It was a perfect day for looking for butterflies in the highlands of Alleghany and Botetourt counties Virginia. Eight lepsters took Mike Smith up on his offer to look for one of the rarest skippers in the region, the Appalachian Grizzled Skipper. Once it was more comon in the high country of our region before persistent spraying for Mosquitos and Gypsy Moths over the last few decades has decimated the species. Dwarf cinqefoil is the host plant for tis species in our area. It is considered threatened and classified as endangered in Ohio and New Jersey.
With many educated eyes scanning the habitats 21 species were seen for the day including 20+ Elfins. Henry’s Elfin, Brown Elfin and Eastern Pine Elfin graced the binoculars. It’s always great to see these erratic flying “triangles”. I saw eleven first of year (FOY) species which included Silver-spotted Skipper, Pipevine Swallowtail and Juniper Hairstreak. It looks as though this was to be the last warm day for the next 10 days or more as the forecast is for temps to be around 60 with periods of rain. The counts shown below are my own. The aggregate group totals were more.
* = FOY ** = Lifer *Silver-spotted Skipper 1 *Dreamy Duskywing 2 Sleepy Duskywing 75+ Juvenal's Duskywing 24 **Appalachian Grizzled Skipper 8 *Pipevine Swallowtail 8 Zebra Swallowtail 10 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 12 *Spicebush Swallowtail 1 Falcate Orangetip 11 Cabbage White 2 *Clouded Sulphur 2 Orange Sulphur 1 *Juniper Hairstreak 2 *Brown Elfin 3 *Henry's Elfin 6 *Eastern Pine Elfin 7 *Eastern Tailed-Blue 20 Spring Azure (C. ladon) 7 Silvery Blue 11 Eastern Comma 1 Lady sp. 1
Click on any image below to enlarge
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