Friday, July 3, 2015

Butterflies, butterflies, butterflies

With the upcoming NABA Butterfly Count, I’ve been out practicing- or trying to practice- finding, observing, and identifying our local butterflies. Initially, I was very gung-ho about it: I want to see everything, not miss an ID, pick out the unique or interesting butterflies, and generally have a rewarding time.

I didn’t succeed. As it turns out, I’m not very good at IDing butterflies. They’re small, fly fast, hide in the bushes, and can have very cryptic or subtle colorations. I mean how hard can it be to identify a Monarch? It’s big, iconic, easy to see! It seems to me that the Monarch is the butterfly equivalent of a Bald Eagle. They’re everywhere- on billboards, tv, symbols in businesses and of the US. But in real life when you’re out looking for a Bald Eagle, they can be pretty difficult to find. You’ll find Cardinals and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, and Grackles much more easily. And don’t forget the I-got-a-quick-glimpse-and-thought-it-was-a-Bald-Eagle but it was really a Crested Caracara. Monarch’s have those too: Queens, Viceroys, and Soldiers. Heck, a quick glimpse of a Gulf Fritillary can send you to the wrong ID!

It's... uh... ok. It's not the thing I thought it was.


Faced with the harsh reality of not knowing things (you’d think I’d be used to it by now), I set out to learn something new. But how?! My first task seemed the most daunting: how to deal with the wealth of information. The field guides, the online resources, the staggering number of butterflies…! It was a little discouraging. Actually, it was very discouraging. But then I remembered the advice we use at Birding 101: “start in your backyard”. Looking through the Brock and Kaufman guide, there are about 350 pages with 3-6 butterflies on every other page… even at the low end of estimates, that’s over 1000 butterflies! Way more than my backyard to handle. And looking at the range maps, most of those butterflies aren’t going to show up in the Brazos Valley.

So I made my own field guide. Or, that is to say, I made a big list of things I thought I could see in the area. It’s not complete, and it’s not comprehensive, but it does two things: 1) helps me identify the family of butterfly that I’m looking at, and 2) gives me a more limited list of butterflies to look up and compare field marks to…. Or at least shows me what kinds of field marks I should be looking for.

First up: Families. These families are derived through the general morphology, behavior, and genetic characteristics. Using butterfliesandmoths.org, naba.org, and my Brock and Kaufman guide, the five main families we should worry about are:


Swallowtails: (family Papilioniae, Tree of Life, Wikipedia) The common name says it all. Large butterflies with a distinctive tails from their hind wing and are among the largest butterflies in the world.

Whites and Sulphurs: (family Pieridae, Wikipedia) Again, truth in advertising. Typically small, bright yellow or white, these butterflies are common and wide spread, occupying a variety of habitats and regions- even your backyard, city parks, and road sides!

Gossamer-winged: (family Lycaenidae, Tree of Life, Wikipedia) While maybe not the most common vernacular, it is none-the-less accurate. Gossamer means “a fine, filmy substance consisting of cobwebs… used to refer to something very light, thin, or delicate.” With that in mind, you won’t be surprised to learn this family includes the Hairstreaks; it also includes the Blues, Coppers, and Harvesters (but for our Brazos Valley purposes we’ll focus on the Hairstreaks and Blues).

Brush-footed Butterflies: (family Nymphalidae, Tree of Life, Wikipedia) This is the big one! Over 6000 identified species world-wide. Here, as the name suggests, there is a fringe along the forelegs. The truly (scientifically) defining feature are the tricarinate ridges running along the antennae… again, not a great field mark. Things to look for that are characteristic of these butterflies is reduced forelimb pair, giving the appearance of an insect with just 4 legs! They also like to sit with their wings open, giving good looks at their bright and conspicuous colors.

Skippers: (family Hesperiidae, Tree of Life, Wikipedia) Skippers are like the sparrows of the butterfly world. Little and brown with some obscure or subtle field marks. Fun if you like to feel frustrated! Of course, there are exceptions- some skippers are blue or black and white, but most are resplendent tones, with chocolate, taupe, and mocha markings. While some skippers sit with their wings open, most take up a jet-fighter pose, angling their wings up.

There’s an excellent summary of the families and their characteristics (with pictures) available from North Dakota State University… they even show you what those tricarinate ridges look like- as well of lots of other stuff not mentioned here.

Brazos County favorites

The good folks at Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) are working on a reporting system, empowering citizen scientists to submit their butterfly observations. It’s like Ebird, but for butterflies! Aggregating these submissions allows them to build report maps, monitor distributions, and provide resources for knuckleheads like me trying to learn. To the point, I was able to go to their site and look up what butterflies had been reported from Brazos County! Now, since I didn’t want to just parrot whatever was reported on this list, I cross-referenced this with the distribution maps from the Brock and Kaufman Guide.

Here’s the list:


Swallowtails and Parnassians Brush-footed Butterflies
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Papilio glaucus  Julia Heliconian Dryas iulia
Pipevine Swallowtail Battus philenor  Zebra Heliconian Heliconius charithonia 
Spicebush Swallowtail Papilio troilus  Gulf Fritillary Agraulis vanillae 
Black Swallowtail Papilio polyxenes  Variegated Fritillary Euptoieta claudia 
Giant Swallowtail Papilio cresphontes  Pearl Crescent Phyciodes tharos 
    Phaon Crescent Phyciodes phaon
    Texan Crescent Anthanassa texana 
    Silvery Checkerspot Chlosyne nycteis 
    Gorgone Checkerspot Chlosyne gorgone 
    Bordered Patch Chlosyne lacinia 
    Question Mark Polygonia interrogationis
    Eastern Comma Polygonia comma
Whites and Sulphurs Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta 
Checkered White Pontia protodice  Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa
Great Southern White Ascia monuste  American Lady Vanessa virginiensis
Falcate Orangetip Anthocharis midea  Painted Lady Vanessa cardui
Orange Sulphur Colias eurytheme  Common Buckeye Junonia coenia 
Southern Dogface Zerene cesonia  Viceroy Limenitis archippus
Sleepy Orange Abaeis nicippe  Goatweed Leafwing Anaea andria 
Dainty Sulphur Nathalis iole  Hackberry Emperor Asterocampa celtis
Little Yellow Pyrisitia lisa  Tawny Emperor Asterocampa clyton 
Cloudless Sulphur Phoebis sennae American Snout Libytheana carinenta 
Mexican Yellow Eurema mexicana  Monarch Danaus plexippus 
    Queen Danaus gilippus
    Little Wood-Satyr Megisto cymela
    Carolina Satyr Hermeuptychia sosybius
    Gemmed Satyr Cyllopsis gemma 
    Common Wood-Nymph Cercyonis pegala 
       
Gossamer-wing Butterflies Skippers
Gray Hairstreak Strymon melinus  Silver-spotted Skipper Epargyreus clarus
White-M Hairstreak Parrhasius m album  Northern Cloudywing Thorybes pylades
Banded Hairstreak Satyrium calanus  Confused Cloudywing Thorybes confusis 
Striped Hairstreak Satyrium liparops  Long-tailed Skipper Urbanus proteus 
'Northern' Southern Hairstreak Satyrium favonius ontario  Juvenal's Duskywing Erynnis juvenalis
Red-banded Hairstreak Calycopis cecrops  Horace's Duskywing Erynnis horatius 
Great Purple Hairstreak Atlides halesus Funereal Duskywing Erynnis funeralis 
Juniper Hairstreak Callophrys gryneus  Common Checkered-Skipper Pyrgus communis
Marine Blue Leptotes marina White Checkered-Skipper Pyrgus albescens 
Western Pygmy-Blue Brephidium exilis Tropical Checkered-Skipper Pyrgus oileus 
Ceraunus Blue Hemiargus ceraunus  Hayhurst's Scallopwing Staphylus hayhurstii 
Reakirt's Blue Echinargus isola  Mazans Scallopwing Staphylus mazans 
    Common Sootywing Pholisora catullus
    Fiery Skipper Hylephila phyleus 
    Sachem Atalopedes campestris 
    Whirlabout Polites vibex 
    Least Skipper Ancyloxypha numitor 
    Orange Skipperling Copaeodes aurantiaca
    Southern Skipperling Copaeodes minima 
    Clouded Skipper Lerema accius
    Swarthy Skipper Nastra lherminier
    Southern Broken-Dash Wallengrenia otho
    Dun Skipper Euphyes vestris 
    Zabulon Skipper Poanes zabulon
    Bell's Roadside-Skipper Amblyscirtes belli 
    Eufala Skipper Lerodea eufala
    Brazilian Skipper Calpodes ethlius 

It’s still a lot! That’s not surprising- I mean we’re talking about butterflies in Texas! There’s going to be a lot! But we’re not talking about over 1000 like we would be while looking through the Brock and Kaufman guide. And if we’re not too worried about the rarities, the uncommon, or even those that aren’t widely distributed, we can narrow the list down even further. Narrowing the list will keep allow us to learn our backyard butterflies without getting too frustrated! Provided we’re willing to say “I don’t know”! 

To prepare an abbreviated list to work from, I prepared a couple of plates with some of the more common butterflies in the area, arranged by family. This is built from Bruce Neville’s excellent “Ten Common Butterflies of Brazos County” he prepared for the Texas Master Naturalists and shared with the public (see the attachments on your email).

I’ve included some comparisons for similarly marked butterflies- try and spot the differences and see some of the diagnostic spots or patterns between the two (or more!). Please keep in mind, the IMAGES ARE NOT TO SCALE- larger pictures with more detail will help with studying patterns and coloring. Check out a field guide or head to the field to get an idea of sizes! Also, check out bugguide.net for an online guide and links out to lots of different resources to help you learn more.

Swallowtails

 
The Swallowtails



Whites and Sulphurs

Whites and Sulphurs




Gossamer-winged

Gossomer-winged



Brush-footed Butterflies


Brush-footed 1


Brush-footed 2

Brush-footed 3


Skippers



Sparrows...er I mean Skippers

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