On Sunday ten of us had fun poking around at the Flat River Impoundment
near Falls Lake (Durham Co., NC). Not much bird migration was happening
(we
saw White-eyed Vireo, Common Yellowthroat, Chestnut-sided and
Magnolia
Warblers, 50+ Great Egrets, a couple of Green Herons), but the
insects were
hopping! We amassed a list of 35 species of butterflies in
the large open
fields filled with the beautiful yellow flowers of Bidens
(tickseed).
Highlights included a few Great Spangled Fritillaries (I
don't think I've
seen them at this spot before), Dion Skippers (rarish
wetlands species that
feeds on Carex), and large numbers of Hackberry
Emperors, several of which
landed on sweaty field trippers. We saw a few
poor emaciated Monarch
caterpillars gnawing on ripening milkweed seed
pods (all the leaves had been
consumed).
The Odonates were pretty spectacular, too, highlighted by
Dusky Dancers,
a few Dragonhunters (large, powerful, voracious predators),
and a rare
Russet-tipped Clubtail.
One of the plant highlights was a
large mat of Azolla and Lemna covering
a small subimpoundment. Carl was
excited to find his first ever fertile
Azolla cf. caroliniana, but oddly
enough, all the Azollas we collected male.
Species lists below.
Butterflies (35 species) - 9/13/2009 Durham Co., NC
5 Orange Sulphur
(Colias eurytheme)
27 Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae)
15 Sleepy Orange
(Abaeis nicippe)
2 Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus)
1 Red-banded
Hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops)
27 Eastern Tailed-Blue (Everes comyntas)
1
Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta)
3 Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta
claudia)
3 Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele)
10 Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes
tharos)
4 Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis)
1 Eastern Comma (Polygonia
comma)
3 American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis)
2 Painted Lady (Vanessa
cardui)
2 Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)
14 Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia)
9 Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax)
40 Viceroy (Limenitis
archippus) - near record count
26 Hackberry Emperor (Asterocampa celtis)
3
Tawny Emperor (Asterocampa clyton)
2 Carolina Satyr (Hermeuptychia sosybius)
1 Monarch (Danaus plexippus) + 3 caterpillars
4 Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus
clarus)
2 Horace's Duskywing (Erynnis horatius)
4 Common Checkered-Skipper
(Pyrgus communis)
13 Clouded Skipper (Lerema accius)
3 Least Skipper (Ancyloxypha
numitor)
2 Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus)
1 Crossline Skipper (Polites
origenes)
1 Southern Broken-Dash (Wallengrenia otho)
12 Sachem (Atalopedes
campestris)
1 Zabulon Skipper (Poanes zabulon)
2 Dion Skipper (Euphyes
dion)
2 Dun Skipper (Euphyes vestris)
1 Ocola Skipper (Panoquina ocola)
Odonates (list by Carl Rothfels)
Plathemis lydia - Common
Whitetail. Common along path.
Erythemis simplicicollis - Eastern Pondhawk.
Common along path.
Pachydiplax longipenis - Blue Dasher. Locally common in
some of the
small ponds.
Libellula pulchella - Twelve-spotted Skimmer.
Approx. 10 seen in one of
the pond areas.
Perithemis tenera - Eastern
Amberwing. Locally common in some of the
small ponds.
Libellula cf
incesta - Slaty Skimmer. Locally common in some of the
small ponds.
Libellula vibrans - Great Blue Skimmer. One seen.
Tramea lacerata - Black
Saddlebags. One seen.
Anax junius - Common Green Darner. Three seen.
Hagenius brevistylus - Dragonhunter. Approx. three see over the creek.
One male netted.
Dromogomphus spinosus - Black-shouldered Spinyleg. One or
two seen.
Stylurus plagiatus - Russet-tipped Clubtail. One seen.
Argia
translata - Dusky Dancer. Approx. eight seen over the creek.
Argia moesta -
Powdered Dancer. One seen.
Ischnura posita - Fragile Forktail. One seen.
--
Will Cook - Durham, NC
http://www.carolinanature.com
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