Palm Springs Sunday Morning

Greetings from Sunny (and warm) Palm Springs. We got in about noon time yesterday. Even though our flight was on time, we didn't have checked luggage and Palm Springs City Hall is mere steps from the airport, we did not arrive in time to attend the anti-Proposition 8 rally yesterday. Thanks to all my readers who did turn out in their home cities.

So far, we've done little beyond hanging out by the pool. We had dinner with our friend Steve from Los Angeles last night. This morning, our hosts wanted to make sure that I got to see the caterpillars devouring their passion vine.

Caterpillar on Passion Vine

They're gulf fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae), and there are caterpillars all over the vines. Dozens of adults are flitting through the yard here. I caught one that had just emerged from its chrysalis. Today's vocabluary word is exuvium, the empty husk of a chrysalis that a butterfly has emerged from.

A freshly-emerged gulf fritillary sits on it's exuvium.

There were numerous chrysalides from which adults had not yet emerged, too.

Gulf Fritillary Chrysalis