The Croatan NF, NC, butterfly count was held yesterday (Sunday, August 30).
We didn't have particularly good coverage this year, though 5 of us -- Jeff
Pippen, Salman Abdulali, John Fussell, and Jack Fennell -- joined me to work in
two parties (usual number) to cover the circle. The weather was typical for the
time and place -- humid, warm to hot, and partly cloudy, but fortunately (for
the first time in several years) there was no rain. Interestingly, I learned
today that a collector or two were in the circle the day before, hitting one of
our hotspots, but thankfully it didn't seem to affect any count results. What
did affect results a bit was the wildfire (about 120 acres) in a part of the
circle, plus the US Forest Service's attempt to control it by burning 2400
acres, in part to stop the fire but also for fuel reduction. This was terrible
timing, as it came a month before the count, not enough time to "green-up" and
thus there were no flowers in the burned areas, and too large an extent burned
that there was certainly damage done to some butterfly populations (i.e., no
refugia). Burns are best done in winter or in spring, in much smaller blocks.
Here are the totals:
Black Swallowtail 2
E. Tiger Swallowtail 39
Spicebush Swallowtail 2
Palamedes Swallowtail 430 no shortage of them in NC,
unlike farther southward in the range
Orange Sulphur 1
Cloudless Sulphur
310
Little Yellow 4
Sleepy Orange 46
Great Purple Hairstreak 1
Gray
Hairstreak 11
Red-banded Hairstreak 27
E. Tailed-Blue 8
Summer Azure 5
Little Metalmark 2 low count; negatively affected by the fire; none in the
burned areas
Pearl Crescent 38
Common Buckeye 70
Red-spotted Purple 5
Viceroy 2
Southern Pearly-eye 9
Carolina Satyr 54
Georgia Satyr 68
Common Wood-Nymph 19
Monarch 3
Silver-spotted Skipper 33
Southern
Cloudywing 3
Horace's Duskywing 3
Zarucco Duskywing 2
Swarthy Skipper 2
Clouded Skipper 40
Least Skipper 5
Fiery Skipper 13
Tawny-edged Skipper
3
Whirlabout 2
Southern Broken-Dash 6
LITTLE GLASSYWING 1 rare in the
circle and near the coast; swampy road margin; NEW for Carteret!
Delaware
Skipper 5
Byssus Skipper 61 YES, SIXTY-ONE!! Everywhere. To think we have
completely missed it several times!
Dion Skipper 2
BERRY'S SKIPPER 8 We
had 9 last year, but still excellent.
Dun Skipper 4
Lace-winged
Roadside-Skipper 25
Carolina Roadside-Skipper 29
REVERSED ROADSIDE-SKIPPER
2 Always a good find; seen about every third year
Twin-spot Skipper 30
Ocola Skipper 2
Total = 45 species
Again, Vanessa and Polygonia
species were absent, though they are always tough on this count. John Fussell
took Salman to see and get photos of Dukes' Skippers, but the sites are about a
mile east of the circle. Can't find them inside the circle -- yet! It will be
interesting to see if we can find Arogos Skipper next year. The general thought
is that the fire may have wiped them out, the only site still known for them in
NC. And, let's hope the Little Metalmarks rebound.
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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