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Recent Postings from
Carolina Leps

Updated on Monday, December 10 at 07:32 PM ET
The most recently received Mail is at the top.

Yes indeed, I saw an Autumn Meadowhawk around the wetland at the  
Museum of Life and Science on both Saturday and Sunday (12/8 & 12/9).  
I had a very close look at a fresh female on Sunday. The Museum of  
lIfe and Science is located in Durham, NC for those who are out of  
the area.

There were several (3) Cloudless Sulphurs that I noticed in and  
around the wetland area as well.

The next few days should be interesting.


-----------------
Greg Dodge
Catbird Productions
http://www.grdodge.com
Brownbag Productions
http://www.brownbagproductions.com


-------------------------------------------------------
On Dec 10, 2007, at 1:33 PM, Randy Emmitt wrote:
Folks,

This morning at about 10:15am I found a female Autumn Meadowhawk  
landing on the freshly laid block on our  addition's new foundation.  
Then at noon a fall form Sleepy Orange came in and gave a short  
showing  by flying around the entire yard and leaving shortly there  
after. Also Spring Peepers are calling.

Also I talked to Greg Dodge on Saturday he saw an Autumn Meadowhawk  
in Durham on Saturday.

Cheers,

Folks,

This morning at about 10:15am I found a female Autumn Meadowhawk 
landing on the freshly laid block on our  addition's new foundation. 
Then at noon a fall form Sleepy Orange came in and gave a short 
showing  by flying around the entire yard and leaving shortly there 
after. Also Spring Peepers are calling.

Also I talked to Greg Dodge on Saturday he saw an Autumn Meadowhawk 
in Durham on Saturday.

Cheers,

Randy Emmitt
Rougemont, NC
www.rlephoto.com

Several of us spent the entire day walking at Bald Head I., NC, looking 
for rare plants and birds. Skies were sunny and temps were in the low to 
mid-70s. Though we saw lots of butterflies, they were all common things:
Cloudless Sulphur 8
Sleepy Orange 2
Gulf Fritillary 5
Red Admiral 5
Common Buckeye 6
Monarch 12

Harry LeGrand
Raleigh

Still plenty of butterflies on warm days dowm here. 
This week coming is going to be very warm so everyone
should be getting some sightings while out and about.

Today I saw in my yard:

Cloudless Sulphur...several dozen
Gulf Frit.......1
Red Admiral.....1
American Lady...1
Buckeys.........2
Monarch.........1

In Morehead City I saw another Monarch and a Little
Sulphur (Eurema lisa) on a late season lantana bloom.

Yesterday, in my yard, I spotted a large brown
butterfly but have no idea what it was as it swooped
down to investigate a rotting Bradford Pear fruit on
the ground, fluttered over it a second and swooped off
over the rooftops.  I was frantically running to get
an ID when I saw it swoop down to the rotting pears
under my Bradford.  It was a very thick bodied
butterfly and about the size of a Black Swallowtail.
Whatever it was, it was good for one of those
adrenilin rushes that only a true butterfly enthusiast
would understand. 

Still have one Black Swallowtail larva.  Looks to be
full grown now so maybe it will pupate with the warm
weather.

Bob



 
____________________________________________________________________________________ 

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hi y'all,

around the confines here today:

Cloudless Sulphur - 12
Sleepy Orange - 1
Red Admiral - 2 (1 ragged, 1 fresh)
Gulf Frit - 1 (very worn)
Long-tailed Skipper - 3

cheers,

Gary Phillips
Conway, SC

"I feel most deeply that this whole question of
Creation is too profound for human intellect...Let
each man hope and believe what he can." - Darwin 



 
____________________________________________________________________________________ 

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Sunday, December 9, 2007 in Pitt County:

Cloudless Sulphur (River Park North and ECU campus, Greenville)
Sleepy Orange (River Park North)
Common Buckeye (River Park North)
American Lady (ECU campus)

I would have expected butterflies seen in December to look very worn,  
but most of them seemed quite fresh looking.

Salman Abdulali
Greenville, NC

Butterfliers,

While leading a bird trip at Jordan Lake this morning, we spotted a few
leps out and about.  If the trip had gone into the afternoon, I'm sure we
would have seen several more!

Chatham Co, NC 12/8/2007
Orange Sulphur, 1
Sleepy Orange, 1
Common Buckeye, 1

Durham Co., NC 12/8/2007
Cloudless Sulphur, 1

It ain't over til it's over!

Good Butterflying,
Jeff

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jeffrey S. Pippen
Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
Rm A-241 LSRC Bldg, Box 90328
Duke University, Durham, NC  27708
PH:
http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/nature.htm
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Holiday Butterfly Program
Wednesday, December 19, 2007, 7:00 p.m.
KCEF Library in Price Park
Greensboro, NC

Carolina Butterfly Society � Triad Chapter is finishing our first year as a
chapter and will be having a holiday program to celebrate: a members� photo
show. Everyone is invited!
 
This will be a joint program with the NC Native Plant Society � Triad
Chapter. (Native plants and butterflies go together, after all!) They have
done this sort of members' photo show before, so we're benefiting from their
experience. Members of both groups will bring photographs and other artwork
of butterflies, wildflowers, and other nature topics to share. As always,
guests are welcome.
 
Folks are encouraged to bring all types of photos and images. Below are the
details. (It isn�t necessary to bring photos in order to attend the program,
of course!) If you haven�t already sent in your digital images, there is
still time. You also may bring traditional film slides. We�ll have both
types of projectors available. If you have photographic prints, art, or
craft work that you would like to display, please let us know what you�re
bringing so that we can have space set up for you.
 
The native plants group usually has a Plant Exchange during their holiday
meeting, and they have invited the Carolina Butterfly Society members and
guests to participate. If you have a plant, book, artwork, or other item to
pass along to others, bring it.  Everyone who brings something will be able
to participate in the �exchange.�
 
We hope that you�ll also bring a holiday �nibble� to share. Kathy Schlosser
is bringing mulled cider. She has heard from one or two others that they
will bring a little plate of a sweet or savory finger-food. She says that if
you would like to help with this, everyone will be delighted!
 
Directions:
 
The library at Price Park is located in Greensboro at 1420 Price Park Drive
off Hobbs Road and New Garden Rd about 4 miles northeast of I-40. (It takes
about 25 to 30 minutes or less to get there from High Point and
Winston-Salem.)
 
From I-40, take exit 213 and go north on Guilford College Rd. After about 2
miles you will see the college for which the road is named on the right.
However, the name of the road you�re on changes to New Garden Rd. as you
cross Friendly Ave. and pass the college. Continue north past the college
0.7 mile on New Garden Rd. to the next large intersection. Angle right
(northeast) to stay on New Garden Rd. (If you were to continue straight
through the intersection, you would be on Fleming Rd.) Continue on New
Garden Rd. an additional .09 mile to Hobbs Rd. Turn right and go 0.2 mile to
the park entrance, which is the next right. Turn here onto Price Park Rd.
and then take the next left up the hill to the library parking lot.
 
Come join the party!
 
Dennis
-- 
Dennis E. Burnette
7 Brownstone Lane
Greensboro, NC 27410

deburnette AT triad.rr.com

 
----- INFORMATION ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHS AND OTHER ART -----
 
Round up those traditional film slides. Get your digital images ready to
send. Finish your work of art or craft. It's time to get organized for our
December holiday party on Wednesday, Dec. 19, at 7:00 pm, at the KCEF Branch
Library in Price Park in Greensboro.
 
Not only will we celebrate the holidays, this meeting will mark the end of
the first year for the Triad Chapter of the Carolina Butterfly Society. If
you like, bring something savory or sweet to share. If you don't do food,
though, come anyway. There will be plenty.
 
This will be a joint program with the Triad Chapter of the NC Native Plant
Society with whom we share quite a few members. Kathy Schlosser, a member of
both groups, is organizing the photo show. Here are her instructions:
 
1) Send digital images (.jpeg or .tif format) to Kathy Schlosser
.* (If you need to talk with her, the cell
phone number is .) You may send in 5 � 10 photos that you find
especially pleasing or interesting in some way. They can be of butterflies,
wildflowers, landscapes, plants, close-ups, nature-watching people, even
other wildlife. In other words, send whatever nature-oriented images you
would like.
 
*Digital images need to be sent to Kathy right away so she can get them set
up in a PowerPoint presentation.
 
2) You can bring 5 � 10 traditional film slides with you to the meeting. The
subjects noted in #1 above are welcome. We will have a slide projector
available.
 
3) You may bring 5 � 10 photographic prints, works of art, or crafts that
are related in some way to butterflies or native plants. We'll have tables
set up to display them, but bring any easels or other hardware that you need
if a flat table won't do. Please contact Kathy Schlosser to let her know
what you�re bringing: , Cell phone
.

Today at Fort Fisher (New Hanover County, NC), Karl Gottschalk and I  saw:
 
10+ Common Buckeyes
6 Cloudless Sulphurs
4 Monarchs
1 Gulf Fritillary
 
Dorothy Pugh



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All,
On Friday, December 1, I actually found 3 Gulf Fritillary caterpillars in  
varying instar stages at the Roper Mountain Science Center Butterfly  garden.  
They were on our native May Pop passionvine which was growing along a rock and 

not yet hit by frost.  Also, Gulf Frits were flying in the  garden. 
 
Ginger in Greenville, SC




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products.
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Butterfliers,

Yesterday (12/2/2007) at Pea Island I found a Gulf Fritillary and a
Monarch on the wing enjoying a balmy 60 degrees.

The weather forecasters, as usual, totally blew the forecast for the coast
yesterday.  Winds were supposed to be 10-20 SW.  On the drive out,
winds were 5-10 from the northeast and when we got to the coast, there
was virtually no wind all day long!  In fact, we fed quite a few
mosquitoes over the course of the day!

Long live the 2007 butterflying season!

Jeff

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jeffrey S. Pippen
Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
Rm A-241 LSRC Bldg, Box 90328
Duke University, Durham, NC  27708
PH:
http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/nature.htm
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

hi y'all,

about the confines today:

Cloudless sulphur - 4
Pearl crescent - 1 very worn
Long-tailed skipper - 1
Clouded skipper - 2

Bent-line Dart moth - 1


Gary Phillips
Conway, SC


 
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Folks:
    Now that Biological Winter begins tomorrow, and butterflies are just 
about done -- except mainly along the SC coast -- it is time to send me 
any butterfly observations that you might have made in the Carolinas 
that have NOT already been mentioned over carolinaleps and/or the NABA 
Butterfly counts. As you probably know, I print out or write down all NC 
butterfly records and enter them at home in an Excel file, and enter NEW 
COUNTY records only for SC observations. Thus, I should have records 
entered already for most of you. Several folks have been keeping their 
data in Excel files to send to me at the end of the year. So -- it is 
those folks who should mainly heed this "call for data". Tom Howard is 
gathering the data entered by State Parks personnel. I send Tom my Excel 
file for each year at the very end of that year, and he works up the 
updated species accounts in Notes on the Butterflies of North Carolina.

As a reminder, when sending me data (preferably in an Excel file), Tom 
and I have 6 fields of data:
Common Name
County
Date
Observer
Number (of individuals seen)
Comments (typically locality information)

It is fine to send files with more fields -- such as scientific name, 
latitude, longitude, etc. I can just hide those columns or copy the 6 
columns into my file. And, I will format the date to fit our style.

So, I'd like to have all of the data sent to me *by the end of 
December*.  Tom and I need a month or two to send draft copies of the 
document back and forth to correct errors, etc.  As usual, our target 
for getting the Fifteenth (!) Approximation of Notes on the Butterflies 
of North Carolina on-line is March 1.  As a reminder of what the 
Fourteenth looks like (if you aren't familiar with the "publication"), 
check it out here:  http:///nbnc/
Click on "14th Approx." on the left margin, then click on one of the 8 
links.

Tom will make an announcement in a few months when the Fifteenth is ready. 

Good butterflying! 

Harry LeGrand
Raleigh

P.S. Tom and I are also working on getting the Notes on the Odonates 
[dragonflies and damselflies] of North Carolina website open to the 
public by early spring, so we will be doing double-duty working on both 
this winter! We expect it to look similar to the butterfly website, also 
with a downloadable pdf file of species accounts (180-185 species).

For those also interested in our "honorary butterflies," the dragonflies, I
saw and photographed a male Autumn Meadowhawk yesterday in Greensboro.

Dennis Burnette
Greensboro, NC
deburnette AT triad.rr.com

We finally got a hard frost here on Nov 16 which wiped
out most of my flowers though some lantana persists in
protected spots.  Camelias are coming on nicely
though.

Saw a Long Tailed Skipper on 20 Nov and also a fresh
Painted Lady (V. cardui).   Following day saw 2 Red
Admirals and a few American Ladies.  Cloudless
Sulphurs were back in the dozens on Russian Sage and
camelia and a lone Cabbage White.

Went to Durham for the holiday and returned Sunday
(25th).  Mild temps but rain on Monday, but today
(27th) saw a return to suuny skies and low 70s.  Still
seeing a dozen or so Cloudless Sulphurs, a Red Admiral
and an American Lady.  A neighbor's mailbox is covered
in scarlet honey suckle in full bloom and half a dozen
sulpurs fly up with each passing car.

Surprisingly, I still have two remaining Black
Swallowtail larvae.  The cool weather has really
slowed their growth.  One is 3rd instar and other is
4th instar.  

May be headed to Chile in late January on a collecting
trip....lucky me :-)

Bob 



 
____________________________________________________________________________________ 

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Folks,

Today with temps around 60 degrees at about 1:30pm I had a male 
Autumn Meadowhawk on the porch railing, this is 2 days later than I 
have seen them here. At dusk Meg spotted a dragonfly hawking bugs 
next to a spruce tree by my house, it might have been my earlier male 
Autumn Meadowhawk.

No butterflies seen since the day before Thanksgiving here.

Cheers,

Randy Emmitt
Rougemont, NC
www.rlephoto.com

Yesterday, with temperatures topping out in the low 70�s, my backyard in
western Durham County was hopping with leps: 3 Cloudless Sulphurs, 1
Sleepy Orange, 2 American Ladies, 2 Clouded Skippers and 1 Ocola
Skipper.  They were nectaring on Climbing Asters (Ladies and the Sleepy
Orange) and Salvias.  Happy Thanksgiving!  - Roger

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Carolina Butterfliers:

The day before Thanksgiving isn't normally a time of the year when I would
go out butterflying. However, with two days of temperatures topping out in
the low 70s, I thought it might be worth checking the Greensboro Arboretum
for butterflies. On the way there I saw a white butterfly fly across the
road, but although I turned up a side street and tried to follow it, I
couldn't tell whether it was a Cabbage White or a pale Orange Sulphur.

At the arboretum I did find at least one Clouded Skipper. I think that there
were two, but I didn't see them together and the two sightings were only a
few meters apart. My suspicion that there were two is because the second one
looked slightly different. Could have been a trick of light, though. By the
way, there actually are a few flowers blooming out of season due to recent
rains and mild weather. One skipper sighing was on a small cluster of
Verbena flowers.

At any rate, even one "summer" butterfly of confirmed identity on Nov. 21st
is pretty cool.

I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Dennis
-- 
Dennis Burnette
Greensboro, NC
deburnette AT triad.rr.com

Folks,

Today in the driveway I found a pearl Crescent in pretty good shape, 
it landed on the hood of a pick up in my driveway. Two days before 
that I had a Clouded Skipper in the Obedient plants behind the pond.

Cheers,

Randy Emmitt
www.rlephoto.com
Rougemont, NC

Butterfliers,

A quick walk through the Duke Gardens today yielded a few butterflies
hanging in there under sunny, 70 degree skies, despite most of the nectar
plants having been replaced by such winter flowers as pansies!

Here's the list:

Cloudless Sulphur, 1
Common Buckeye, 1
Common Checkered-Skipper, 2
Fiery Skipper, 1
Ocola Skipper, 1

Good Butterflying,
JP

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jeffrey S. Pippen
Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
Rm A-241 LSRC Bldg, Box 90328
Duke University, Durham, NC  27708
PH:
http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/nature.htm
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

hi y'all,

while birding SCR yesterday, saw a few butterflies.

Cloudless Sulphur
Sleepy Orange
Little Yellow
Gulf Frit
Variegated Frit (only 2nd ind. i've seen this year)
Monarch
Red Admiral
Long-tailed Skipper
Polygonia sp.

a few scattered flower blooms, including Liatris sp.

Gary Phillips
Conway, SC


 
____________________________________________________________________________________ 

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Bruce Grimes is a naturalist from southwest Virginia who is staying at Isle of 
Palms, SC this week. I had been giving him bug / bird advice and he scored a 
nice butterfly upon arrival. 


He found a Cassius Blue ovipositing - presumably on Plumbego.

There was a time when my yard / neighborhood was the northern-most documented 
Cassius Blue site in North America (the world?). But the Sullivan's Island and 
Isle of Palms locations seem to be "it" now. 


Despite sporadic sightings to the north at places like Litchfield and Pawley's 
Island, I do not think those colonies persist from year to year. But the 
Charleston Harbor-area colonies I have been watching have been continuously 
active since Fall 2003. 


Nathan Dias - Charleston, SC

---------------------------

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Bruce Grimes 
To: offshorebirder AT yahoo.com
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2007 9:14:16 PM
Subject: Enjoying the beach

Nate,
We have made it down to IOP, and I got to spend a little time looking 
around today on the island.  The Cassius Blue in the yard was a nice 
bonus, it seemed to be egg-laying on the shrub (which I could not  ID).   
I did get a couple of photos, dorsal and ventral, before it 
disappeared.  The rest were the usual suspects at this point of the 
year.  That is very nice for us northerners, who endured snow flurries 
on Thursday.
...
Bruce Grimes


 
____________________________________________________________________________________ 

Be a better pen pal. 
Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See how. 
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Butterfliers:
?
Anyone with a serious?interest in the current state of butterfly names, 
taxonomy, systematics and?comprehensive bibliographies, might want to invest in 
this.? Prospective authors of butterfly books, guides, etc., might also 
consider this, so that their publications will reflect the most current 
information available.? This list, 20 years in the making, is highly 
authoritative, and has the backing of?many scientists (who are 
THE?undisputed?experts)?via a stringent, exhaustive?peer review process.? 
Unfortunately, many current books and checklists are falling behind as?science 
forges ahead, and this catalog will bring us all up to date.? Also, this 
catalog covers all described subspecies, which current guides seem to be 
increasingly ignoring. 

?
Harry Pavulaan
?
> 
> CATALOGUE OF THE BUTTERFLIES 
> OF THE 
> UNITED STATES AND CANADA
> 
> By JONATHAN P. PELHAM
> 
> This new publication includes an exhaustive synonymic
> catalogue of all names that have been applied to the
> butterflies of the United States of American and
> Canada, through June, 2006. Eight hundred species and
> 234 genera are included from the region, and extensive
> lists of excluded species and excluded names are
> provided. In addition, a complete bibliography to the
> butterflies of the region is included, together with a
> subspecies-level checklist and taxonomic index. The
> synonymic catalogue enumerates names from family to
> species, and ancillary details are provided for each,
> including the original description, original
> combination, type locality, deposition of type(s) when
> known, and annotations when pertinent to their
> placement within the catalogue. Over one hundred
> pages (of 600 estimated total pages) are dedicated to
> the bibliography, which is the most complete ever
> assembled for the region. 
> 
> This document, representing over 20 years of research
> by the author, is being published as Volume 40 of the
> Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera. The contents
> of this publication have been carefully peer-reviewed
> by leading authorities in the field (as noted in the
> acknowledgments). This is perhaps the most inclusive
> taxonomic catalogue ever published for a regional
> butterfly fauna, in that the synonymic catalogue,
> supplemental lists, subspecies-level checklist, index,
> and complete bibliography are all included together in
> the same volume. 
> 
> Projected publication date: 10 December, 2007
> 
> Cost (= annual subscription to the Journal of Research
> on the Lepidoptera): 
> US $25.00 (add US $7 for shipping in the USA;
> international buyers will be billed separately for
> shipping costs, which will vary depending on
> destination)
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Order Form: 
> CATALOGUE OF THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE UNITED STATES AND
> CANADA
> 
> Make Check or requisition to the order of "Lepidoptera
> Research Foundation"
> and mail to:
> 
> Christine Eliazar, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and
> Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History,
> University of Florida, P. O. Box 112710, Gainesville,
> FL 
> 
> Name____________________________________
> Address__________________________________
> City_____________________________________
> State_________Zip______________Country________________
> e-mail______________________________________
> 
> __________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________
Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - 
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Today () at River Park North in Pitt County:

Cloudless Sulphur
Orange Sulphur
Variegated Fritillary
Common Buckeye
Red Admiral
Eastern Tailed-Blue (not a common butterfly here)
Common Checkered-Skipper

Salman Abdulali
Greenville, NC

Every day or so I think that I've seen my last butterflies until spring, and
then a couple of days later more pop up. Today, 11/14/07, I was doing some
tree identification work at the Girl Scout Council property in Colfax in
western Guilford County. I saw a Sleepy Orange and a Cloudless Sulphur along
the edge of the woods. Both were just flying around, I guess looking for
nonexistent nectar flowers.
-- 
Dennis Burnette
Greensboro, NC
deburnette AT triad.rr.com

Butterfliers,

Despite most of the nectar sources having been replaced with pansies,
there were still a couple handfuls of butterflies in the Duke Gardens
today when Lindsey S. and Lacey M. and I surveyed at lunch time.  The
weather report indicates today may be about the last day of the butterfly
season in the triangle this year!  Skies were mostly sunny with temps in
the mid 70s.  Here's the list:

Cloudless Sulphur (P. sennae), 3
Sleepy Orange (E. nicippe), 2
Red-banded Hairstreak (C. cecrops), 1
American Lady (V. virginiensis), 3
Red Admiral (V. atalanta), 1
Common Checkered-Skipper (P. communis), 12
Clouded Skipper (L. accius), 2
Fiery Skipper (H. phyleus), 8
Ocola Skipper (P. ocola), 1

Good Butterflying!
Jeff

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jeffrey S. Pippen
Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
Duke University, Durham, NC  27708
http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/nature.htm
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Folks,

Finally we are digging out our foundation and we cleaned up one end 
of the pond of Johnson Grass, the pond looks great now. So I have 
been outside all day the past two days. Given todays warm temps the 
small patch of Obedient Flower had some visitors. Our visitors 
included 3 Cloudless Sulphurs, a Sleepy Orange, a Variegated 
Fritillary (likely a late sighting for here) and 3 Clouded Skippers 
including the one that landed on my excavation crew leader.

I heard a Spring Peeper up the driveway today. We rescued a 10 inch 
Snapping Turtle out of the excavator bucket in the pond, he was 
unharmed sans his pride. Back on November 6 I had my first of the 
season female Autumn Meadhawk in the yard.

Back to butterflies, we still have 3 Black Swallowtail chrysalises 
and a Easter Tiger Swallowtail chrysalis I found attached to my back 
deck before we tore it down.

Cheers,

Randy Emmitt
Rougemont, NC
www.rlephoto.com

I found a single butterfly at the Greensboro Arboretum, a Clouded Skipper,
on 11/12/07. There are few obvious nectar flowers left in the park.
-- 
Dennis Burnette
Greensboro, NC
deburnette AT triad.rr.com

hi y'all,

in the yard here this p.m.

Cloudless Sulphur - 10 mostly on pineapple sage (S.
elegans)
Sleepy Orange - 1 fresh
Gulf Frit - 1 very faded
Red Admiral - 2 worn, tattered warriors declining to
go gentle into that good-night...
Long-tailed Skipper - 4
Clouded Skipper - 2
Ocola Skipper - 2

and a juv. male Ruby-throated.

cheers,

Gary Phillips
Conway, SC


"The question is not what you look at - but how you
look and whether you see." - Thoreau


 
____________________________________________________________________________________ 

Never miss a thing.  Make Yahoo your home page. 
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

 
All,
With the beautiful day today, we had even more butterflies in the  area.  
Today, at Roper Mountain Science Center's Butterfly Garden in Greenville, SC, 
we 

had many Gulf Fritillaries, two or three Cloudless  Sulphurs,  Sleepy 
Oranges, American Ladies, one Common Checkered Skipper (very fresh) and one 
Zebra 

Longwing!!!!!   
 
The Gulf Fritillaries were mating.  We have an evergreen Passionvine  in the 
garden, for their host plant.
 
Ginger Kopka





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Hi
the cold here hasn't gotten to the leps yet.  I am surprised they are  
still surviving the drought.

In about 5 minutes this afternoon I had

5 Cloudless Sulphurs (simultaneously)

Gulf Fritillary, getting worn

Clouded Skipper

the Sleepy Orange that was around yesterday didn't show up during  
those 5 minutes.  All this is in an area of about 4 by 4 feet, of  
potted Orange milkweed and red salvia, in each case the annual forms  
found just south of here.

Lynn

Lynn Smith
Camden,  SC

It was my priviledge to go birding and butterflying with Derb Carter and Bill 
Schlesinger this past Sunday morning at the eastern end of Kiawah Island, SC. 


Although we only had 3 hours to spend from 7am-10am, and we spent the first 1+ 
hour on the beach, we had good butterfly activity. A fresh emergence of Phaon 
Crescents was noteworthy. The old service road at the Ocean Course is lined 
with Fogfruit (Phyla nodiflora). The "swiss cheese" nature of most of it was a 
testament to the area's status as a "Phaon Crescent factory". 


Sadly, we dipped on Queen Butterflies and did not have time to go 'Plumbego 
cruising' for Cassius Blues. 


We had:

Sleepy Orange
American Snout (not 100% certain but nearly so)
Gulf Fritillary
Phaon Crescent (super-fresh)
American Lady
Common Buckeye (lots)
Monarch (lots)
Long-tailed Skipper
Grass Skipper Sp. (orange one - Fiery?)


Nathan Dias - Charleston, SC


 
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The NBNC database has zero entries for November butterflies from Pitt  
county. Here is what I saw at River Park North (Pitt County, NC)  
today ():

Cloudless Sulphur
Sleepy Orange
Variegated Fritillary
Common Buckeye
Common Checkered-Skipper
Fiery Skipper

Salman Abdulali
Greenville, NC

I am still seeing many Gulf Fritillaries, a few Monarchs, Sleepy Oranges,  
Cabbage Whites and Cloudless Sulphurs. Today I saw a small American Lady and a 

fresh Long-tailed Skipper.
 
Ginger Kopka



************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com

There is still a trickle of butterflies here in Guilford County, NC, in the
upper Piedmont. On Wednesday, Nov. 7, I saw a tattered American Lady at the
Girl Scout Council property in Colfax, western Guilford. Today, Sunday, Nov.
11, my wife and I spotted two Orange Sulphurs in Northeast Park in
northeastern Guilford near Gibsonville.

Dennis Burnette
Greensboro, NC
deburnette AT triad.rr.com

For general purpose birding what size lens would you recommend 200mm? 300mm?
400mm???

 

Harry

Why is it that lots of people who publish magazines or newspapers, or 
edit them, think that a photo of ANY butterfly is a "Monarch"? I think 
it is ignorance -- they only know the name of one butterfly species, so 
let's just go ahead and call it a Monarch. The "Take a Walk on the Wild 
Side" brochure that I picked up yesterday, mainly advertising the Wings 
Over Water Festival going on now on the NC Outer Banks, has a photo of a 
Palamedes Swallowtail on page 30. It even gives the name of the 
photographer and his e-mail address. I have no idea if he knew what 
species it was (though I hope he knew it was a Palamedes), but ... the 
rest is history.  Hey -- I would have settled for "a swallowtail", or 
cringingly, "a butterfly".
-- 
Harry LeGrand
NC Natural Heritage Program
DENR   Office of Conservation and Community Affairs
1601 MSC
Raleigh, NC 
 (work)
e-mail: harry.legrand AT ncmail.net

Carolina Butterfliers:

Here are a few more late butterflies from Guilford County, NC:

I checked the Greensboro Arboretum around 2:00 pm on Tuesday, 11/6/07, for
butterflies, not really expecting to see any. It was rather chilly, sunny
but windy and in the mid 50s. I had checked a site in western Guilford
County around noon but found only grasshoppers and bees.

To my surprise, I spotted a fresh American Lady nectaring on the few
remaining flowers of a large butterfly bush. Further along the path, I found
two Common Checkered Skippers on a cultivated form of Bidens. One was
tattered and worn, the other in good shape. Then I saw two grass skippers, a
Fiery and a Sachem, a little further on. Next, a second fresh looking
American Lady was on a petunia-type flower that I didn't recognize, along
with a third Common Checkered Skipper.

I wandered back in the direction I had come and, ever hopeful, checked the
butterfly bush again, seeing only the first American Lady still there. Along
the way I saw Common Checkered Skippers numbers four and five. Four out of
the five checkereds looked pretty fresh. Nine butterflies of four different
species wasn't bad for a chilly November afternoon.

Lynn Burnette spotted a fresh looking Red Admiral at the Girl Scout council
office in Colfax around noon.

Dennis Burnette
Greensboro, NC
deburnette AT triad.rr.com

Folks,
I don't spend a lot of time looking for leps, but  a few recent 
sightings I thought might be interesting to the group.
On Thursday November 1 there was a single CHECKERED WHITE at the 
McDowell Prairie in southwestern Mecklenburg County. I have not seen 
the species at that site before but it appears to be a place where they 
should be found regularly. On the same day at McAlpine Creek Park a 
LONG-TAILED SKIPPER was found; only my third county sighting of the 
species. A few GULF FRITILLARIES are around, I see perhaps two a week 
where flowers are still availabale, always ornamental plantings.

Other species on Nov. 1:

COMMON CHECKERED SKIPPER
SACHEM
FIERY SKIPPER
MONARCH
CLOUDLESS SULFUR
SLEEPY ORANGE
COMMON BUCKEYE
VARIGATED FRITILLARY

Taylor Piephoff
Charlotte, NC
PiephoffT AT aol.com
________________________________________________________________________
Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - 
http://mail.aol.com

2 Fiery Skippers on my garden lantana today.

and 1 Common Checkered Skipper in the grass while I was mowing.

Jules Fraytet
Charlotte

Sunday I had some good leps in suburban Charleston while doing yard work:

Cloudless Sulphur
Hackberry Emperor (several)
CASSIUS BLUE (at least 2 - one chasing Hummingbird)
Gulf Fritillary
Pearl Crescent
Common Buckeye
Carolina Satyr
Monarch (one ovipositing on my Asclepias)
Long-tailed Skipper
- small orange grass skipper sp. (no binoculars handy)


Nathan Dias - Charleston, SC

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Despite the recent 5" or 6" of rain and no substantial frost, there are few
nectar sources left in this part of North Carolina. Still, where there are
blooming flowers, a few butterflies are hanging on. On Saturday, Nov. 3, I
saw three Cloudless Sulphurs in a private flower garden in Randolph County
near the Moore County line. Today my wife saw a Monarch heading south across
the campus of Guilford College in Guilford County.

Dennis Burnette
Greensboro, NC
deburnette AT triad.rr.com

Carteret County has yet to experience a frost though
night temps have dipped into the low 40s.  Roadside
flowers are becoming scarce though many residential
yards and sub division entrances still have an
abundance of many types of flowers blooming.

My yard is abloom with a long hedge of russian sage
and the lantana still sports some blooms.  Zinias are
fading quickly but there are still hundreds of blooms.
 Large sprawling mats of portulaca fill the space
between the zinnias.  Even the butterfly bushes are
still blooming and the fall camelias are loaded as
well.

Bees are very abundant, numbering in the hundreds and
a good number of butterflies are also present.  My
bradford pear has been raided by the squirrels who
have plucked and bitten many pears and discarded them
to the ground.  Bees swarm on the decaying fruits and
Buckeye butterflies seem to prefer this over the
bedded flowers.

Cloudless Sulphurs have really declined in numbers in
the past few weeks.  Whereas there would be several
dozen on the russian sage in mid October, there are
now but two or three.  Monarchs still visit, a few a
day.  American Ladies, Red Admirals and Long Tailed
Skippers, Cabbage Whites and Sleepy Orange butterflies
make up the majority of my other visitors, and all of
these number anywhere from 2 to 6 depending on which
day and time I take a gander around.

In other parts of the county, I spotted 2 Viceroys
this weekend, several Gulf Frits, Orange Sulphurs,
Pearl Crescents and Varigated Frits.

Polygonia butterflies have not been seen this year at
all....very odd.

There are still 6 Black Swallowtail caterpillars
feeding.  They are 3rd and 4th instar and their growth
has really slowed with the cooler nights.  I also have
3 remaining Palamedes larvae that are full grown and
should pupate within the week.

Stay warm,
Bob

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Hi All,

This PM Donna and I spent the afternoon in the Avondale Subdivision of
Charleston, SC with great weather:  We had the following leps.:

American Lady
Red Admiral
Common Buckeye
Carolina Satyr
Monarch
QUEEN

Dennis

Dennis M. Forsythe PhD, PA
Emeritus Professor of Biology
The Citadel
171 Moultrie St
Charleston, SC 29409
 Home
 Fax
 Cell
dennis.forsythe AT citadel.edu

On my still blooming and sprawling blue-violet lantana I had 3 butterflies 
today...both fresh: 


Gulf Fritillary, and Clouded Skipper, and a unindentified (because he 
disappeared),folded wing orangish skipper that was very worn. 


Also had what I believe was very small, dark, fresh female Dun Skipper sunning 
itself on a green leaf of a hackberry tree.As well as the dots on the upper 
wings it also had a unusual orange mark across just the top of the right side 
bottom wing that was not duplicated on the left side. 


Also still have some honey bees and hoverflies around the same lantana plant

Around 1pm sunny,clear,dry and in the upper 60's in Mecklenburg County.


Jules Fraytet
Charlotte

Folks,

Yesterday Meg and I joined with the DNHS on a canoe trip to Horseshoe 
Lake in Bladen County NC. It was somewhat cold and windy so not many 
butterflies were seen. The surprise was the amount of Familiar Bluets 
flying about and still mating, we saw at least 50 of them. In all it 
was a nice place and I'd love to go back in the spring to check it out.

Here is the list for November 3 Bladen County, NC

colias spp. 1
Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) 1
Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) 1
Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) 2
Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) 3

Not  much at all in the way of flowers to find butterflies on.

The odes seen were all late records according to the NC State Parks 
new database. And all were new to the recent database as well, the 
Wandering Glider seems to be a NCR too.


Swamp Spreadwing (Lestes vigilax) 4 males and females
Familiar Bluet (Enallagma civile) 50+ found in more still places out 
on the water and along the edges of vegatation.
Citrine Forktail (Ischnura hastata) 1 male
Little Blue Dragonlet, Erythrodiplax minuscula 1
Wandering Glider, Pantala flavescens  1  seen only by Carl

Cheers,

Randy Emmitt/ Meg Millard
Rougemont, NC
www.rlephoto.com

Yesterday, November 1, 2007 at River Park North, Greenville, Pitt  
County, NC:

Cabbage White (absent all summer, but now showing up)
Orange Sulphur (photographed upper side, clearly showing some orange)
Cloudless Sulphur
Variegated Fritillary (still numerous)
Pearl Crescent
Red Admiral
An unidentified punctuation mark (comma or ?)
Common Checkered-Skipper (assuming that White Checked-Skippers don't  
exist here)
Southern Skipperling (new county record, thanks to Harry LeGrand for  
confirming identification)
Fiery Skipper
Ocola Skipper (numerous)

Salman Abdulali
Greenville, NC

Folks,

Last Friday the pond returned after almost 3 weeks of being 
completely dry. By Saturday it was about 40 foot across and about 
a  foot deep. Today I had several frogs jumping in along the shore, a 
large deer getting a drink and the first Juncos all around the pond. 
Monday the White-throated Sparrows returned. I also got a new spider 
for the yard a Argiope trifasciata, Banded Argiope (see 
http://www.rlephoto.com/spiders/agriope_banded/index.htm ) yesterday 
in the grass along the pond. Last Friday during a mild rain I 
found  my first NC Red Eft in the construction zone in the back yard, 
I have seen them in PA and VA but not in NC. Usually I find 6-8 
Red-Spotted Newts, Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens in the pond 
in the spring, but never have seen them in the fall here.

Ok back to the leps, the frost did very little to my plants only a 
few died. The large white morning glories have around 60 blooms today 
and I saw at least 5-6 Clouded Skippers nested in them. The lantana 
is about done and only a few small zinnas and asters are attracting 
butterflies.

Here is the yard list for today

Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae)  1
Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)  2 dodging traffic by the road.
Gemmed Satyr (Cyllopsis gemma) 1 one day shy of a NC late date, it 
looked pretty good too. At first I got a quick glance and thought it 
was a Carolina then it landed again and gave me a real good look. 
maybe there were both species.
Common Checkered-Skipper (Pyrgus communis) 2
Clouded Skipper (Lerema accius) 12
Sachem (Atalopedes campestris) 1 male

Randy Emmitt
Rougemont, NC
www.rlephoto.com
http://rlephoto.com/pblog/index.php

hi y'all,

in spite of the cooler temps, the recent rains here
have sprouted a bevy of leps. more activity in the
yard late this p.m. than any other day this parched
year. still have a few flower blooms scattered about;
several sages, cuphea, Firespike, Hamelia patens, cpl
of lantanas, mistflower, cpl Buddlejas, winter and
yellow shrimp plants, Mexican petunia. 3 salvia spp.
yet to bloom.

wish i could've been here during mid-day...

dark swallowtail - 1 overhead fly-by
Cloudless Sulphur - 6
Gulf Frit - 2 one fresh, one faded
Red Admiral - 2 both extremely worn, duking it out
over territory rights
Common Buckeye - 1
Red-banded Hairstreak - 1
Pearl Crescent - 1
Carolina Satyr - 2
Common Checkered-skipper - 1
Long-tailed Skipper - 6
Clouded Skipper - 4
Ocola Skipper - 1
Fiery Skipper - 1
several un-id'd dark skippers skipping about

Velvetbean caterpillar moth - 5
cool little orange moth - 1
tiny grayish moths - scads (wrens, titmouses and
chickadees loving that)

and one very shy Ruby-throated hummer.

a few days ago, a Tersa sphinx caterpillar (thanks for
the ID help, Will) ate a small pentas (leaves,
flowers, small stems.) i think it's pupating now in
the soil at the base of the plant.

Free to a Good Home: half the honeybees left in the
free world currently scarfing down 1/2 to 3/4 gal of
sugar water a day, also a small herd of yellow
jackets...heck, i'll throw in a few pounds of sugar if
you promise you'll take good care of 'em.

;-)

Gary Phillips
Conway, SC


"If all the creatures were gone, men would die from a
great loneliness of the spirit." - Chief Seattle, 1854 

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A few butterflies are still showing up here in Guilford County, NC in the
few places where there are still nectar plants blooming. Today at about 1:30
pm I saw the following:

Pearl Crescent 2
American Lady 1
Common Buckeye 3
Common Checkered Skipper 1
Clouded Skipper 1
Fiery Skipper 1

In Randolph County at around 3:00 pm I saw a Monarch heading south.

Dennis Burnette
Greensboro, NC
deburnette AT triad.rr.com

Dear Lepsters,

 

Can you please take my name off the e-mail list for now. I am trying to get
my life prganized and deal with the excess of electronic information. If
this is an online group somewhere like through Yahoo I can�t remember. If so
I could stay on but just check the posts online.

 

Joel Gillespie

 

Joel Gillespie, Pastor

Covenant Fellowship ARP Church

301 South Elm Street, Suite 516

Greensboro, NC, 27401

(O)

(M)

e-mail: HYPERLINK
"mailto:jsgillespie AT mindspring.com"jsgillespie AT mindspring.com 

aol screen name: pastorjoelg 

church web page: HYPERLINK
"http://www.covenantfellowshipgreensboro.org/"www.covenantfellowshipgreensbo
ro.org 

blog 1: HYPERLINK
"http://joelgillespie.blogspot.com/"http://joelgillespie.blogspot.com/

blog 2: HYPERLINK
"http://joelblog.wordpress.com/"http://joelblog.wordpress.com/

Flickr: HYPERLINK
"http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelgillespie/"http://www.flickr.com/photos/jo
elgillespie/

 

 


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7:57 PM
 

Hi All,

Yesterday we had some leps of the Charleston Natural History's field trip to
the Savannah Spoils Site. 

Cloudless Sulfur-3
Little Yellow-2
Gulf Fritillary-30+
Red-Admiral-1
Common Buckeye-3
Hackberry Emperor-1
Monarch-1
Long-tailed Skipper-10
Tropical Checkered-Skipper-1
Fiery Skipper-3
Eufala Skipper-1
Ocola Skipper-10

Dennis

Dennis M. Forsythe PhD, PA
Emeritus Professor of Biology
The Citadel
171 Moultrie St
Charleston, SC 29409
 Home
 Fax
 Cell
dennis.forsythe AT citadel.edu