South Jersey Butterfly B/Log

Rare skipper, photo’d by Will Kerling, Jakes Landing Road (CMY), June 29, 2014.

We compiled an excellent list in June 2014 with 70 species found. That broke our all-time high for June (old record = 69 in June 2012), marked only the second time we have ever reached 70 species in a single month, and was within one species of tying our best month for diversity ever: July 2013 when we found 71 species in our eight southern NJ counties.

Here’s our list of all June 2014’s species with date of the first record of the month. The twenty-four species new for the year are in bold.

6/1/2014 Black Swallowtail
6/1/2014 E. Tiger Swallowtail
6/1/2014 Spicebush Swallowtail
6/1/2014 Cabbage White
6/15/2014 Clouded Sulphur
6/1/2014 Orange Sulphur
6/22/2014 Harvester
6/15/2014 American Copper
6/8/2014 Bronze Copper
6/8/2014 Bog Copper
6/18/2014 Coral Hairstreak
6/25/2014 Edward’s Hairstreak
6/15/2014 Banded Hairstreak
6/23/2014 Striped Hairstreak
6/20/2014 Northern Oak Hairstreak
6/2/2014 Frosted Elfin
6/1/2014 Eastern Pine Elfin
6/2/14 Juniper Hairstreak
6/27/2014 Hessel’s Hairstreak
6/3/2014 White M Hairstreak
6/15/2014 Gray Hairstreak
6/1/2014 Red-banded Hairstreak
6/1/2014 Eastern Tailed-Blue
6/1/2014 Summer Azure
6/4/2014 American Snout
6/6/2014 Variegated Fritillary
6/16/2014 Meadow Fritillary
6/1/2014 Pearl Crescent
6/1/2014 Question Mark
6/6/2014 Eastern Comma
6/19/2014 Mourning Cloak
6/1/2014 American Lady
6/10/2014 Painted Lady
6/1/2014 Red Admiral
6/10/2014 Common Buckeye
6/1/2014 Red-spotted Purple
6/2/2014 Viceroy
6/10/2014 Hackberry Emperor
6/29/2014 Tawny Emperor
6/7/2014 Appalachian Brown
6/1/2014 Little Wood-Satyr
6/25/2014 Common Wood-Nymph
6/3/2014 Monarch
6/1/2014 Silver-spotted Skipper
6/1/2014 Southern Cloudywing
6/2/2014 Northern Cloudywing
6/3/2014 Hayhurst’s Scallopwing
6/1/2014 Sleepy Duskywing
6/1/2014 Juvenal’s Duskywing
6/4/2014 Horace’s Duskywing
6/7/2014 Wild Indigo Duskywing
6/4/2014 Common Sootywing
6/8/2014 Swarthy Skipper
6/1/2014 Least Skipper
6/9/2014 European Skipper
6/22/2014 Fiery Skipper
6/1/2014 Peck’s Skipper
6/1/2014 Tawny-edged Skipper
6/2/2014 Crossline Skipper
6/15/2014 Northern Broken-Dash
6/4/2014 Little Glassywing
6/1/2014 Sachem
6/6/2014 Delaware Skipper
6/28/2014 Rare Skipper
6/28/2014 Mulberry Wing
6/1/2014 Zabulon Skipper
6/2/2014 Aaron’s Skipper
6/15/2014 Broad-winged Skipper
6/1/2014 Dun Skipper
6/13/2014 Salt Marsh Skipper

A crossline skipper, photo’d by Harvey Tomlinson at Hunter’s Mill Bog on June 15.

Our high diversity count was made possible by several factors:

— three single-brooded spring species flew into June: eastern pine elfin, sleepy duskywing, and frosted elfin;

This very worn, late eastern pine elfin was photo’d by Shawn Wainwright on Cattus Island (OCN) on June 2.

— several FOYs emerged in the last few days of the month, just in time to be counted, including tawny emperor, mulberry wing, and rare skipper;

— a mix of hard-to-find rarities were tracked down in hard-to-reach spots: bronze copper, meadow fritillary, and others….

Bronze copper, photo’d by Dave Amadio in Salem County on June 8, 2014.

— several unexpected butterflies made solo appearances: an early fiery skipper, a second-brood Hessel’s hairstreak, and a northern oak hairstreak found at night at a moth light (!);

This fiery skipper, found and photo’d by Jesse Amesbury in his yard in Cape May Courthouse, on June 22 was the, only individual reported during the month.

— and, most important of all, we had so many alert and observant butterflyers out in the field tracking all the activity.

Contributors, June 2014:

We had at least 28 observers in the field during the month

Will Kerling, Chris Tonkinson, Brian Johnson, Chip Krilowicz, Dave Amadio, Jack Miller, Steven Glynn, Chris Herz, Pat Sutton, Clay Sutton, Cynthia Allen, Jean Gutsmuth, Jesse Amesbury, Jesse Connor, Jack Connor, Jim Dowdell, Marilyn Henry, Michael Drake, Sandra Keller, Denise Bittle, Jim Springer, Ahmet Baytas, Michael O’Brien, Shawn Wainwright, Teresa Knipper, Paula Williams, Lynn Jackson, and Kathy Horn. . . .

and we gathered more than 1900 separate observations of an estimated 9000+ individual butterflies.

Here’s a pdf of the spreadsheet for all observations in June sorted by species. Hit the plus sign for easier viewing.

June 2014 Spreadsheet

A special thanks goes to Pat Sutton for compiling and logging in all the reports from her Cumberland NABA Count on June 24.

And thanks to all observers out there watching and recording! Because we have so many active and enthusiastic participants, our log grows richer every month. Keep at it, everyone!

jc

Coral hairstreak, photo’d by Steve Glynn on June 18, 2014 in Cumberland Co.

Male zabulon skipper at Cape May Point State Park, photo’d by Gibson Reynolds on May 26.

Thanks to each of the 37 observers who contributed to our log in May….

Amy Gaberlein, Barb Wiley, Barry Marts, Brian Johnson, Chip Krilowicz, Chris Herz. Chris Tonkinson, Clay Sutton. Cynthia Allen. Dave Amadio, Doyle Dowdell, Gibson Reynolds, Jack Miller, Jack Connor, Jean Gutsmuth. Jesse Amesbury, Jesse Connor, Jim Dowdell, Karl Lukens, Kathy Flynn, Marilyn Henry. Matt Orsie, Matt Webster, Michael Drake, Mike Crewe, Pat Perkins, Pat Sutton, Raymond Simpson, Rick Borchelt, Sam Galick, Sam Wilson, Sandra Keller, Steven Glynn, Sylvia Armstrong, Tom Reed, Tom Stock, and Will Kerling…

…we compiled more than 1480 reports (and ~4300 individual butterflies) for the month .

We found 55 species in May and reached a total of 56 for the year. (If you can name the one species reported earlier in 2014 but not seen in May, you are paying very close attention to our log! Answer below.*)

The relatively cool weather of March through May this year may explain why South Jersey’s butterfly sequence is unfolding a little more slowly than normally. As of the last day of the month our year’s total was slightly behind last year’s May 31st total (when we had 57 species) and farther behind the super spring of 2012 (when we had recorded 65 species by the end of May) and also the good spring of 2011 (when we had 62 species by the end of May).

Will Kerling added Aaron’s skipper to our year’s total yesterday, June 2, so we have now reached 57 for the year.

Some of the other late May/early June butterflies not yet recorded in 2014 that we might expect over the next two or three weeks include Appalachian brown, common wood-nymph, little glassywing, swarthy skipper, Delaware skipper, salt-marsh skipper, and the five Satyrium hairstreaks: coral, Edward’s, banded, striped, and northern oak.

Two rarer species seen by May 31 in past years that we can at least hope to see (fingers crossed?) in the next couple of weeks are little yellow (seen in May, 2012) and harvester (seen in May, 2013).

Here’s the spreadsheet in pdf format. Green = new for 2014; orange = first report of the month. Hit the + sign for easier viewing. Let me know if you see any discrepancies.

May 2014 Spreadsheet

*Q: And what is that single species seen earlier this year but not in May?
A: Variegated fritillary. Jack Miller and Rich Cech found one individual at McNamara WMA on April 26 and we are still awaiting our second report of that butterfly.

Keep at it, everyone!
jc

Mating azures at Cape May Point on May 26, photo’d by Gibson Reynolds.