Nathan's Notes

May 15, 2008

If talking with the butterflies sounds like a fun activity, you may want to stop by the butterfly wing sometime over the next couple of weeks.  Last week from one of our tropical suppliers we received five different species of Cracker Butterflies.  The five species of Crackers the Christina Reiman Butterfly Wing received last week which are flying in the wing now are the Grey Cracker (Hamadryas februa), Red Cracker (Hamadryas amphinome), Pale Cracker (Hamadryas arinia), Variable Cracker (Hamadryas feronia), and the Starry Night Cracker (Hamadryas glauconome).  So how does having Cracker Butterflies tie into talking to butterflies?  Well, one of the fascinating traits of the butterflies in the genus Hamadryas is that they have the ability to make an audible sound we as people can hear.  It is believed the “electrical ticking” sound that they create is used as part of their mating ritual and territory defense behaviors.

April 15, 2008

One of the butterflies to keep an eye out for, if you visit the Christina Reiman Butterfly Wing this month, is the Chinese Yellow Swallowtail (Papilio xuthus).  The Chinese Yellow Swallowtail, as the name implies is native to China.  This specie of butterfly exhibits a form of seasonal dimorphism, but instead of having a color or pattern difference the seasonal variation is a dramatic variation in size.  The size variation is so dramatic that the spring form can be half the size of the adults found later in the summer.

March 15, 2008

In under a month now the Christina Reiman Butterfly Wing will be opening back up to the public, April 5^th for any one that doesn’t already have it on their calendar. In preparation of this event a semi truck of beautiful new plants arrived this week and new chrysalides will be arriving the week before April 5^th. While the opening news is exciting, the real story this week isn’t what’s going into the wing, instead it’s what’s still in the Butterfly Wing. In December I knew there would be some butterflies, such as the Postmen (Heliconious melponene) and the Crimson Patch (Heliconious erato) which would be flying until we started having regular visitors again. I am pleased to report that we still have Blue Wave (Myselia cyaniris), New Lacewing (Cethosia cyane), Stripe Blue Crow (Euploea mulciber), Tiger Longwing (Heliconious hecale) and Numata Longwing (Heliconious numata).

February 15, 2008

January 15, 2008