Will K On Our March Madness

An early black swallowtail found & photo’d by Jesse Connor in her garden in Port Republic, (Atlantic Co.), March 17, 2012.

Prognostications about “March Madness” are not limited to basketball gurus.

Will Kerling compiled a list of butterfly species that could possibly appear in the second half of this month — given the many early FOYs we have had so far. He completed the list on Wednesday, March 14, and within 72 hours we added two of the species he named: the black swallowtail above and American lady, found by Brian Johnson on the Mauricetown Causeway (Cumberland Co.), both added to our log for 3/17/12.

That brings our March total to 13 species with 14 days remaining in March (counting today, which looks promising).

What’s next?

Here’s Will’s list of possibilities (as of 3/14/12):

Black Swallowtail
Gray Hairstreak
Painted Lady
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
White M Hairstreak
Brown Elfin
Clouded Sulphur (challenging one)
Juniper Hairstreak
Falcate Orangetip
Red-banded Hairstreak (a real stretch)
Eastern Pine Elfin (discovered yesterday)
Common Buckeye
Henry’s Elfin (I found at LT today – 4:33 pm)
Pearl Crescent
American Copper
Variegated Fritillary
Eastern Tailed-Blue
American Lady

Here are two we have had in March but could be found earlier this year:

Juvenal’s Duskywing 3/31
Frosted Elfin 3/31

Monarch, Red-spotted Purple and Spicebush Swallowtail would be nice long shots. I’m sure this list isn’t all inclusive – surprises are great!

Best,
Will

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