Mike Smith, Barry Marts and I had a great trip to the southeast coast of North Carolina over the weekend. We missed species like Yucca Giant-Skipper most likely because we arrived too late for their flight. The remnants of the Altantic Holly Azure flight was seen. The three indivduals we saw were very worn with much scale loss giving the ventral side a “brownish” look. However, we arrived on the cusp of newly emerging species like Little Metalmark and satyrs. We visited Holly Shelter Gameland, Fort Macon State Park and Croatan National Forest. Fort Macon SP harbors northern populations of Crystal Skipper (Note, as of 12-15 this species has now been described…). We hope to go back in August in quest of some of the grass skipper specialties. A total of 24 species was seen.
Species List * = lifer H = Holly Shelter F = Fort Macon SP C = Croatan National Forest Silver-spotted Skipper H Cloudless Sulphur H Northern Cloudywing F Juniper Hairstreak F *Southern Cloudywing H Red-banded Hairstreak H *Confused Cloudywing H,F *Atlantic Holly Azure C *Zarruco Duskywing (male) H *Little Metalmark H,C Common Checkered-Skipper F Red-spotted Purple C Dusted Skipper H,C Pearl Crescent H,C *Crystal Skipper F Red Admiral H,C *Reversed Roadside-Skipper H,C American Lady H Eastern Tiger Swallowtail C *Southern Pearly-Eye H,C Black Swallowtail H Little Wood-Satyr C Palamedes Swallowtail H,C Carolina Satyr H,C
Click on any image below to enlarge
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