Latta Plantation and Cowan’s Ford Wildlife Refuge – Aug 2, 2014

The Carolina Butterfly Society held a walk on August 2 to Latta Plantation and Cowan’s Ford Wildlife Refuge in Mecklenburg County, NC. Carl Ganser organized the walk and Chris Talkington was our leader. It was cloudy all day – no sun at all. Temperatures when we started were in the low 70’s and rose during the day to the high 70’s. The chance of rain was 40-50%. Because of these conditions, none of us felt that we would see many butterflies. We were pleasantly surprised. In attendance were Jan and Phill Fowler, Jeff Lemons, Rob Van Epps, and Dave and Marty Kastner. Below the first number is for Latta Plantation and the surrounding area and the second number is for Cowan’s Ford WR.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 3, 3
Spicebush Swallowtail 2, 1
Sleepy Orange 2, 0
Eastern Tailed-Blue 25, 4
Summer Azure 0, 1
Azure sp. 1, 1
Red-banded Hairstreak 0, 1
Gray Hairstreak 3, 1
Variegated Fritillary 14, 1
Gulf Fritillary 1, 0
Pearl Crescent 3, 9
American Lady 0, 1 (1 caterpillar at Cowan’s)
Red-spotted Purple 4, 0 (1 egg at Latta)
Hackberry Emperor 0, 1
Question Mark 1, 0
Red Admiral 1, 0
Common Wood-Nymph 0, 1
Creole Pearly-eye 0, 2
Pearly-eye species 0, 1
Southern Cloudywing 0, 1
Common Checkered-Skipper 1, 0
Horace’s Duskywing 0, 2
Carolina/Intricate Satyr 0, 4
Silver-spotted Skipper 6, 4
Hoary Edge 0, 2
Zabulon Skipper 1, 2
Fiery Skipper 6, 2
Sachem 0, 1
Dun Skipper 0, 3
Little Glassywing 1, 0
Ocola Skipper 0, 3
Lace-winged Roaside-Skipper 0, 2
Unidentified skipper 2, 1

30 species
132 butterflies

Marty
Marty & Dave Kastner
Blythewood, SC
Richland County