Beth's Patch ~ American Snout Butterfly

 Yesterday afternoon, I saw an American Snout going round and round the Hackberry tree so I went out to look and found the Snout was laying eggs.  I went back out this morning to capture pictures of the eggs.  I just love nature.

4 eggs on these leaves

Close up shows 3 of the eggs quite well

7 American Snout eggs on this set of leaves.

Beth's Patch ~ American Snouts

It's been a busy year here for the American Snout butterflies.  They have been here just about everyday since the middle of July laying eggs on the Hackberry tree -turned bush.  The story to that is Hackberry is a soft wood doesn't hold up to our winds and it breaks off easily in a wind so several years ago mid-summer ,I cut it back at bout 3 foot.  Then, it starting growing branches and leafs which brought in the American Snout butterflies and the Question Mark butterflies which laid eggs on many of the leaves.  So, I decided against chopping it totally down to keep it for them each year.  now I trim it back.

American Snout butterfly egg

Beth's Patch ~ Lifecycle of the American Snout Butterfly

Four American Snout butterflies in the yard today

Of of the American Snout buterflies laying eggs on the hackberry tree.

American Snout eggs are all over the plant.  Here's a close-up of one of the eggs.

I found a AS caterpillar so eggs must have been laid last week also

Here's a more close-up of the AS caterpillar.  It's so tiny that even with my macro lens and extension tubes it's hard to get decent pictures.