Tuesday, March 18, 2014

More butterflies on the Sarracenia

A while back, I posted about an unusual capture by one of my Sarracenia leucophylla 'Tarnok' plants - it caught a relatively large butterfly. Over the course of this summer, I kept an eye on what Lepidoptera were hanging around the pitcher plants. The same butterfly caught earlier, the common brown (Heteronympha merope), was a regular visitor, as was the grapevine moth (Phalaenoides glycinae). The latter was more frequently seen, but hard to approach.
 
However, I did manage to snap some shots of another male common brown nectaring on Gotcha! Plant's giant clone of Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora:
 

Here is a closer shot, wings closed:
 
 
And another shot, wings open:
 
 
This male was not caught, probably because of my presence. As the traps will soon go down for winter, I will dissect a few to see what was caught. Until then, happy growing, and good luck for this year's season to everyone in the Northern Hemisphere!