Category Archives: Host Plants

Jack Miller: Some Thoughts On South Jersey’s Dion Skippers

[Update (8-3-21): In response to Jack Miller’s post below, Dale Schweitzer has kindly provided his own thoughts about the host plant for Euphyes dion in our area. See the end of this post for his comments. Any observer observing ovipositing … Continue reading

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Five Ways Of Understanding South Jersey’s Azures

[This post has been updated as on 5-5-21 to include the responses of Dale Schweitzer and Wade Wander, now to be found below “Sources“ at the end of the article] “How many different azure species are there in South Jersey?” … Continue reading

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Updates of Guides to Pollinator Plants & Butterfly Host Plants for South Jersey

Butterfly gardening time is not all that far away, as all experienced gardeners know. As of January 16, Jesse Connor has updated her guide to the best pollinator plants in South Jersey and her guide to the best host plants. … Continue reading

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Milkweed’s True Dependents

The milkweed flowering season has peaked now — for common milkweed, at least — and will fade to a close over the next few weeks.  By mid-July or so all those butterflies, moths, bees, wasps, ants, soldier beetles, and flower … Continue reading

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Pollinator Plant List for Butterfly Gardeners in South Jersey

Jesse Connor has pulled together a list of the best pollinator plants in South Jersey to complement her list of the best butterfly host plants posted last month. See the document for her interest in your observations and suggestions. Jesse … Continue reading

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Caterpillar Host Plant List for Gardeners

Jesse Connor put together the list at the link below for the Southeast Chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Jersey. Since it is already time for butterfly gardeners to consider what plants they might like to add to … Continue reading

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Beth Polvino: Documenting My Brazilian Skippers

Beth Polvino has tracked and photographed the entire sequence of Brazilian skippers in her garden in North Cape May this year: from eggs to adults (still continuing). Until this year the species was not known to breed in NJ. Thanks … Continue reading

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New Jersey’s First Great Purple Hairstreak Since….?

Beth Polvino shook up NJ’s butterfly community on June 15 when she found and photo’d a great purple hairstreak, one of the most beautiful and sought-after butterflies in all North America, nectaring on Coreopsis in her garden in North Cape … Continue reading

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Northbound Ladies?

Northbound migration by butterflies in spring is much harder to document than their southbound flights in fall.  For one thing, the numbers of individuals headed south in fall are orders of magnitude larger:  monarchs, buckeyes, red admirals, painted ladies, and … Continue reading

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Is Hickory Hairstreak Possible in South Jersey?

In Butterflies of New Jersey Michael Gochfeld and Joanna Burger end their discussion of hickory hairstreak with an intriguing sentence, “This species is certainly both misidentified and overlooked.” They note that various authors have differed about the keys to hickory’s … Continue reading

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