Rio Brazos Audubon Society: 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