Butterfly
hightlights for 2005 at Fermilab
Tom Peterson
November 17,
2005
With a 15 F temperature this morning and highs around freezing, I have
to reluctantly admit that the butterfly season is over. I saw a Purplish
Copper last Friday, November 11, in the same location as the one
photographed
below, along Road C-West. Orange
Sulphurs
and Cabbage Whites were also still
out.
Incredibly, however, three or four species of living adult butterflies
are still out here, hibernating in hidden cracks in trees, etc.,
awaiting
the warm weather of spring. These include the Mourning
Cloaks and Eastern Commas
(winter
form), both of which may often be seen flying in the woods on warm
March
days. They may even occasionally emerge during an unusually warm,
sunny, January or February day. Gray
Commas
should also be hibernating here, but I have only seen them at Fermilab
in the summer. Question Marks
may also hibernate here; they are abundant here in the summer.
But
like the Gray Commas, I have not found them flying on warm winter
days.
Question Marks may also migrate to some extent, so without finding them
in the winter, one cannot be sure that the summer generations have not
moved up from further south. These hibernators do not stay warm
in
the winter, they are cold-blooded, but their bodies produce a sort of
"antifreeze"
which prevents ice from forming in their bodies in the cold
weather.
They cannot move to escape predators when so cold, but all these
hibernating
adult butterflies are well-camouflaged, with wings folded their
undersides
resembling bark or dead leaves.
It is still possible that one may see a butterfly this year. Clouded Sulphurs and Orange Sulphurs seem to tolerate some freezing, I have occasionally seen them flying on a warm December day, but I do not think they survive the winter as adults. So that's about it for the 2005 butterfly season in the Chicago area. Perhaps in just three months, on some warm February day, a Mourning Cloak will give us an early start at butterfly watching in 2006.
November 8,
2005
Warm days and the lack of a series of really hard freezes have extended
the butterfly season this year. Incredibly, the photo below of
the
male Purplish Copper was taken
today,
November 8. It is resting on a dead leaf of the wetland plant (a
genus Polygonum species) on which the caterpillars feed.
This
Purplish Copper was getting nectar from some of the last white asters
still
blooming. Orange Sulphurs and Cabbage
Whites are also still flying. These species both like to make
use of the late-blooming dandelions.
September 19,
2005
Purplish Coppers and Bronze
Coppers are among the late season butterflies again this year at
Fermilab.
Last Friday I saw (photo below) a male Purplish Copper aggressively
pursuing
a female Bronze Copper. The female always turned to face him as
he
walked and fluttered around, so the impression was that they were
butting
heads. While the female seemed to understand right away that they
were not compatible, the male did not seem to get it. (No
comment!)
It is delightful that these beautiful little butterflies help extend
the
summer season here at Fermilab.
Above, a male Purplish Copper pursues a female Bronze Copper.
August 1, 2005
Tigers! No, not the cats, but the Tiger
Swallowtails, seem particularly abundant this year. These
large,
yellow butterflies may be seen soaring nearly everywhere on the
Fermilab
site. They especially seem to like purple flowers like the Bee
Balm
in the prairie, thistle, Joe Pye Weed, and Butterfly Bush in our back
yard.
Surprisingly, some female Tiger Swallowtails are black. They are
thought to mimic the Pipevine
Swallowtail
which is unpalatable to birds. Giant
Swallowtails and the smaller Black
Swallowtails are also flying now.
July 11, 2005
The drought does not seem to have hurt the butterflies yet, in fact
they like warm, dry weather. But in the longer run, if the
caterpillar
food plants dry up, the impact of the drought on butterflies will be
negative,
like for us all. Many of the tiny, brightly colored butterflies
of
the Gossamer-wing family (Lycaenidae) are flying on these hot July
days,
but with their small size and rapid flight, they are often hard to
spot.
Coral
Hairstreaks live in the open, brushy areas on the east side
of
the Fermilab site. I find
Banded
Hairstreaks at the woods edges on the west side of Fermilab. Summer
Azures favor brushy areas with dogwoods and other shrubs, while Eastern
Tailed-Blues brighten up the the prairie trail and roadside edges,
visiting clover and other flowers.
July 6, 2005
Many dark brown, almost black, medium-sized butterflies are presently
flitting through the prairies and fields at Fermilab. Up close
one
can see that they are not just plain black or dark brown, but have some
eyespot markings. These are Common
Wood-Nymphs. Their low, bouncing flight seems well
suited
to maneuvering through the prairie grasses. Their caterpillars
feed
on grasses, and these butterflies have most certainly moved into our
prairie
restorations, where during the month of July they are probably the most
common butterfly.
June 17, 2005
Along the edges of woods, such as on the eastern part of the Prairie
Interpretive Trail off Pine Street, Great
Spangled Fritillaries are now abundant. These are large,
orange
butterflies, nearly the size of Monarchs,
but
with quite a different pattern of brown markings and silver spots on
the
underside. A second generation of Meadow
Fritillaries is now flying in the open fields with violets, such as
in the tall grass just north of the Batavia Road entrance. Meadow
Fritillaries look like miniature Great Spangled Fritillaries when
flying,
but at rest one sees that the Meadow Fritillaries lack the silver spots
on the undersides of the wings.
June 7, 2005
A mowed path straight north from the east guard shack at the Batavia
Road entrance takes one along the woods/field edge where Little
Wood-Satyrs and Spring Azures are
abundant
right now. Little Wood-Satyrs are medium-sized brown butterflies
with a low, bouncing flight characteristic of their subfamily, the
Satyrinae.
Spring Azures are little, brilliant blue butterflies which
unfortunately
usually sit with wings closed, showing us only the whitish undersides
at
rest.
May 31, 2005
Bronze Coppers are now flying.
I saw four at noon today just south of the main ring. This is a
butterfly
which has declined in numbers in some parts of the US due to wetland
destruction,
but Bronze Coppers seem to thrive at Fermilab. Some of the early
summer skippers, Tawny-edged and Peck's,
are also out now and may be seen visiting clover along the paths.
May 5, 2005
Warm weather again is bringing out the butterflies. Meadow
Fritillaries are flying in the open fields at Fermilab, and a few Tiger
Swallowtails and Black Swallowtails
have been seen here. The common medium-sized yellow butterflies,
Clouded
Sulphurs, are out.
April 18, 2005
Spring Azures, small, bright, iridescent
blue butterflies, are flying now. They may be found around shrubs
like dogwoods, on which the caterpillars feed. Like those
butterflies
listed below, Spring Azures are among the first to appear in the
spring.
Spring Azures typically sit with wings closed. When they fly, one
sees flashes of the bright, blue upperside.
April 12, 2005
With the warm weather of the past few weeks (up until today, anyway)
butterflies have appeared. Numerous Cabbage
Whites are out, having emerged from over wintering
chrysalises.
The hibernating butterflies, Mourning
Cloak
and Eastern Comma, were flying in the
woods
at Fermilab this past weekend. Also, I have seen Painted
Ladies and Red Admirals.
Painted
Ladies do not survive the winter temperatures here, so they have had to
fly up from the south already. Red Admirals may also have
traveled
north, but many early Red Admirals are so very fresh looking, as this
past
weekend, that it seems that they could not have traveled very far.