Washington Area Butterfly Club


Field Reports


September 2001


September 24—Barbara Farron
Here's a couple of little adventures we had this week. I try to go to our local farmers' market each week so we can keep fresh fruits and veggies available. On Thursday, one of the items purchased was a bag of kale from an organic farming vendor. I was taking a few leaves of kale out of the bag at home when a brownish piece of dried-up leaf fell out of the bag. I touched it and realized it was a chrysalis! A little Cabbage White chrysalis had survived the picking, bagging, purchasing, etc. It's no longer attached to anything, but I've laid it in the bottom of one of the rearing cages. We think it deserves to survive after what it's been through. Our family had a good laugh about my being happy to find this in my fresh veggies while most people would be horrified!

Jim and I spent most of Saturday at the fall plant sale at Green Spring Park. At home, we carried our treasures to the deck, where we could all see and talk about the plants we'd bought. There was already a flat of pansies on the deck which I had also purchased this Thursday at the farmers' market. While we were sitting around talking, Jim spotted something crawling on one of the pansies. We were really excited when we found that we had a Variegated Fritillary larva on one pansy plant! Laura and I checked each plant carefully but didn't find any more. Now I can hardy wait for this Thursday so I can go to the same vendor and ask if he has found any more "worms" eating his pansies. We'll be glad to take them off his hands!

These special surprises helped to make up for those dreadful days last week.


Page posted September 25, 2001