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On The WingOn The WingOn The WingOn The WingOn The WingNewsletter of the Tennessee Valley Chapter,Newsletter of the Tennessee Valley Chapter,Newsletter of the Tennessee Valley Chapter,Newsletter of the Tennessee Valley Chapter,Newsletter of the Tennessee Valley Chapter,
North American Butterfly AssociationNorth American Butterfly AssociationNorth American Butterfly AssociationNorth American Butterfly AssociationNorth American Butterfly Association
October 2016 Volume 10, Number 8Editor: Bill Haley, [email protected]
Photo byLibby Wolfe
This will be your last “On the Wing”newsletter of 2016. Newsletterswill resume, probably in either
February or March 2017.
Butterflies are still out there to be seen.I always welcome your photos, so pleasecontinue to send them in.
Eastern Tailed-Blue, maleEveres comyntas
Totals for the fall seasonalSoddy-Daisy, TN count
The fall Soddy-Daisy count took place on Thursday, Sep-tember 1. Counters were David Spicer, Tommie Rogers,Libby Wolfe and Bill Haley. Temperature ranged from 77to 91 F. It was sunny most of the morning, but cloudsmoved in after 12:00.That afternoon we saw only 50%sun. Butterfly numbers and diversity were spectacularand we tallied the most species and individuals of anyof the 10 NABA counts we conducted in 2016! Counterssplit into three parties, totaled 21 hours of count effortand walked a combined 5 miles.Species and numbers:Pipevine Swallowtail 17, Black Swallowtail 4, E. TigerSw. 34, Spicebush Swallowtail 9, Giant Swallowtail 1,Cabbage White 6, Clouded Sulphur 2, Orange Sulphur7, Cloudless Sulphur 425, Little Yellow 77, Sleepy Or-ange 108, Gray Hairstreak 43, Red-banded Hairstreak1, E. Tailed-Blue 413, Summer Azure 16, AmericanSnout 1, Gulf Fritillary 98, Variegated Fritillary 3, GreatSpangled Fritillary 8, Aphrodite Fritillary 1, SilveryCheckerspot 1, Pearl Crescent 54, American Lady 1,Painted Lady 1, Red Admiral 1, Common Buckeye 342,Red-spotted Purple 19, Hackberry Emperor 17, TawnyEmperor 2, Northern Pearly-Eye 1, Gemmed Satyr 1,Carolina Satyr 35, Common Wood Nymph 2, Silver-sp.Skipper 3, Long-tailed Skipper 3, , Northern Cloudywing1, Horace’s Duskywing 4, Wild Indigo Duskywing 26,Common Checkered Skipper 1, Swarthy Skipper 1,Clouded Skipper 10, Least Skipper 5, Fiery Skipper 58,Tawny-edged Skipper 1, Crossline Skipper 3, SouthernBroken-Dash 1, Northern Broken-Dash 3, LittleGlassywing 3, Sachem 188, Delaware Skipper 5, DunSkipper 2, Eufala Skipper 1, Ocola Skipper 7.Immature stages: Gulf Fritillary 1 caterpillar and 3 eggson passionvine, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, 2 caterpil-lars on sassafras, Common Buckeye, 7 caterpillars.Total: species 56, individuals 2076.
Answer to September: What caterpillar is that?The caterpillar pictured atop the front page of the Septemberissue was the Black Swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes.The female Black Swallowtail above visited Bill’s zinnia patch.Note the distinctive black spot inside the orange dot at thecorner of the hindwings - a key identification feature.
Butterfly Counters, 2016Listed below is everyone who helped with any of the tenbutterfly counts Bill Haley compiled in 2016, and the num-ber of counts they participated in. Thank you all!
Bill Haley............................. 10 countsTommie Rogers.................. 9 countsDavid Spicer ...................... 8 countsScott Spicer........................ 4 countsHarold Birch ...................... 4 countsNancy Williams .................. 4 countsMike O’Brien..................... 4 countsLibby Wolfe....................... 4 countsSusan Schott....................... 2 countsAnita Greenwell.................. 2 countsChristine Bock.................... 2 countsBeverly Swafford................ 2 countsCarl Swafford..................... 2 countsCandy Haley....................... 1 countJudee Spicer....................... 1 countJulius Basham..................... 1 countTom Howe......................... 1 countAmy Zarzecki..................... 1 countJazmond Zarzecki............... 1 countBob Hulse........................... 1 countJohn Diener......................... 1 countSally Wencel....................... 1 count
Photo byBill Haley
On the Wing, October 2016 Pg. 2
March 13, 2012
Around the PuddleAround the PuddleAround the PuddleAround the PuddleAround the Puddle
Finally!by Bill Haley
The Monarchis possibly ourmost well-knownbutterfly. Usuallyif a non-butterflyperson knows noother butterfly,chances are theyare familiar withthe Monarch.
This summer we experienced an almostcomplete absence of Monarchs in our area. Thiscaused some alarm, as historically we’ve found ahandfull on our butterfly counts throughout thesummer months. Their numbers have slumped tonew lows in the past decade.
We had to wait until our eighth count, onJuly 27 in Williamsburg, Kentucky, to see our firstMonarch of the year. The next count in the Ten-nessee River Gorge turned up nary a one. On Sep-tember 1, I managed to find 3 during our 10th countof 2016 in the large field along Hwy. 27 in Bakewell,which is within the Soddy-Daisy count circle.
By the time you receive this newsletter,the story of the Monarch will be clearer for theyear. The majority undertake their epic migrationsouthward towards the mountains of centralMexico each September. They will continue tomove south in the first couple of weeks in Octo-ber, so keep your eyes open as these tough but-terflies head south.
A large number of Monarchs movingthrough Chattanooga this fall probably means theyhad a successful breeding season further north.As I write this column the day after Labor Day, Icertainly hope this will be the case.
I often walk out in my yard to “see if thereis anything to photograph”. On Labor Day, it turnsout there was. A female Monarch, the first one I’veseen in my yard all year, was nectaring on myzinnias. She proceeded to visit every blue silk vine,a member of the milkweed family, in the front yard.This invasive vine completely takes over my gar-den, and I routinely cut it back all summer long,but when in bloom the Monarch and other butter-flies, moths and bees love it!
Photos From a Bakewell Field Full of Ironweed!Bill Haley hit the jackpot on blooming New York Ironweed inthis Bakewell field during the Soddy-Daisy fall count.
American Lady, Vanessa virginiensis. (Two large eyespots)
Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui. (Four smaller eyespots).
Silvery Checkerspot, Chlosyne nycteis
All three of thebutterflies on thispage were theonly ones of theirspecies talliedduring the count.It took a lot ofwading throughtall grasses to getto where theywere, but theeffort paid off forBill. He also found3 Monarchs in thesame area. Morephotos from thisfield to follow.
On the Wing, October 2016 Pg. 3
Howabout
1.
2.3.
More shotsfrom the
ironweed field:1. Common Buck-eye, ventral2. Fiery Skipper,male, ventral3. Common Buck-eye, dorsal4. Crossline Skipper,ventral
All photos this pageby Bill Haley
Red-bandedHairstreakOne found onSoddy-Daisy count.
Gray Hairstreak
Record total43 found onSoddy-Daisy
count!
4.
On the Wing, October 2016 Pg. 4
Color Saturation You Simply Can’t Ignore!
Some colors just seem to jumpout at you. I especially like thestunning photo Mike O’Brientook of a female Clouded Skip-per climbing down into thethroat of a purple morning glory!The other shots were taken in myfront yard flower beds.
- editor
On the Wing, October 2016 Pg. 5
A collection of non-butterfly photos, 2016
1.
3.
5.4. 6.
1. Ambush bug 2. Bee mimic fly3. Black racer 4. Green Lynx Spidereating digger wasp 5. Bobcat swimmingTennessee River 6. Soldier beetle Photos: 1,2,3,6: Bill Haley; 4. Mike
O’Brien; 5. Betsy Bowden
2.
On the Wing, October 2016 Pg. 6
Early September is for Skippers!In late summer we experience the largest diversity ofskipper species of the entire year. We found 21 spe-cies on the Soddy-Daisy fall count. Several memorableshots are shared on this page.
Delaware Skipper, Anatrytone logan
Swarthy Skipper, Nastra lherminier
Bill couldn’t count this Clouded Skipper, Lerema accius onBakewell Mountain. It had run afoul of an ambush bug hiddenin the thistle bloom.
A countable one! This fresh Clouded Skipper was found alongthe bank of North Chickamauga Creek.
Fiery SkipperHylephila phyleusdorsal viewsFemale (left)Male (right)
Little Glassywing, Pompeius verna
Photos: Left column, Dave Spicer.Right column, Bill Haley
On the Wing, October 2016 Pg. 7
More shots from the fall Soddy-Daisy, TN count!
On Soddy Mountain Tommie Rogers made one of the bestfinds of the day, an Aphrodite Fritillary, Speyeria aphrodite.
Spines Anyone? Tommie Rogers photographed this veryspiny caterpillar, a Common Buckeye, Junonia coenia.
Cloudless Sulphur, Phoebis sennae, was the most abundantbutterfly of the day. They were absolutely everywhere! 425were counted, which was probably a conservative number.Photo by David Spicer.
Libby Wolfe took this photo of the well-named Long-tailedSkipper, Urbanus proteus. It was one of two that were foundnectaring on the tiny blooms of a native verbena by Libbyand Bill near North Chickamauga Creek. Dave Spicer alsofound one of these late-season visitors, for a total of 3 onthe count.
Left: Thisstrange, scary-looking crea-ture was foundrolled inside asassafras leafby Bill Haley. Itis the caterpillarof the EasternTiger Swallow-tail, Papilioglaucus.
On the Wing, October 2016 Pg. 8
Sometimes you get lucky! While Bill Haley was taking aphoto of a day-flying moth visiting his bur marigold blooms,this fresh Eastern Tailed-Blue, Everes comyntas, flew onto anearby flower. Bill had tried unsuccessfully for two years toget a decent shot of this species. This time he finally suc-ceeded, as it obligingly posed for this photo.
Menage a trois? This photo of a mated pair of Eastern Tailed-Blues with another male “onlooker”, taken by David Spiceron the Soddy-Daisy count illustrates that there is a lot ofcompetition for mates this time of year. Eastern Tailed-Bluewas the second most common species on this year’s fallcount, with 314 individuals documented. These tiny butter-flies use a wide variety of host plants and they were foundpracticlly everywhere we stopped to look.
Sachem pair:Bill Haley photo-graphed thismale and femaleS a c h e m ,A t a l o p e d e scampestris, on azinnia bloom.The photo tothe right showswhat the malewas up to.
Monarch & Cloudless Sulphur Migration TotalsThe following totals are from the Soddy Mountain hawk lookout,on Jones Gap Road near Soddy-Daisy, TN, elevation 1400 feet.(Type Soddy Mountain Hawk Watch into your computer’s searchengine to read about the hawk migration, or do a Facebook search- Soddy Mountain Hawk Watch.) - Bill Haley
9/11/16: 4.5 hrs. - 2 Monarchs, (no C.S. count)9/14/16: 7 hrs. - 4 Monarchs, (no C.S. count)9/19/16: 9.5 hr. - 10 Monarchs, (no C.S. count)9/20/16: 7.75 hr. - 7 Monarchs, 121 Cloudless Sulphurs9/21/16: 8.25 hr. - 12 Monarchs, 109 Cloudless Sulphurs9/22/16: 8 hr. - 16 Monarchs, 59 Cloudless Sulphurs9/23/16: 7.5 hr. - 20 Monarchs, 33 Cloudless Sulphurs9/27/16: 5.5 hr. - 7 Monarchs, 14 Cloudless Sulphurs9/29/16: 7 hrs. - 10 Monarchs, (no C.S. count)9/30/16: 4.5 hr. - 15 Monarchs, (no C.S. count)10/1/16: 7.5 hr. - 29 Monarchs, (no C.S. count)10/2/16: 5.5 hr.* - 46 Monarchs, (no C.S. count)
* On Oct. 2 between 12:30 and 4:30, 21 Monarchs were counted.Between 4:30 and 6:00, 26 were counted. The late Monarchs weretrying to get in an extra mile or two before calling it a day.
On the Wing, October 2016 Pg. 9
Soddy Mountain Hawk Lookout ObservationsI’ve been counting passing Monarchs and Cloudless Sulphurswhile scanning the skies for migrating hawks. However, weoften see other very intersting things up on the hawk lookout.One of the most interesting has been the Thread-waisted Wasp.I had to share it’s story with all my butterfly friends.
- Bill Haley
1. On October 1, we spotted a slender wasp, maybe 1 1/4 inches long,carrying a large, fat caterpillar. The wasp was using its mandibles tohold onto the caterpillar and was dragging it forward. We watched thewasp drag the caterpillar about 4-5 feet over grass and other ob-stacles. Here it reaches the final destination. Note, no hole is visible.
2. We were surprised when the wasp removed a cap off a previously-constructed hole. It placed the cap (in circle) a short distance away.
4. This photo shows the wasp carrying a rock in its mandibles out ofthe hole. It deposited it on a little pile of soil located about 4 inchesaway.
5. Here is a photo ofthe pile of dirt thewasp created from thediggings. I wish wecould have seen thewasp when she origi-nally dug the holebeforethe caterpillarwas caught. Whoknows how many tripshad to be made fromthe excavation to thedirt pile? After shemade several trips, thewasp came out of thehole and again straddledthe caterpillar - itseemed she was mea-suring it to see if thehole was wide enough.She went back to exca-vating and made a fewmore trips.
6. The next phase tookme by surprise. Noticethat the caterpillar is nolonger in sight. Thewasp came out andgrabbed one end of thecaterpillar in its man-dibles and quicklypulled it into the hole. Iwas so fascinated I for-got to take a photo!
7. After laying an eggon the caterpillar, shecame out of the hole andbegan filling it in withsmall stones and dirtfrom the vicinity of thehole, never once usingany of the dirt she put
in the pile earlier. Sometimes she’d back up to the hole and using herlegs, would dig like a dog, sending a shower of dirt flying into thehole. She occasionally used her head to tamp down the fill dirt.
1.
2.
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4.
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3. The wasp goesinto the hole to dosome more excavat-ing. The caterpillarwas very plump!
- continued on next page
On The Wing, October 2016 Pg. 10
8.
8. Final photo in the Thread-waisted Wasp saga. This shot showswhere the hole was located. Before the wasp finished, we wereastonished when she picked up a larger rock than the ones she’dcarried away to the pile and began using it to further tamp down thedirt where the opening of the hole had been. It was a clear exampleof an insect using a tool! Also notice that before calling it a com-pleted task the wasp drug some dried grasses over the excavationand filled-in area to camouflage it even better. If we hadn’t seen theentire sequence, we’d never know a hole had been there. The totaltime elapsed for the whole project - maybe 20 minutes. I know this is not a wasp newsletter, but the story does featurea caterpillar. It was a type of cutworm, which is considered a pest ina garden, and it would have become a small brown moth.
- all photos by Bill Haley
A favorite late summer nectar source for many butterflies is thebur marigold, also known as tickseed sunflower. An annualwildflower, one plant will become quite large and wide, and iscovered with hundreds of blooms every September. Beware - itreseeds really easily! If you let it drop seeds, you are guaran-teed to have many more plants next year. Despite this liability,it is a welcome addition in Bill Haley’s yard and is spectacularwhen blooming. Bill will gladly supply seeds if you want some!A Common Checkered Skipper, Pyrgus communis, was a wel-come visitor on September 16.
Long proboscis! A number of photos of Clouded Skippersare featured in this issue, but when I saw the length of thetongue (proboscis) in this shot, I had to add one more.Mike O’Brien commented, “It is longer than the skipper’sbody!” This helps explain why we often see them in deep-throated flowers, such as morning glory.
Common Buckeye, Junonia coenia, from a bird’s perspec-tive. Imagine you are a hungry bird who has just come upbehind the butterfly above. What image dothe wing markingssuggest top you? The eyespots very clearly resemble the eyesand nostrils of a frog or lizard and possibly even a snake!
Another Soddy Mtn.hawk lookout visitor.This Gray Hairstreaklanded on CynthiaWilkerson’s foot andstayed there for over 15minutes. It didn’t seemto mind posing for nu-merous photos.
