Henry’s elfin, photo by Will Kerling
Will Kerling has sent a follow-up to his post from 3/14/12:
As far as I know, we now have ten butterfly species that never have been officially documented in NJ for March before this year. They are:
Black Swallowtail
Falcate Orangetip
Eastern Pine Elfin
Brown Elfin
Eastern Tailed-Blue
Pearl Crescent
American Lady
American Snout
Silver-spotted Skipper
Horace’s Duskywing
Gochfeld and Burger have a March record in 1992 for Common Buckeye in New Brunswick by Murrays.
My latest “look-for” list of possibilities:
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Spicebush Swallowtail
Clouded Sulphur
Edward’s Azure
Gray Hairstreak
American Copper
Juniper Hairstreak
White M Hairstreak
Painted Lady
Monarch
Wild Indigo Duskywing
Cobweb Skipper
And: SURPRISES!!!
Dale Schweitzer indicated Cloudless Sulphurs and Sleepy Oranges are already being sighted in Western NC. Also, White M and Gray Hairstreaks and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail have been recorded way north of us on the East Coast.
Will
3/25/12
Other photos from the last ten days:
Blueberry azure, “lucia” form by Shawn Wainwright, March 14
Mayfly by Amy Gaberlein, March 20 (species ID not yet determined — anyone know?)
Blue corporal by Pat Sutton, March 20
Blueberry azure ovipositing on highbush blueberry, by Chip Krilowicz, March 22
Blueberry azure, “violaceae” form by Will Kerling, March 23
Horace’s duskywing by Will Kerling, March 23
Amy here…. Mayfly was taken with a Nikon CoolPix P4, macro setting. That thing takes better close photos than my DSLR!
Stephen Mason, Stockton grad and now at the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia, sent a note about the mayfly’s ID:
“I’m pretty confident the undetermined mayfly on the blog is commonly called black quill or early brown spinner (Leptophlebia cupida.) There are only a handful of species that occur in south Jersey and fewer that emerge this early.
Best,
~Steve”