NATURE ALONG THE LOIRE

 

We had a wonderful time staying on the banks of the Loire at Briare, cycling every day to explore the nearby villages. We were rewarded one day by the sight of an otter calmly swimming along the canal who took no notice of us as we stopped to watch him go by.  At one stage of that day's outing we took a wrong turning and found ourselves deep in a rather damp wood and were surprised by the trails of caterpillars hanging on threads from the trees.  We quickly decided to turn back as the insects were rather busy too!

 

At the campsite the shower block was taken over by a flock of swallows that swooped and chattered all over the place with no fear of humans.  They were busy building their nests in the rafters and even on the light fittings. One pair had chosen a spot inside the shower area and had to wait for human assistance to open the door if it was inadvertently shut!

 

 

 

 

More caterpillars--Elizabeth Smith

More caterpillars, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

The butterflies have been busy laying eggs, and these caterpillars have been eating and growing like crazy. There seem to be a lot of these Gulf Fritillary caterpillars this year; some years there are hardly any.

I'm still waiting for the earlier chrysalis I sketched, hopefully the butterfly will emerge soon.

Click on the image to see this larger on Flickr.

~ Elizabeth Smith
Naples, FL, USA

windowbox sneak

windowbox sneak
Originally uploaded by vickylw

My parsley in the window box was not looking too well . . . . upon examination, I found a very cute culprit.

The plant is showing good regrowth; next year I'll be sure to put out extra plants for the caterpillars.

Gulf Fritillary caterpillar and passionvine

Gulf Fritillary caterpillar and passionvine, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

Gulf fritillary and passionvine

In my yard there are numerous volunteer native passionvines, hiding themselves in shrubs and surreptitiously climbing trees. They aren’t very large; the leaves are maybe 3 inches (7.6 cm) wide if pressed flat. I think this is one of the corky-stemmed passionvines, Passiflora suberosa (the older part of the stem bases become woody, but with a cork-like appearance and texture). The flower is a nondescript pale yellow to green miniature version of the showy purple or red passion flower with which most people are familiar. No blooms now, but there are plenty of tattered and bite-ridden leaves.

The guilty party is the caterpillar of one of our beautiful longwing butterflies, the Gulf Fritillary. I found this striking caterpillar toward the end of his larval stage. He was about 1 ¼ inch long (3.2 cm), and created a chrysalis that is about 1 inch (2.5 cm). You can read more about the Gulf Fritillary here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Fritillary

I hope that I’ll be able to sketch him when he emerges.

Click on the image to access larger sizes on my Flickr page.

~ Elizabeth Smith
Naples, FL, USA