Friday, June 25, 2010

He is Alpha

Butterflies are self propelled flowers. ~R.H. Heinlein

We had our first butterbaby emerge yesterday. Taking pictures with my camera is tricky since it has to be plugged in, so I didn't get many good ones. I used my cell phone, but can't figure out how to download them off (am visiting the cell phone store very soon for help).

In any case, meet Alpha:




From the first picture, you can see that his spots are predominantly yellow, which means he's a male. Everything about him was routine, even his hatching and release... all without incidence. We're hoping this holds true of the rest!

Next up for hatching: Kappa and Hercules -- both started their pupae on the 13th, so they could hatch any day (even today!).

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You Are Warm



You are very interested in other people. You have great deal of sympathy and compassion.

You are a confident person, and you're aware of the image you project. You act like you're in control even when you're not.

You are not very comfortable being approached. Conversations with strangers are difficult for you.

You are engaged and paying attention to the world. You are a good listener.



About 50/50 ...

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11 comments:

Dru said...

Alpha is very handsome.

You probably answered this already, but when do you set them free?

You Are a Bit Cool

You like to keep a bit of distance from other people. You take an interest in them, but you don't like to get too involved.

You tend to be apprehensive and nervous. You aren't confident in new situations... it takes you a while to build up courage.

You are not very comfortable being approached. Conversations with strangers are difficult for you.

You daydream to the point of not listening. It's hard for you to be interested in other people's lives.
Mostly true

Marianne Arkins said...

Dru, the butterflies usually emerge in the morning and take a couple of hours for their wings to "harden", so by lunch time or so, we let them go. They need to be at least 60 degrees in order to fly, so if it's overcast and cool, we'll keep them in the box until it warms up.

Maria Zannini said...

Yay! He's beautiful.

I have another question. You mentioned that at least one of the caterpillars was smaller than the others.

Will little caterpillars grow bigger before they pupate? Or will the size of the caterpillar/pupa determine the size of the butterfly?

MomJane said...

You Are Warm
You are very interested in other people. You have great deal of sympathy and compassion.

You are a confident person, and you're aware of the image you project. You act like you're in control even when you're not.

You are very comfortable around people, and you enjoy talking with strangers. You are approachable.

You are engaged and paying attention to the world. You are a good listener.



Almost the same as yours, but with a couple of differences.

Marianne Arkins said...

Maria, this is the first year we've made notes of the differences in the caterpillars to see if it impacts anything. I looked at the pupae we have now and two are significantly larger than the others -- will they be the females? Also, some of the caterpillars were darker than others... does this help figure out gender?

Epsilon was SO much larger than the others when she made her pupa that I'm thinking she's going to overwinter instead of hatching ... but that's something we won't know until she's cooked for a couple of weeks.

We're really trying to be more observant this year, so we'll let you know!

Brandy said...

Ooh Alpha is gorgeous! About the cell phone, you may need a special cable to connect the phone to the USB port on your computer, or you can take the super easy way and just send a picture message to your home email. That's what I usually do. *G* You can save the picture as a jpeg in documents.

Hope you have a wonderful Friday!

Marianne Arkins said...

Brandy, I bought these little memory cards and USB thingie that's supposed to do it, but I can't figure out how it works... and we don't have email on our phones. Oddly, our phones are only for making phone calls: no email, no texting, no internet ... lol... DH's choice. I'd love to have all that.

Anonymous said...

Very cool! The colors are so brilliant!

Marianne Arkins said...

Liz, thanks! We accidentally fell into raising butterflies a few years ago, and it's become something of an obsession now. But, since I homeschool, I call it a science project! *G*

Tori Lennox said...

Alpha is a great-looking little butterfly!

Anonymous said...

Butterflies are such beautiful creatures.