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Preying mantis eats Monarch! |
At the Butterfly House today I saw a couple Painted Ladys around some lantana and pentas. They don't like to sit still very much, but I finally got a few pictures of them. Also saw a Red Admiral, some Monarchs, whites, sulfurs and some Spicebush Swallowtails. There were also some very small Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars on the spicebushes. I even saw one Tiger Swallowtail, but I was disappointed that I didn't see a Zebra Swallowtail around there, I really wanted to get a picture of one. I can't tell the difference between Pearl Crescents and some checkerspots, but I saw one or the other of those also.
The most exciting part of volunteering today was discovering a preying mantis eating a Monarch, not that I wanted to see a Monarch die, but its not something you see everyday. It was a really big preying mantis too. I took some pictures, hopefully they will turn out ok.
(edited - pictures came back, here they are! It's hard to see the preying mantis though, because he is so well camouflaged. It is more clear in the 3rd picture though.)
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