www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Fortunate enough to have spent May in the US, with enough time to search for "local" ( within 100 miles or so) butterflies of Virginia and Maryland.

Unusual sort of place! Very suitable looking habitats from a Europeans perspective being bereft of butterflies, whilst open but shady woodland trails harbouring the odd one or two. The Appalachian Shales and coastal Pine Barrens provided the best and rarest sights.
I seemed to catch the end of the Spring crop, but fall short of the Summer emergences.

Skippers are the predominant species and I may cover those later, but for now....

Swallowtails...
Zebra Swallowtail, settled in the understory of Appalachian woodland, on ?Bearberry.
Pipevine Swallowtail, puddling, again in the Appalachians.
Spicebush Swallowtail, seen in a New Jersey Arbouretum. (Pipevine mimic)
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, common but very restless and easily spooked, found, but not photographed, pretty well everywhere we went.

The Harvester.... a wooly aphid eating larva, this one seen on the road, in the shade, again high in the Appalachian Shales region...
The Eastern Tailed Blue, a tiny common jewel, this one fresh and well behaved....
I really wanted to see Elfins, Callophrys species like our Green Hairstreak but brown..... managed 2 out of possible 4 species, one common, one very rare....
Brown Elfin, common
Frosted Elfin, rare and specialised.

Buckeye.... only saw one, tho supposedly common, at least it was fresh, and accommodating....
American Painted Lady... saw quite a lot of these, larger than usual numbers moving northwards, with Red Admirals.... I can now vouch that virginiensis is not easily confused with our own version.....
Finally, one we all love, and rarely see, the "Mourning Cloak"..... most pristine one I ever saw.....
May get round to Skippers later.

Thanks for an interesting report.

Jack

Glorious stuff, Kip. I'm currently seeing some lovely species in France, but what you have posted is making me envious. Those elfins are particularly intriguing. I hadn't heard of them before.

Lovely, I really enjoyed scrolling through those.

I remember your idea of 'local', Paul ... Staying in the Alps and commuting to the South of France every day because the weather was bad!

Did you consider P. appalachiensis for some of your tiger swallowtails? There's not much information about this species in most books, as it's newly described (2002), but you were in the right area at the right time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_appalachiensis

http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/L/t ... nsis_a.htm

I look forward to the skippers!

Guy

Hi,
and thanks all for your supportive comments,
appalachiensis is supposed to be large compared with glaucus Guy, and from what I've read, not otherwise that easily differentiated. The one I show here above was taken in NJ I think, so likely would be the latter. My impression was that I would never be able to be certain, but the common one was therefore my likely find on each occasion. My only real true Appalachian photo possibility was this.....
I am told it was nectaring on something referred to as "Russian Olive", an imposter species rife in the region, but it did have a lovely and heady scent.

How about this for a Hairstreak..... "Red-banded"..... one I knew I might see, as said to be common... It was tiny, about the size of minimus and hated being photographed. I saw three during my whole adventure and on each occasion, when disturbed from under one's feet, (ground-dweller) they were extremely difficult to follow and each disappeared without trace, or photo, until my final victory ( OK, sub-optimal victory )....

A few skippers.....

Please don't think my ID's are watertight as the differentiation between Sleepy and dreamy made me sleepy and dreamy, then the Wild Indigo and Juvenal's I found equally soporific.... and we only have trouble with Pyrgus
Here goes....
Erynnis icelus/ Dreamy Duskywing
Erynnis brizo/ Sleepy Duskywing
Erynnis juvenalis/ Juvenal's Duskywing
Erynnis baptisiae/ Wild Indigo Duskywing, tho' could be Juvenal's. (edit).... maybe MOST likely to be Erynnis horatius - see Guy's message down the page.

Then there was the Cloudywing.....
Thorybes pylades/ Northern Cloudywing

A few Brown Skippers to go, later.

So for the Browns....
Poanes hobomok/Hobomok Skipper
Polites peckius/ Peck's Skipper
Poanes zabulon: Zabulon Skipper male

The Zabulon was fascinating, with rather marked sexual dimorphism, to say the least....
Poanes zabulon: Zabulon Skipper male
Poanes zabulon: Zabulon Skipper female
Poanes zabulon: Zabulon Skipper female

I initially thought I had seen another new species to me!

Fantastic stuff. I love reading about butterflies from around the world. Thank you for sharing your pictures.

I agree - thank you Paul. What a brilliant time you must have had.

For what it's worth, and I don't do this just to be annoying (it's just fun ), I looked at horatius for your baptisiae. If only I could get to the States and see some of these things for real ...

Guy

Hi Guy... yeah, that is funny, mainly because you, as always, have a good point....

I don't know why that species went under my radar, and it looks good for my photo... common in May in that region... seems more likely than Wild Indigo.... delighted to re-name on that basis, as it would be another new species to me!!!!

As others have said - a fascinating report. North American butterflies seem to be rather unfamiliar, perhaps because they don't feature in our tropical butterfly houses. I've often looked out for butterflies when I used to visit USA and Canada on business trips, but seen very few. Perhaps, as you suggest, I was looking in the wrong places, compared with where we would expect to find them in Europe. I did once watch a Monarch dodging through all the traffic on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, though

Mike

We definitely see more butterflies here, quantity wise, at least in the East where I was, I strolled through uncut meadows and saw maybe one, maybe none, in some places there.
Too early for Monarchs for me
Anyway, my final instalment of the lesser finds, from my perspective, but for completeness and any interest it may generate....
Falcate Orange Tip... I believe "falcate" = "as in a falcon", referring to the forewing outline being reminiscent of a falcon's head. (??) These were faded by the time I saw any, and I was lucky to have one settle long enough for any sort of photo.
Little Wood Satyr... about Purple Hairstreak size, when I first saw one I was convinced it would be a Hairstreak when I could see it properly.. fooled me several times.
Spring Azure... very much like a Holly Blue, but smaller, more SSB size. Didn't settle open winged for me, sadly.

More Skippers....
From the sublime ( tiny "Least" Skipper)

to the ridiculously chunky....
Silver-spotted Skipper
Sachem Skipper... rather worn
Cobweb Skipper... an exciting rarity in the parts I went to.

Finally, a small series of Pearl Crescentspots.... really common meadow nymphalid butterfly, about common blue size, but very bright...
Well, that truly was that.
Next stop the Haute Savoie in early July

'Falcate,' from 'falcatus' - Latin for scythe- or sickle-shaped (from the noun 'falx'). 'Falcon' is probably from the same root.

More wonderful pictures, Paul. I love the pearly crescents.

Guy

Thanks Guy, that now makes entire sense!!

Really interesting report again Kip.
I have seen pictures of many of those species before, but had completely the wrong impression of their size. I had always thought the Little Wood Satyr and Pearl Crescentspots were both about the size of Ringlets and naturally thought that Spring Azures would be the same size as Holly Blues.
I can remember being really disappointed when I saw Great Southern Whites, expecting them to be enormous, but they are only the size of Green-veined Whites! So not everything is bigger in the States!

Guy wrote:

'Falcate,' from 'falcatus' - Latin for scythe- or sickle-shaped (from the noun 'falx'). 'Falcon' is probably from the same root

Peanuts' 'Snoopy' was 'Joe Cool' in his American gangster incarnation and 'Joe Falcetto' in the Italian version... Off message, but I couldn't resist it

Great photos and species, incidentally - many thanks for such an interesting series of posts.

Tony M.