Folks:
Rather than trying to submit all trips lists (about 6) for the weekend
Carolina Butterfly Society's foray to Clay and Macon counties, NC, in
one table or long e-mail, it would be more informative to have each trip
list separately, so that leaders or e-mail authors can add a few
comments. So, here is what Jeff Pippen, Will Cook, Derb Carter, and I
saw on Friday, May 12. We worked areas off of Wayah Road in western
Macon County, and late in the day went to the Little TN River Greenway
in Franklin, but it was very poor. For security reasons, I'll not
mention specific sites where we spent most of the day, but we ran into
Randy Emmitt and Ralph Preston at one site, so we duplicated some of
what they had earlier in the morning. Diversity was poor, though numbers
were OK. The weather was cool (50s) and mostly cloudy (about a 4 out of
10), but we got the day in without rain.
Pipevine Swallowtail 30
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 20
Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail 5
Spicebush Swallowtail 10
West Virginia White 4
Eastern Tailed-Blue 2
Summer Azure 1
Silvery Checkerspot 3
Pearl Crescent 15
Mimic Crescent 75! Rough estimate
TAWNY CRESCENT 20
Question Mark 1
Viceroy 1 Greenway
Carolina Satyr 2
Silver-spotted Skipper 8
Dreamy Duskywing 8
Juvenal's Duskywing 25
Sachem 2
Hobomok Skipper 6
Zabulon Skipper 8
Pepper and Salt Skipper 1
Only 21 species for about 7 hours. The remarkable numbers of crescents
was due to the fact that the roads involved had lots of asters growing
on the road cuts/banks. Obviously, EVERY crescent could not be
identified positively, but we had about a 5:1 ratio of Mimics to Pearls
in this area. And, this is one of the largest populations of Tawny
Cresents, at a NEW spot (first found by Randy and Ralph that morning).
Tawny Crescent (this s. App. race) is a Federal Species of Concern.)
Harry LeGrand
--
Harry LeGrand
NC Natural Heritage Program
DENR Office of Conservation and Community Affairs
1601 MSC
Raleigh, NC 27699-1601
(919) 715-8697 (work)
FAX: 919-715-3085
e-mail: harry.legrand@ncmail.net
Return to Carolina
Butterfly Society Home Page