Recent
butterfly (and moth!) sightings at Fermilab
Tom Peterson
May 14, 2011
The first
butterflies to be seen at Fermilab each year are those which overwinter
as adults in the woods: Mourning
Cloak, Eastern Comma (winter
form), and Gray Comma.
With a combination of travel and poor weather when I was here at
Fermilab, I did not see any butterflies in March this year, and April
was a rather cool wet month also with few opportunities. A
Mourning Cloak and a Spring Azure on May 1 were among my first
butterflies here at Fermilab this year.
However, this past
week, the second week of May, we experienced a dramatic warm-up into
the upper 80's, which brought out rather large numbers of
butterflies. Most spectacularly was a very large generation of Meadow Fritillaries. Dozens
were flying in a small field between C-West road and C-East road ,
where I took the two photos below.
Above: Meadow
Fritillaries near C-West road on May 11 and May 12, 2011. This is
the first generation of adults, which will appear three more times at
roughly 7 week intervals, in mid-June, late July, and early September,
for a total of four adult generations in one season.
Other butterflies
in the warm weather this week included Cabbage Whites, Clouded
Sulphurs, Tiger Swallowtails, Black Swallowtails, Eastern Tailed-Blues,
Pearl Crescents, Wild Indigo Duskywings, a Monarch, and a suprisingly
fresh-looking winter form of a Question Mark. This latter was a
surprise in that, this time of year, I usually find rather worn-looking
summer forms of the Question Mark, which I assume to have migrated from
the south since we have not yet had time here for a full generation to
develop. Perhaps this winter form had overwintered here, but it
seems late for a fresh-looking winter form. All-in-all, a great
start this week after what has been up to now a very cool, wet
spring.