I just had an unexpected encounter with a black witch moth. I was outside working in the garden when it startled me and flew up to me and around my head. At first I thought it was a bat because it flies just like a bat. But bats generally do not fly during the day. As it flew away towards the oak tree I realized it was a large black moth.
Female moths can attain a wingspan of 24 cm. The dorsal surfaces of their wings are mottled brown with hints of iridescent purple and pink, and, in females, crossed by a white bar. The diagnostic marking is a small spot on each forewing shaped like a number nine or a comma. Photo by Charles J. Sharp, from Sharp Photography.
The moth, Ascalapha odorata, commonly known as the black witch, is a large bat-shaped, dark-colored nocturnal moth, normally ranging from the southern United States to Brazil. Ascalapha odorata is also migratory into Canada and most states of United States. It is the largest noctuoid in the continental United States.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascalapha_odorata
I have to be honest, this encounter spooked me somewhat, one, because the flight pattern was so unusual, and second, I am aware of the tradition in many cultures that an encounter with this moth means impending death or misfortune. (In Spanish, the black witch is known as “mariposa de la muerte”. It also doesn’t help that it is so close to Halloween.
The males are somewhat smaller, reaching 12 cm in width, darker in color and lacking the white bar crossing the wings. Photo by Charles J. Sharp, from Sharp Photography.
I decided to do some research and found out that black witch moths have also been credited with bringing good fortune. In the Bahamas the moth is known as the money moth, and if you see a black witch moth, the hope is that you’ll gain riches. And in south Texas, where I live, the black witch moth might be the prelude winning the lottery.
Fall is the perfect time to teach children about Monarch butterflies. Whether you are a teacher, parent or grandparent, here are eight books to read to young ones and help them discover the magical lives and migration of these amazing butterflies.
Monarch Butterfliesby Ann Hobbie and Illustrated by Olga Baumert
With easy-to-read text and colorful, engaging illustrations, Monarch Butterfliespresents young readers with rich, detailed information about the monarch’s life cycle, anatomy, and the wonders of their migration, as well as how to raise monarchs at home and the cultural significance of monarchs in Day of the Dead celebrations. As the book considers how human behavior has harmed monarchs, it offers substantive ways kids can help make a positive difference. Children will learn how to turn lawns into native plant gardens, become involved in citizen science efforts such as tagging migrating monarchs and participating in population counts, and support organizations that work to conserve butterflies.
How to Raise Monarch Butterflies: A Step-by-Step Guide for Kids by Carol Pasternak
If your children want to learn how to raise Monarch butterflies, this is the book you must have. Carol Pasternak, The Monarch Butterfly Crusader, has filled the book with colorful and detailed photos. She shares secrets to help you find eggs and caterpillars, then provides detailed instructions on how to feed Monarch caterpillars, as well as how to take of Monarch adults.
Gotta Go, Gotta Go written by Sam Swope and illustrated by Sue Riddle
This is a very fun book to read aloud to children, beginning with the monarch caterpillar chanting, “I don’t know much, but I know what I know. I gotta go! I gotta go! I gotta go to Mexico!” In simple, jaunty text and pictures, children will learn about the magical transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly and its fantastic journey to Mexico.
Home Is Calling: The Journey of the Monarch Butterflywritten by by Sharon Katz Cooper and illustrated by Ellie Peterson
As the sun dawns in Canada, a flutter of monarch butterflies take flight, ready to begin their months-long journey to their ancestral home in Mexico. The migration will not be easy, but it is necessary for the next generation of monarchs to be born. Brought to life with illustrations as vivid as the monarch’s iconic orange and black hues, this story invites young readers to experience the monarch’s migration from the butterflies’ point of view as they search for food, huddle together through storms, and tirelessly fly south.
Follow the transformation from a tiny white egg laid on a leaf to a brilliantly colored butterfly in this kid-friendly introduction to metamorphosis. With detailed, bright watercolors, Gail Gibbons illustrates the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, stage by stage, as it grows, changes, and takes flight.
When Butterflies Cross the Sky (Extraordinary Migrations)written by Sharon Katz Cooper and illustrated by Joshua S Brunet
Focusing on the migration journey of one specific monarch butterfly, When Butterflies Cross the Sky engages readers with a story-like narrative while subtly teaching the role of migration in the butterfly’s life cycle. Includes a “fast facts” page, a glossary, and realistic, text-match illustrations that pull readers right into the sky.
Monarch Magic! Butterfly Activities & Nature Discoveries by Lynn Rosenblatt
Learn about the world of the monarch butterfly and milkweed habitat in this beautiful book with full-color photographs throughout. An excellent resource for parents and teachers with many learning activities. ~ “If there is a better book for children about butterflies, we haven’t seen it.” – National Parenting Center
Rhyming text in both English and Spanish along with lively illustrations showcase the epic journey taken by the monarch butterflies each year from Canada to Mexico. “Over mountains capped with snow, to the deserts down below.” Children will be delighted to share in the fascinating journey of the monarchs and be introduced to the people and places they pass before they finally arrive in the forests that their ancestors called home.
Timing is everything when harvesting milkweed seeds! Too soon and the seeds will be immature and won’t germinate, too late and they will have either blown away or create a flossy mess you’ll need to deal with.
When the seeds are ready to disperse, the floss will expand, causing the pod to burst. For those wishing to collect seed, this floss can be problematic, creating a messy barrier to gathering large amounts of viable seed. There are several options for separating the floss, but the best option is to plan your timing so that you are able to easily remove the seed as soon as it is mature, but before the silky floss has expanded.
Once the milkweed seed pods open, the wind will blow the floss and seeds away from the pod making it difficult to collect the seeds.
Milkweed seeds should be brown and leathery when mature, though the pods themselves may still be green. You can test an unopened pod for maturity by applying gentle pressure to the seam. If the center seam of the pod pops with gentle pressure, the seed pod is ready to be picked. If it does not open readily, the seeds inside are immature.
The perfect time to harvest seeds from milkweed pods is when the pod is starting to pop open at the suture and the seeds are brown. Typically seed pods are brown when the seeds are ready to harvest such as the common milkweed pods on the left. The showy milkweed pods on the right are green but since the seeds are brown they are ready to harvest. (Photo courtesy of Brent Potter.)
Be aware of the milkweed beetle around open seed pods. These beetles are orange and black and will damage the seeds, making them nonviable. While the bugs do no harm to the plant, if a pod is covered in these insects it’s likely the seed inside is no longer viable and those pods should be avoided.
The beetle is not able to chew its way into the pods but will wait for the pod to open. A rubber band lightly wrapped around the pod will prevent the milkweed beetle entry to the seedpod. Cheesecloth or organza can also be used to surround the seedpods until they are mature.
You can use rubber bands on the milkweed pods to make it easier to harvest the seeds. It can also help prevent the milkweed bugs from getting to the seeds. (Photo courtesy of Linda Herard.)Organza bags are a perfect solution to protecting seed pods on milkweed and making it easier to collect seeds. You can find them in craft sores or on Amazon.
Once you have collected the milkweed seeds you can store them in a paper bag or envelope until you are ready to plant them. Most native milkweed seeds require cold stratification in order to germinate. Seeds can be planted in the fall on a prepared bed, winter sowed in containers, or planted in the spring after the seeds have been cold stratified in the refrigerator. Click here for more details: http://butterfly-lady.com/three-ways-to-sow-native-milkweed-seeds/
I am reading a fascinating book by Anurag Agrawal, an American professor at Cornell University of ecology, evolutionary biology, and entomology, called Monarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution. In it he describes the unique relationship between monarchs and milkweeds.
Monarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution by Anurag Agrawal. Click here to purchase book.
Monarchs need milkweed to survive since it is the only plant they use to feed their young. Without milkweed, there would be no monarchs. Fortunately, in North America alone, there are 100 different species of milkweed on which female monarchs seek to lay their eggs.
Milkweeds get their common name from the milky color of its sap. The sap contains toxins, called cardenolides, which the monarch has adapted to be able to ingest. These toxins serve to protect both the plants and the monarchs from predators. Milkweed provides protection for the monarch larvae as well as the adult butterflies. But the milkweed plants can also be toxic to the caterpillars so they have developed strategies to benefit from the alkaloids in the latex sap to prevent from being killed by those same toxins.
The latex sap of milkweed contains cardiac glycosides, among a variety of other toxic chemicals.
The newly hatched tiny caterpillar must face the challenge of the milkweed latex as it begins its first meal. A first instar caterpillar is so tiny this sticky substance can easily immobilize it if it isn’t careful. Typically the newbie caterpillars chew a small circle and then are able to eat the center portion. This behavior is called “trenching.” By doing so, the caterpillar effectively drains the latex from that small area of the leaf, and makes itself a safe meal. The method isn’t foolproof, however, and a good number of early instar monarchs become mired in latex and die. According to some research, as many as 30% of first instar caterpillars do not survive. (Source : It’s the first bites that count: Survival of first-instar monarchs on milkweeds by Myron P. Zalucki.)
After hatching, the larva eats its eggshell (chorion). It then eats clusters of fine hairs on the bottom of the milkweed leaf before starting in on the leaf itself. It feeds in a circular motion, often leaving a characteristic, arc-shaped hole in the leaf.
Fourth and fifth instar caterpillars larvae deactivate latex before eating leaves by chewing a shallow notch in the petiole (the stalk which attaches the leaf blade to the stem) of the leaf they are eating, which causes the leaf to fall into a vertical position. After the leaf hangs down, the caterpillar will flip around to eat the leaf.
The sticky latex sap in milkweed can make it difficult for the Monarch caterpillar to feed. This fifth instar caterpillar overcomes the obstacle by cutting the petiole of the leaf to halt the flow of sap, thus making the leaf easier to eat and preventing from consuming too much of the toxic sap.
Monarch larvae consume so much milkweed they increase their body mass by as much as 2,000 times or more during the larval stage.
One Monarch caterpillar will consume about 7-8 leaves of Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). (Photo by Holli Hearn of Beautiful Monarch. Used with permission.)
To help monarch butterflies to survive and to thrive we need to plant more milkweed. You can never have enough milkweed when you are feeding hungry monarch caterpillars!
Help save monarch butterflies by spreading the message to plant milkweed with this magnetic car sign. Click here to purchase.
There are approximately 20,000 species of butterflies in the world. About 725 species are found in North America north of Mexico, with about 575 of these occurring regularly in the lower 48 states of the United States, and with about 275 species occurring regularly in Canada. In most parts of the United States, you can find roughly 100 species of butterflies near your home. The number is higher in the Rio Grande Valley and some parts of the West, somewhat less in New England. As one goes northward into Canada the number decreases, while as one goes southward into Mexico the number greatly increases. (https://www.naba.org)
Here is a list of some of the five most common butterflies found throughout the United States. Plant their host plants to attract them to your garden.
The Painted Lady butterfly is one of the most widespread of all butterflies, found on every continent except Antarctica and South America.
Identifying Characteristics:
• Painted Lady butterflies have a wingspan of 1.75 to 2.5 inches.
• The coloring is pinkish-orange, with dark brown to black markings near the wingtips and white spots inside the black markings.
• The caterpillars’ coloring is variable, ranging from greenish-yellow to charcoal. Most have light-colored spots.
Male American Ladies sip moisture and nutrients from damp soil. Females are often observed flying low in search of their ground-hugging host plants. Both sexes avidly nectar at a variety of plants and are often among those early spring butterflies that nectar from wild plum blossoms. (Alabama Butterfly Atlas)
Identifying Characteristics:
• American Lady Butterflies have a wingspan of 1.75 to 2.5 inches.
• The coloring of this species is a brilliant orange with dark borders and markings and white and purple spots. The underwings have an ornate pattern similar to a cobweb.
• On the underside of the wings, American Lady butterflies have eyespots. These circular markings make the butterfly look intimidating to predators, warding off potential danger.
American Lady and Painted Lady butterflies look very similar to each other. Here are some field markings to help you tell the difference.
Cabbage White (Pieris rapae)
The Cabbage White was accidentally introduced to Quebec, Canada, around 1860 and spread rapidly throughout North America. The caterpillar, often referred to as the “imported cabbageworm”, is a pest to crucifer crops such as cabbage, kale, bok choy and broccoli. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieris_rapae)
Identifying Characteristics:
• Cabbage White Butterflies have a wingspan of 1.25 to 2 inches.
• The wings are light greenish to white, with black wing tips and black dots in the center of each wing. Males have one black dot on each side, and females have two.
• Caterpillars, sometimes called Cabbage Worms, are dark green with a light green stripe along the back.
Named for its conspicuous target-shaped eyespots, the Common Buckeye is one of the most distinctive and readily-identifiable North American butterflies. It inhabits a wide variety of open, sunny landscapes including old fields, roadsides, utility corridors, gardens, parks, yards, fallow agricultural land, scrubs, pine savannas, and weedlots. (https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/bfly/common_buckeye.htm)
Identifying Characteristics:
• Common Buckeye butterflies have a wingspan of 2 to 2.5 inches.
• Their coloring is brown with orange bars. Black and white rings outline three to four prominent eyespots with middles in blue, magenta, orange, and green shades.
• Caterpillars are dark brown to black with stripes along the back and sides and spines around the entire body.
