August 2020 Sightings

Silver-spotted Skippers have been very common.

All 3 Cloudless laying eggs on Partridge pea.
3 male, 1 female zabby.

I have had as many as 4 cloudless sulphurs oviposting in my yard at the same time in the past 2 weeks. Otherwise, bfly action continues to be slow during the day, so I decided to pursue them at night. I was pleasantly surprised to find a Tawny emperor cat which means they have been present here the last two years. I also saw dozens of cloudless cats. A big thank you to Jen Bulava for getting some of us interested into UV flashlights.

Approx. 5 mile hike. 8:30 to 11:15 am. Sunny, humid. Most of the RB Hairstreaks were on Sweet Pepperbush.

Only able to get one photo of this bug—is it a female pipevine?

[Sometimes one photo is all it takes. Congrats to Chris on this excellent find! This is only our second location for pipevine st in 2020 (Connors in ATL is the other). It is also only our second report from CAM in the log's history with the other report going back to a garden in Cherry Hill on 9/13/11. This species has become increasingly hard to find in the past two years with reports coming from only ATL and CMY. The last report outside of these two counties was 7/4/18 from Mannington Marsh SAL. In 2017 - 2018 pipevines were reported from ATL, CMY, BUR, CUM and SAL. In NJ, the likely host plant is Aristolochia. How might we explain the increasing scarcity of this beautiful swallowtail? Is it possible that pipevines are getting "lost" among our more common black and spicebush st's? -jm]

Black swallowtail cats on Lovage, Rue, and parsley. Watched female lay on lovage today.

Silver-spotted Skippers and Spicebush Swallowtails continue to be abundant.

From 9:30-12:30 during Young naturalist program.
Attached is a photo of the silver spotted skipper that would NOT leave Kate's sock alone.

Male and female spicebush ST, male and female Black ST. 2 Monarchs released. Also possible v. Frit, but was across the street trying to swat a spotted lantern fly that flew from our yard.

A 10 minute stop at the butterfly garden from 3:10-3:20.
9 black swallowtail cats. Monarchs were mating.

Sightings from late in the afternoon. Red-spotted Purples on fruit dish.

Diversity has increased but numbers are still way down in this lovely Zinnia garden. Spicebush, in general, seem to be bucking the trend and doing well this year.

The female Black Swallowtail was mint fresh and laying eggs on Fennel. Along with the adult Cloudless Sulphurs we found one caterpillar on Partridge Pea. 1 Tawny Emperor caterpillar on Hackberry (the others have disappeared; looked but couldn't find chrysalises). Female Monarch laying eggs, plus found a number of Monarch caterpillars on Common Milkweed.

Seeing Monarch's, Black Swallowtail, Cloudless Sulphur, Spicebush Swallowtail, American Snout, Question Mark laying eggs daily. In addition, I am seeing 1-3 Brazilian Skippers daily with new eggs on the canna leaves. l have 3 chrysalis for Brazilian Skippers. Like Harvey T. I see tons of nests and then when I think they are due to go into a chrysalis, the cat disappears. Wondering if the grasshoppers are eating them? Sachems numbers are way down in my yard this year though many others are no shows so far.

During a drizzle…

Not too many butterflies because of the rain but I did see 2 small cats on a young Senna marilandica. They had completely different coloring but were about the same size. One was very yellow-could it be a Little yellow? The other was greener with the impression of a stripe- Sleepy orange cat?

[We have had only one report of little yellow so far this year (7/12; Garrett Preserve, CMY). I do not believe that our log has ever had a photo of a little yellow cat. Eurema cats can be variable and are quite similar. Cat comments welcome. jm]

I had hoped to walk the loop, but the flies made walking a miserable experience so I played drive-n-stop. Plenty of black swallowtails on the dikes, but as they were mixed with a few spicebush st's, I could, with a few exceptions, only call the males.

Obs. mainly between 1 & 3 p.m. I have noticed more Bald-faced hornets in the yard this year than I normally have. Most years I attract a few at the fruit dish, but this year they are seen daily wandering about the garden "seeking whom they may devour" I suspected that they were partly responsible for the low butterfly numbers here. Today I saw one take and kill a Silver-spotted Skipper.

Purple, Admiral and Question mark on fruit dish.
Monarch, Cloudless laying eggs. Gray hairstreak appeared to be egg laying on Sweetfern.

Cloudless Sulphurs were on the move through the yard despite NE winds. Red-banded H were dog-fighting over the sunlit oak treetops in the early evening.

Butterfly garden only, from 2:10-3:20pm
7 black swallowtail chrysalises. Spicebush swallowtails mating.

A couple of midday hours here in clouds, some sun and NE winds in the steady 20's from TS Kyle.

Obs. made from 3:20 to 4:35, part sun breezy and low 80's. Increased amounts of aphids but still no sign of Harvesters. Swallowtails were mostly in what remains of the butterfly garden. Joe-pye weed the main attraction in the garden. Also found a mated pair of Bee-killers.