Today I led the first ever official butterfly walk at the Little River Region Park and Natural Area (LIRI) just north of Durham, NC, then after lunch we butterflied my yard a few miles from the park.

The time change last night made for a chilly and very windy start. Will Cook and Greg Dodge were the only ones to show up, and Greg was actually leaving the park with things to do. So Will and I started down the trail leaving the brisk windy parking lot behind us, well mostly. Even though it seemed to cold for butterflies we didn’t get 100 yards down the trail and the butterflies started showing up anglewings, duskywings and azures mostly.

We walked down the South River Trail and all along the Flat River it was covered up in Spring Beauties and nectaring Falcate Orangetips. Just as we got back up to the very windy parking lot, Roger Rittmaster called and we met him and his wife Jeannie and two other naturalist friends Owen and Mangus. We hooked up and checked the park a little more and headed over to my estate.

My yard and neighborhood didn’t fail us. We picked up several new species and lots more dragonflies. I haven’t seen the photo yet, but apparently Jeannie photographed a Blue Corporal with 2 extra wings, one side had 4 wings the other side 2 wings, this was not 100 feet from where I’m typing right now, I’ll be keeping an eye open for it. I’ve never even heard of such a thing.

Attempting to split the park by county as the lower half of the park is Durham Co. and the upper half is Orange County. First Orange then Durham.

Here’s the list:

10 30 Falcate Orangetip (Anthocharis midea) estimated numbers
1 0 Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) my place
2 0 Henry`s Elfin (Callophrys henrici) both fresh in neighbors yard 3 photographers chasing
8 15 Edward’s Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon) Will noted violet in everyone we saw, my eyes (colorblind) couldn’t notice much difference, but violet was seen a lot. Still nothing is sure here.
0 1 American Snout (Libytheana carinenta) LIRI
1 0 Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) LIRI
1 3 Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis)
3 3 Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma)
2 0 Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) LIRI & my place
1 0 Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) my place
10 15 Juvenal’s Duskywing (Erynnis juvenalis) perhaps more

and several missed anglewings as well as missed duskywings.

My plum tree was prime and the redbuds were close to prime, but it was too
windy for any butterflies in the trees. The only plants we saw being used
as nectar plants were Bittercress and Spring Beauty, both close to the
ground and out of the wind.

Odes finally!

1 0 Common Green Darner, Anax junius my place
4 1 Sely’s Sundragon, Helocordulia selysii photos for all!
1 0 Uhler’s Sundragon, Helocordulia uhleri a lifer for two of us.
1 0 Blue Corporal, Libellula deplanata Only Jeannie saw this one with 6 wings, didn’t notice until reviewing the photo at home.

Couldn’t beat the company we had a great trip no question.

Randy Emmitt
Rougemont, NC
www.rlephoto.com
Butterflies of the Carolinas & Virginas Interactive CD
http://rlephoto.com/CD_project.htm

On Saturday, June 4, Bob & Nancy Baldwin, Ruth Young, Charlie Cameron, Elizabeth Riggs, and I had a good day counting at the usual sites in Yadkin County. The weather started overcast, but cleared later in the morning, starting out about 70 degrees and rising to steamy mid-80s. Numbers were low, primarily because the plants and bugs are a couple weeks late this year; no butterflyweed or dogbane in bloom, no Buckeye, Red-Spotted Purple, or Common Checkered Skipper – in fact few skippers at all. Of those butterfly species that we did see, the numbers were typical of previous years and we saw two species not previously reported in Yadkin County; Harvester and Painted Lady.

We also saw the usual assortment of snakes, turtles, lizards, and toads.

13 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
1 Spicebush Swallowtail
12 Cabbage White new county high number
2 Clouded Sulphur
18 Orange Sulphur new county high number
4 Sleepy Orange
2 HARVESTER new county species
9 Eastern Tailed-Blue
12 Azure
1 American Snout
7 Great Spangled Fritillary
1 Silvery Checkerspot
3 Pearl Crescent
1 Questionmark
1 Eastern Comma
6 American Lady
1 Painted Lady new county species
2 Red Admiral
2 Viceroy
2 Hackberry Emperor
1 Northern Pearlyeye
14 Carolina Satyr new county high number
7 Little Wood Satyr new county high number
1 Common Wood Nymph
10 Silver Spotted Skipper
2 Least Skipper
1 Fiery Skipper
1 Crossline Skipper
2 Sachem
9 Zabulon Skipper

30 species
147 adults

Jim Nottke

On Sunday, June 5, Bob & Nancy Baldwin, Ruth Young, Charlie Cameron, Elizabeth Riggs and I had an enjoyable day participating in the 11th annual Forsyth County butterfly count. Mostly sunny, the temperatures rose quickly to the 80s and remained steamy all day. As with the Yadkin count the previous day, blooms and butterflies are running one or two weeks late, compared to previous years.

What we did find:

1 Pipevine Swallowtail
11 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
30 Cabbage White
5 Clouded Sulphur
16 Orange Sulphur
3 Sleepy Orange
1 Gray Hairstreak
6 Eastern Tailed-Blue
25 Azure
10 Great Spangled Fritillary
4 Pearl Crescent
1 Eastern Comma
9 American Lady
3 Painted Lady
3 Red Admiral
4 Red Spotted Purple
1 Gemmed Satyr
21 Carolina Satyr
2 Little Wood Satyr
1 Monarch
11 Silver Spotted Skipper
1 Southern Broken Dash
2 Little Glassywing
1 Sachem
1 Delaware Skipper
4 Zabulon Skipper
1 Dun Skipper

1 Monarch Caterpillar
1 Cabbage White egg

27 species
178 adult butterflies

Jim Nottke

Hi – Had a very good day at Pettigrew on Saturday June 18 despite the overcast and with only two of us counting. Butterfly numbers were much lower than usual and button bush was just starting to bloom However white clover, red clover, pickerel weed and verbena were in bloom and we good diversity. Isolated patches of pickerel weed in the canals would have 10 – 20 or more zebra swallowtails – what an awesome site. We ended up with 34 species including one weird satyr – will send a photo out from home for input. Had two prominent spots on ventral side of hind wing and no spots on ventral side of fore wing. When seen in flight thought it was Carolina or Little Wood. Could not make out any spots on dorsal side of wings. At any rate I’ll post a full list later when I compile the totals. Thanks to John Taggart for driving down to help. Have a good day.

Scott Hartley
Weymouth Woods SNP
Southern Pines, NC

The Congaree National Park butterfly count on Saturday June 25 was conducted in rainy, cloudy conditions which persisted throughout the day. Seemed like last year all over again, EXCEPT that the sun never really showed up this time! Despite the weather, it was nice to have an enthusiastic group of 18 volunteers with diverse skill levels help with this year’s count. Amazing folks kept up such good spirits considering the mosquitoes were practically draining us of blood! I know I heard a lot of conversation about who would discover the “next great bug repellent”.

I am particularly grateful to CBS members Jim Nottke, Charlie Cameron, Diane Curlee, Sudie Daves, and Mike Turner who generously provided guidance and aid to the novice participants. Thank you all for sharing your experience, expertise, and enthusiasm for butterflying.

As for the final numbers of the count…believe it or not…despite the steady cloud cover and rain…we managed to find 21 species! I am surprised, and pleased (considering the weather).

Here is the what we saw when visiting several locations throughout the park (Sims trail to Wise Lake, maintenance compound, Dawson’s Cabin field, After hours parking lot and field, entrance road, long leaf pine/red cockaded woodpecker site)

Zebra Swallowtail, Eurytides marcellus -1
Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio glaucus -3
Spicebush Swallowtail, Papilio trolius -2
Palamedes Swallowtail, Papilio palamedes-3
Gray Hairstreak, Strymon melinus-2
Banded Hairstreak, Satyrium calanus-1 (now deceased since it was grabbed and eaten by a dragonfly while under observation!)
Azure sp. -2
Eastern Tailed Blue, Everes comyntas-2
Pearl Crescent, Phycoides tharos-23
Question Mark, Polygonia interrogationis-2
Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta-1
Common Buckeye, Junonia coenia-25
Red-spotted Purple, Limenitis arthemis astyanax-1
Viceroy, Limenitis archippus-1
Tawny Emperor, Asterocampa clyton-1 (plus one unidentified emperor larva)
Carolina Satyr, Hermenuptychia sosybius-16
Little Wood Satyr, Megisto cymela-6
Cloudywing sp., Thorybes sp.-1 (unidentified species)
Horace’s Duskywing, Erynnis horatius-5
Clouded Skipper, Lermema accius-1
Fiery Skipper, Hylephila phyleus-1
Dun Skipper, Euphyes vestis-1
Little Glasswing, Pompeius verna- 1

It’ll be nice to conduct this count in favorable weather conditions…perhaps next year! Thanks again for those of you that helped out this year, I very much appreciate it!

All the best,
Christina
Christina S. Hulslander
Cayce, South Carolina

Three of us (Jim Notkke, Ben Gregory and Jules Fraytet) walked through part of the road and some fields of the Draper WMA, in York Cty, SC under sunny, hot conditions for 3.5 hours and found the following butterflies:

Carolina Satyr 3
Least Skipper 3
Eastern Tailed Blue 23
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 3
Pearl Crescent 48
Buckeye 12
Variegated Fritillary 4
Azure 4
Zebulon Skipper Male 1
Common Checkered`Skipper 1
Gray Hairstreak 2
Red Spotted Purple 5
Hackberry Emperor 5
Tawny Emperor 2
Cloudless Sulphur 4
Gulf Fritillary 1
American Lady 1
Southern Cloudywing 1
American Snout 5
Question mark 3
Horace’s Duskywing 2
Red banded Hairstreak 1

Odes: Lots of Widow’s Skimmer’s and Slaty Skimmers by the ponds

Jules Fraytet
Charlotte, NC

We changed the count center slightly from 2004 to include the Black Mt. Campgrounds. There were not many butterflies there or at Carolina Hemlocks but we did take in some fields and a garden center on Rtr 80. We got the same number of species as in 04 (25) and more individual butterflies. There were 5 knowledgeable persons counting and we counted longer in the day this year. I think this explains the greater # of butterflies found. 140 on 2004 and 274 in 05.

Butterfly                               
Burnsville     South Toe     North Toe  
Total
Pipevine Swallowtail                                     
3                  
4                 
7
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail                           
13                 
3               
16
Spicebush Swallowtail                                                       
3                 
3
Cabbage White                        
4                
11                 
1               
16
Clouded
Sulphur                                            
5                                      
5
Orange Sulphur                                              
3                 
1                 
4
Banded Hairstreak                                        
1                                      
1
Eastern Tailed-Blue                 
7                
49                  
4               
60
Spring Azure                             
8                
47                
25              
80
American Snout                                                                   
3                
3
Varigated Fritillary                                         
1                                      
1
Great Spangled Fritillary                                                    
6                 
6
Pearl Crescent                                               
3                
20               
23
Question Mark                                                                      
3                
3
American Lady                                                                     
1                
1
Painted Lady                                                  
1                   
1                
2
Common Buckeye                                                               
1                
1
Red-spotted Purple                                       
2                                      
2
Common Wood-Nymph                                
1                                      
1
Monarch                                                          
2                   
2                
4
Silver Spotted Skipper            
1                
10                 
15              
26
Horace’s Duskywing                
2                                         
1                
3
Clouded Skipper                                                                  
1                
1
Sachem                                                                                 
3                
3
Zabulon Skipper                       
2                                                            
2

Totals                                       
24             
152                  
98             274

Participants:
Ruth Young
Gail Lankford
Jim Nottke
Nancy Baldwin
Bob Baldwin

On Saturday, 7/23, 18 people joined me for a 2 hour Carolina Butterfly Society walk around Reynolda Gardens of Wake Forest University. Not a cloud in the sky, no breeze, temperatures already in the low 80s. Since almost everyone was a novice, we mostly strolled around the butterfly bushes where we could stand in the shade and even sit on some brick steps and wall and let the butterflies meander by us. We also took a 25 minute walk around the rest of the gardens. In total we saw:

1 Black Swallowtail
12 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
2 Spicebush Swallowtail
4 Cabbage White
5 Clouded Sulphur
1 Cloudless Sulphur
2 Sleepy Orange
10 ETB
2 Azure
1 Snout
6 Great Spangled Fritillary
3 Pearl Crescent
7 American Lady
1 Painted Lady
1 Buckeye
3 Hackberry Emperor
1 Monarch
20 Silver-Spotted Skipper
1 Hayhurst Scallopwing
3 Horaces Duskywing
Sachem hopping around to much to try to count
Zabulon Skipper “
Dun Skipper ”

Jim

Butterfliers,

Twenty one participants enjoyed a successful Carolina Butterfly Society Duke Gardens Butterfly Walk today. Temperatures were in the 80s with partly cloudy skies for most of the morning, and the butterflies were numerous. We started off in the center of the circular rose garden, where a nice patch of Lantana gave us a chance to compare Sachem with Fiery Skippers. It also gave us our first of many Silver-spotted Skippers for the day as well as an opportunity to talk about duskywing identification with a male Horace’s present.

We then walked along a wide path with various plantings and found our only Little Glassywing of the day, more Horace’s Duskywings & Silver-spotted Skippers, and Randy Emmitt spotted our first Eastern-tailed Blue nectaring on Black-eyed Susans.

The terrace gardens were planted with lots of Lantana, Pentas, Verbena, and other great nectar sources, and we spent nearly an hour working over these plantings. Among others, we added Orange Sulphur, Gray Hairstreak, American Lady, Variegated Fritillary, Common Buckeye, Common Checkered-Skipper, and Ocola Skipper. Because of the Baptisia plantings, we were able to compare Wild Indigo and Horace’s Duskywings, noting the smaller size and slightly different patterns of the Wild Indigos. (Baptisia is a host-plant for Wild Indigo Duskywings.)

Perusing the lilypad ponds produced a plethora of Blue Dasher and Eastern Amberwing dragonflies, and a little stream gave everyone great looks at a Common Sanddragon, perched on a rock in the middle of the water. It then flew over and perched on the walkway right in front of the group.

We explored a few other areas of the gardens, including taking a walk around the duck pond where a Great Blue Heron sat on top of Wood Duck nest box., and nearby, momma Mallards guarded their ducklings.

Thanks to everyone who attended, including some folks who drove in from the NC mountains, and even a few folks came from Puerto Rico! (Well, ok, they’re studying at UNC, so they didn’t JUST come for the butterfly walk.) It was great, also, to put a face to some names that we previously only knew from email. Below is the official list for the day, with approximate numbers for each species. Surprisingly, we saw zero swallowtails, although a couple folks reported seeing a worn Spicebush before the Walk started, and I did see a Tiger Swallowtail crossing the road on my drive home — go figure!

Orange Sulphur (1)
Gray Hairstreak (5)
Summer Azure (2)
Variegated Fritillary (1)
Pearl Crescent (8)
American Lady (4)
Common Buckeye (2)
Red-spotted Purple (1)
Silver-spotted Skipper (60)
Horace’s Duskywing (12)
Common Checkered-Skipper (4)
Clouded Skipper (1)
Fiery Skipper (35)
Little Glassywing (1)
Sachem (15)
Dun Skipper (1)
Ocola Skipper (1)

DAMSELS & DRAGONS
Variable Dancer (1)
Forktail sp. (1)
Swamp Darner (1)
Common Sanddragon (1)
Blue Dasher (100)
Slaty Skimmer (10)
Common Whitetail (5)
Widow Skimmer (4)
Eastern Amberwing (40)
Glider sp. (1)

Good Butterflying!

Jeff

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jeffrey S. Pippen

On Wednesday, July 27th, nine observers counted the following 37 species in Transylvania County:

Pipevine Swallowtail 38
E. Tiger Swallowtail 142
Spicebush Swallowtail 3
Cabbage White 8
Clouded Sulphur 1
Orange Sulphur 5
Cloudless Sulphur 1
Little Yellow 1
Sulphur sp. 1
Gray Hairstreak 4
E. Tailed Blue 93
Azure 311
Varigated Fritillary 1
Diana Fritillary 1
Great Spangled Fritillary 1
Meadow Fritillary 1
Silvery Checkerspot 1
Pearl Crescent 27
Question Mark 3
Eastern Comma 9
American Lady 1
Painted Lady 1
Red Admiral 3
Common Buckeye 4
Red-spotted Purple 5
Viceroy 1
Silver-spotted Skipper 114
Long-tailed Skipper 2
Horace’s Duskywing 3
Wild Indigo Duskywing 4
Clouded Skipper 9
Least Skipper 18
Fiery Skipper 6
Crossline Skipper 1
Little Glassywing 1
Sachem 9
Zabulon Skipper 6
Dun Skipper

Observers: Bob Baldwin, Nancy Baldwin, Brian Bockhahn, Beth Brinson, Cathy King, Gail Lankford, Jim Nottke, Lynn Smith, Ruth Young

Seven observers (including 0 garden watchers and 2 children under 12) in four parties participated in the 9th Raven Rock State Park Butterfly Count on August 18, 2005. Although the weather conditions were not optimal, the mostly cloudy skies moderated the high temperature to 84 degrees – a high enough temperature to keep the butterflies active, but not too high for the observers. There was a brief rain shower in late afternoon.

The species total of 58 was one shy of the record high for this count, set in 2000. Species missed included Pipevine Swallowtail, Gemmed Satyr, Southern Cloudywing, Tawny-edged Skipper, and Delaware Skipper. 1,634 individuals seen represents a new record. No species new to the count were seen this year.

It is quite interesting that we totaled 67 Red-banded Hairstreaks, while the Durham count had none at all! I counted more than 40 in my yard, nectaring on Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum) and other species of mint. The eating habits of the local deer population have forced me to give up on trying to grow nectaring favorites like Zinnia and Gomphrena. However, they don’t eat most of the mints, and the mint flowers really attract the butterflies – especially hairstreaks.

Scott Hartley saw quite a few of the Sleepy Oranges and all of the Orange Sulphurs nectaring on soybean flowers in large soybean fields in the southern part of the count circle. Will Cook and Tom Krakauer had the only roadside-skippers of the count, and totaled 40 species on their own! Bob Perkins observed two Monarchs – a species that we have seen on only three of our previous counts. A set of sharp-eyed, nine-year-old twin boys were a big help to me in spotting quite a few butterflies (“there’s another ‘Zab’, Dad”).

Many thanks to our participants for a successful count:
Will Cook, Patrick Hart, Paul Hart, Steven Hart, Scott Hartley, Bob Perkins, and Tom Krakauer.

Black Swallowtail 1
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 133
Spicebush Swallowtail 18
Palamedes Swallowtail 9
Cabbage White 10
Orange Sulphur 300
Cloudless Sulphur 46
Little Yellow 2
Sleepy Orange 564
Juniper Hairstreak 3
Red-banded Hairstreak 67
Gray Hairstreak 24
Eastern Tailed-Blue 33
Summer Azure 9
American Snout 5
Variegated Fritillary 9
Pearl Crescent 29
Question Mark 3
Eastern Comma 1
American Lady 7
Painted Lady 4
Red Admiral 5
Common Buckeye 33
Red-spotted Purple 18
Viceroy 8
Hackberry Emperor 2
Tawny Emperor 1
Southern Pearly-Eye 2
Northern Pearly-Eye 3
Creole Pearly-Eye 1
Appalachian Brown 1
Carolina Satyr 40
Common Wood-Nymph 7
Monarch 2
Silver-spotted Skipper 43
Hoary Edge 1
Northern Cloudywing 1
Horace’s Duskywing 1
Zarucco Duskywing 1
Common Checkered-Skipper 25
Common Sootywing 14
Swarthy Skipper 2
Clouded Skipper 18
Least Skipper 7
Southern Skipperling 4
Fiery Skipper 21
Crossline Skipper 10
Whirlabout 4
Southern Broken-Dash 8
Northern Broken-Dash 1
Little Glassywing 20
Sachem 14
Zabulon Skipper 24
Dun Skipper 6
Lace-winged Roadside-Skipper 2
Carolina Roadside-Skipper 1
Eufala Skipper 3
Ocola Skipper 3

58 Species
1,634 Individuals

Immature Butterflies:
102 Black Swallowtail Caterpillars (all of them on two large Bronze Fennel plants in my yard- the only two the deer have not eaten.)

— 

Paul C. Hart

Charlie Cameron, Jules Fraytet, and Jim Nottke ventured out under mostly clear skies and very light wind until the heat got to us about 3:30. By then the butterflies were taking shelter from the heat as well. Butterflies were more numerous than the last few years – perhaps due to the frequent rains in the area and the very lush vegetation.

Jim Nottke

Hi All,

Yesterday Ken and Betty Scott and I looked around Savannah NWR, Jasper CO., SC from around 1000-1300 hrs untiull the heat was too much. The skys were clear, with calm winds and temp. above 94 degrees. Here is our list.

Black Swallowtail-2
E. Tiger Swallowtail-3
Palamedes Swallowtail-2
Cloudless Suulfur-25
Sleepy Orange-3
Gray Hairstreak-1
Gulf Fritilary-25
Zebra Longwing-1
Viceroy-10 florida race
Hackberry Emperor-10
Tawny Emperor-5
Silve-spotted Skipper-6
Long-tailed Skipper-4
Zaruco Duskywing-1
Least Skipper-15
Fiery Skipper-1
Rare Skipper-3
Broad-winged Skipper-15
Dion Skipper-4
Eufala Skipper-1
Ocola Skipper-1

Dennis

Dennis M. Forsythe PhD, PA

Butterfliers,

Nine determined and intrepid lepsters braved heat indices soaring well into the hundreds on Sunday (8/21/2005) to scour some key areas of Durham to turn in a very successful Durham Butterfly Count this year. Many thanks to butterfliers Parker Backstrom, Will Cook, Brian & Amy Counterman, Tom Krakauer, Harry LeGrand, Jeff Pippen, Roger Rittmaster, and Richard Stickney for their participation!

Thanks also to Tom Krakauer, Uli Hartmond, and Roy Griffiths for making facilities available for us at the NC Museum of Life and Science. After surveying the wild butterflies of Durham, we met at the end of the day in the outstanding Magic Wings Butterfly House to enjoy such tropical delights as various longwings, Scarlet Peacocks, and Paper Kites and to compile our sightings of the day.

Here are some bulleted trends, highlights, and points of interest from the survey, based now on 6 years of data from annual surveys in mid-August:

— 55 species total (avg=56); 2316 individuals (avg=3828). Numbers of each species were generally pretty average. The reason the total individuals number is so far below average is due to the fact that in some years, a few species have major “boom” years and elevate the total individuals count (e.g., 1380 E. Tiger Swallowtails in 2000; 2707 Sachems in 2002, etc.). This year, there were really no “boom” species.

— Record low numbers (due in part to non-coverage of a two areas usually covered due to Randy & Brian being out of town — we missed you guys!) for 6 species: Black Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail, Hackberry Emperor, Hoary Edge, Southern Cloudywing, and Horace’s Duskywing.

— Record high numbers for the 6 years of this count for 5 species: Painted Lady, Crossline Skipper, Southern Broken-Dash, Little Glassywing, and Delaware Skipper.

— Our record high 84 Southern Broken-Dash is very close to the all time national record of 85 recorded on a TX count in 2003.

— For the first time ever, Painted Lady outnumbered American Lady (by an impressive ratio of 10:1)! Most of these individuals were fresh, indicating that they were offspring of the individuals that migrated here this spring. Painted Lady does not overwinter in NC.

— Cloudywings and duskywings were in very short supply this year, however Wild Indigo Duskywings continue to do well in the Duke Gardens, where their host plants (Baptisia spp.) grow. Duke Gardens is a great place to easily see lots of butterflies nectaring on a variety of garden plants.

— Morning conditions were in the low 80s, sunny, and humid, and with very little wind. Afternoon temps in mid 90s deg. F., and partly sunny and HOT!

Here are the results:

Total — Species
4 — Pipevine Swallowtail
9 — Black Swallowtail
132 — Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
21 — Spicebush Swallowtail
2 — Cabbage White
19 — Orange Sulphur
138 — Cloudless Sulphur
142 — Sleepy Orange
32 — Gray Hairstreak
95 — Eastern Tailed-Blue
38 — Summer Azure
2 — American Snout
59 — Variegated Fritillary
1 — Great Spangled Fritillary
5 — Silvery Checkerspot
96 — Pearl Crescent
3 — Question Mark
6 — Eastern Comma
2 — American Lady
20 — Painted Lady
6 — Red Admiral
168 — Common Buckeye
50 — Red-spotted Purple
21 — Viceroy
4 — Hackberry Emperor
25 — Tawny Emperor
14 — Northern Pearly-eye
7 — Appalachian Brown
2 — Gemmed Satyr
255 — Carolina Satyr
3 — Common Wood-Nymph
29 — Monarch
185 — Silver-spotted Skipper
3 — Hoary Edge
1 — Southern Cloudywing
2 — Horace’s Duskywing
5 — Wild Indigo Duskywing
16 — Com. Checkered-Skipper
2 — Common Sootywing
29 — Swarthy Skipper
28 — Clouded Skipper
29 — Least Skipper
77 — Fiery Skipper
2 — Tawny-edged Skipper
51 — Crossline Skipper
84 — Southern Broken-Dash
5 — Northern Broken-Dash
75 — Little Glassywing
152 — Sachem
11 — Delaware Skipper
61 — Zabulon Skipper
7 — Dion Skipper
19 — Dun Skipper
1 — Eufala Skipper
39 — Ocola Skipper

1 — Colias sp.
20 — grass skipper sp.

Non-Adults:
1 — Black Swallowtail

55 Total Species
2316 Total Individuals

Good Butterflying!

Jeff
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jeffrey S. Pippen

Jeff Pippen, Will Cook, Parker Backstrom, Roger Rittmaster, and Harry LeGrand tallied 41 species under cloudy skies. Scattered rain showers in mid-morning and mid-afternoon caused us to miss coverage of a few places causing a lower species total.

Harry LeGrand

Eight participants (Jeff Pippen, Will Cook, Parker Backstrom, Jamie Cameron, Sue Cameron, John Fussell, Jack Fennell, and Harry LeGrand) divided into two parties to cover most of the key areas. Most time was spent in savannas and power line cuts. The species total was about average, though it’s been a slow year for emigrant species. Several notable species were found, especially the Berry’s Skipper.

Harry LeGrand

A second walk was held this year to look for Meske’s Skipper. Species diversity and numbers were still down, but a fresh Meske’s Skipper was observed. Liatris was the main nectar source available. Larvae of Red-Spotted Purple were found on Cherry and Silver-Spotted Skipper were found on Dwarf Locust.

Scott Hartley