The Southport/Fort Fisher butterfly count was held on Saturday, August 29
under typical sweltering weather conditions. However, it was mostly cloudy in
the morning, but mostly sunny in the afternoon. It was a bit breezy at times,
but we avoided any rain. We had 4 observers in 3 parties - Will Cook covered New
Hanover County, Taylor Piephoff and I covered the Southport/Caswell Beach area,
and Jeff Pippen covered Boiling Spring Lakes area and places north of Southport.
We topped last year (the first year) by three species, so it was OK, especially
for skipper diversity.
ZEBRA SWALLOWTAIL 1 very rare along the coast,
esp. in August
Black Swallowtail 5
Giant Swallowtail 1 EXACTLY where one
was last year -- same lantana bush at Caswell Beach!
E. Tiger Swallowtail 13
Spicebush Swallowtail 13
Palamedes Swallowtail 231
Cloudless Sulphur 460
Sleepy Orange 135
JUNIPER HAIRSTREAK 2 Fort Fisher area; known from there,
but always a good find
Gray Hairstreak 16
Red-banded Hairstreak 2
E.
Tailed-Blue 2
Gulf Fritillary 123
Variegated Fritillary 51
Phaon
Crescent 55 all around Fort Fisher, as usual
Pearl Crescent 11
Painted
Lady 1
Common Buckeye 63
Red-spotted Purple 4
Viceroy 10
Monarch 13
QUEEN 4 all at the tip of Ft. Fisher, their usual site (in good years)
Silver-spotted Skipper 54
Long-tailed Skipper 2
Horace's Duskywing 21
Zarucco Duskywing 20 very good count for NC
Common Checkered-Skipper 1
Swarthy Skipper 1
Clouded Skipper 31
Least Skipper 10
Southern
Skipperling 40 all in a single set of fields outside Southport; excellent NC
count
Fiery Skipper 101
Whirlabout 11
Southern Broken-Dash 21
Sachem
6 all females; good coastal total
Delaware Skipper 3
Byssus Skipper 3
Broad-winged Skipper 2
Dion Skipper 3
Dun Skipper 6
Eufala Skipper 13
Twin-spot Skipper 3
Salt Marsh Skipper 55
Ocola Skipper 6
Total =
44 species
Note the total absence of Satyrs/Brown -- not good habitat for
most species, though Carolina Satyr and Common Wood-Nymph are certainly present,
as must a pearly-eye or two. And, summer 2009 has been terrible in NC for
Vanessa species, and also Polygonia species. Just a single Painted Lady among
the bunch. And, we only got two sulphur species -- Little Yellow is a tough
miss. But, we had 22 species of skippers.
Harry LeGrand, Vertebrate
Zoologist
North Carolina Natural Heritage Program
1601 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1601
Office: (919) 715-8697
harry.legrand@ncdenr.gov
www.ncnhp.org
E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be
subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third
parties.
Note my new e-mail address (above)
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