Butterfliers,
The Durham area NABA Seasonal Butterfly Count was conducted Sunday 19
August 2007. Recent droughty conditions did not much hamper butterflying
this year as we found slightly above average species diversity (57
species) and only a little below average individual numbers (3085).
A few count record highs were found, including Red-banded Hairstreak, Red
Admiral, Viceroy, Hackberry Emperor, Southern Broken-Dash, and Dun
Skipper. Exceptionally good finds were singleton Zebra Swallowtail (3rd
count record) and White M Hairstreak (2nd count record) by Randy Emmitt's
group. Tom Krakauer and Cyndy Hummel found the only Hayhurst's
Scallopwing (2nd count record) and Common Sootywing of the day; both are
uncommon species in Durham. Will Cook & Carl Rothfels alone smashed the
previous count record for Dun Skippers by finding 40, and they spotted the
only wood-nymph of the day. Unfortunately, the spotty rain showers of the
previous week had mostly missed the Hill Forest where Harry LeGrand
struggled all day to turn up butterflies in a normally very good area.
And Jeff Pippen's group found the only Dion Skipper, a species that is
sometimes missed on this count due to its August brood being a bit later
in the month. This was the first year (of 7 previous counts) that we've
missed Southern Cloudywing.
Many thanks to all who helped out: Will Cook, Randy Emmitt, Cyndy Hummel,
Tom Krakauer, Harry LeGrand, Allison Leidner, David McCloy, Michael
McCloy, Toni McFarland, Meg Millard, Jim Nottke, Jeff Pippen, Carl
Rothfels, and Richard Stickney. We also enjoyed the company of Wade
Rawlins and John Rottet of the News & Observer. And a huge thanks once
again to the NC Museum of Life and Science (specifically Roy Griffiths and
Uli Hartmond) for allowing us to use their facilities as a base.
Here are the results:
6 Pipevine Swallowtail
1 Zebra Swallowtail
11 Black Swallowtail
158 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
27 Spicebush Swallowtail
5 Cabbage White
1 Clouded Sulphur
7 Orange Sulphur
126 Cloudless Sulphur
129 Sleepy Orange
1 White M Hairstreak
5 Juniper Hairstreak
19 Gray Hairstreak
37 Red-banded Hairstreak
72 Eastern Tailed-Blue
11 Summer Azure
1 American Snout
72 Variegated Fritillary
4 Great Spangled Fritillary
9 Silvery Checkerspot
216 Pearl Crescent
15 Question Mark
5 Eastern Comma
6 American Lady
56 Red Admiral
100 Common Buckeye
46 Red-spotted Purple
52 Viceroy
37 Hackberry Emperor
11 Tawny Emperor
2 Northern Pearly-eye
12 Gemmed Satyr
72 Carolina Satyr
1 Common Wood-Nymph
103 Monarch
102 Silver-spotted Skipper
6 Hoary Edge
1 Northern Cloudywing
2 Hayhurst's Scallopwing
20 Horace's Duskywing
7 Wild Indigo Duskywing
31 Com. Checkered-Skipper
1 Common Sootywing
6 Swarthy Skipper
47 Clouded Skipper
59 Least Skipper
420 Fiery Skipper
18 Crossline Skipper
101 Southern Broken-Dash
3 Northern Broken-Dash
30 Little Glassywing
640 Sachem
5 Delaware Skipper
51 Zabulon Skipper
1 Dion Skipper
57 Dun Skipper
1 Ocola Skipper
4 anglewing sp.
1 satyr sp.
Non-Adults
28 Black Swallowtail cats
2 Black Swallowtail chrysalids
5 Monarch cats
57 Total Species
3085 Total Individuals
Good Butterflying,
Jeff
http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/nature.htm
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