Rare skipper on the Belleplain NABA count, 6-22-12, photo’d by Pat Sutton, one of 15 reports of the species in June.
Thirty-four observers contributed a total of 1844 reports in June, and we found 69 species during the month, well up from 59 species for June last year and 56 in June 2010. Now halfway through the calendar year, we have recorded 83 species in NJ’s southern counties.
Eighteen species were new for the year in June:
bog copper, 6-3-12
coral hairstreak, 6-3-12
Edward’s hairstreak, 6-16-12
banded hairstreak, 6-5-12
striped hairstreak, 6-2-12
oak hairstreak, 6-1-12
hackberry, 6-22-12
tawny emperor, 6-23-12
Georgia satyr, 6-28-12
clouded skipper, 6-18-12
European skipper, 6-3-12
fiery skipper, 6-30-12
dotted skipper, 6-10-12
northern broken-dash, 6-10-12
rare skipper, 6-19-12
mulberry wing, 6-16-12
broad-winged skipper, 6-4-12
two-spotted skipper, 6-9-12
Painted lady photo’d by Will Kerling in Cape May Co. We had 28 reports of the species during the month, the most by far of any month so far this year.
Five of June’s eighteen new species were Satyrium hairstreaks, including coral hairstreak, here photo’d on the Atlantic Avenue powerline in Pomona (Atlantic Co) on 6-24-12.
This tawny emperor photo’d by Pat Sutton in her garden (Cape May Co) on 6-23-12 is the only individual of its species reported so far this year.
Pipevine swallowtail caterpillar, photo’d by Pat Sutton in her garden, 6-27-12.
Which species remain to be found in 2012?
Our total for the year for the southern eight counties is generally in the low 90s, so we have reached the point when few expected species remain to be found for the year, and none is a “gimme.” Dion skipper may be the most likely species that we can add to our list in July, followed by bronze copper. Both are habitat-limited, however, and require luck and persistence. Finding either makes a red-letter day. Two fritillaries — meadow fritillary and great spangled fritillary — are even more challenging (although we found both in July last year). Looking ahead to August, we can hope for some autumn strays from the south, but again none is certain — sleepy orange? Ocola skipper? long-tailed skipper? giant swallowtail? something even more off-the-wall?? We can also hope a contributing observer or two can track down Leonard’s skipper this year, perhaps our area’s most troubled resident butterfly.
Complete June Spreadsheet
As an experiment, I am adding a pdf of the complete June spreadsheet at the link below. It is 41 pages long and you will need to hit the + sign to enlarge for easy viewing, but it is sorted by taxonomic sequence and date (yellow = first sighting of the month; green = new species for the year) and you can do your own analysis of all sightings and see all observers’ notes (except for a handful that were too long to fit the page).
If folks find this useful, I will try to add complete monthly spreadsheets in the future. Let me know.
The spreadsheet for June 2012 is here.
Contributors in June 2012:
Cynthia Allen, Dave Amadio, Karl Anderson, Sylvia Armstrong, Jesse Connor, Jack Connor, Mike Crewe, Rhea Doherty, Jim Dowdell, Vince Elia, Sam Galick, Jean Gutsmuth, Chris Herz, Brian Johnson, Sandra Keller, Will Kerling, Tiffany Kersten, Chip Krilowicz, Tedi Marville, Stephen Mason, Josh Nemeth, Bridget O’Connor, Mike Russell, Barb Sendelbach, Mark Sendelbach, Bill Schuhl, Jim Springer, Clay Sutton, Pat Sutton, Chris Tonkinson, Shawn Wainwright, Paula Williams, Chris Williams, and Harry Zirlin.
Thanks to each of you.
Keep exploring and reporting!
jc
Fiery skipper is our most recently-added species for the year, with this one on the Galloway NABA count (Atlantic Co) and another male on the Avalon Golf Links (Cape May Co), both on 6-30-12. What will July bring?