RED ADMIRAL butterfly. RED ADMIRAL caterpillars were present, enclosed in a rolled up leaf fashion and an adult caterpillar photographed. We found none in the chrysalis stage but Rheal said that he had collected several.Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
CECROPIA MOTH CATERPILLAR (THIRD INSTAR).JULY 15, 2015.NELSON POIRIER (3)
CECROPIA MOTH CATERPILLARS (THIRD INSTAR).JULY 15, 2015.NELSON POIRIER (3)
COLUMBIA MOTH CATERPILLARS (SECOND INSTAR). JULY 8, 2015.BRIAN STONE
LESSER YELLOWLEGS. LOUISE NICHOLS. JULY 14, 2015
OTTER. LOUISE NICHOLS. JULY 15, 2015
POLYPHEMUS MOTH CATERPILLARS (SECOND INSTAR). JULY 8, 2015.BRIAN STONE
RED ADMIRAL BUTTERFLY CATERPILLAR WITHIN ROLLED UP NETTLE LEAF. JULY 08, 2015. BRIAN STONE
RED ADMIRAL BUTTERFLY CATERPILLAR.JULY 15, 2015.NELSON POIRIER
