The last three days have been outstanding for butterflies. Variety is starting to pick up, especially with the grass skippers. Three locations were visited from Friday 5-22 through Sunday 5-24. Bolstered by Rick Borchelt’s fantastic find of Pepper and Salt Skipper in Gambrill SP I took some time off on Friday afternoon to see if I could relocated any. After about an hour search I finally found a worn individual. Another bonus was seeing several huge Tiger Swallowtails flying overhead. One finally sat down to nectar and photos were taken. They looked just like the Papilio appalachiensis I’ve seen over the last few years in the high elevations of West Virginia (Spruce Knob). Next, in the Sand Flats area of the Frederick City Watershed Barry Marts and I ran into Harry Pavalaan and talked azures and Tiger Swallowtails. It was wonderful to meet one of the leading experts on the azure complex. His and Dr. David Wright’s azure publications (C. Idella – Holly Azure, C. serotina – Cherry Gall Azure) have help me out immensely along with personal email communications. He was also looking for Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail The topic of Tiger Swallowtail hybrids came up so I forwarded the photos I took for his opinion and he confirmed it as an “Appy”. Here is a snippit of his response along with other experiences he’s had at G.F Thompson (Fauquier county – Blue Mountain, VA).
“I think it might be safe to say there may be a considerable number of pure appalachiensis up on the Catoctin Ridge (Gambrill State Park). After all, how would there be any hybrids without BOTH parent species, right? Appalachiensis and glaucus have not yet gone beyond the hybrid swarm stage (probably for thousands of years), where all “hybrids” are true hybrids and cannot reproduce by breeding with other hybrids. My breeding experiment with hybridization, though producing a small number of offspring, did demonstrate that only males are produced, and the female adult cannot form in the chrysalis. Even if rare hybrid females were produced, as evidenced by some very glaucus-like female specimens I’ve obtained from what appeared to be pure appalachiensis, these hybrids should not be able to produce viable eggs. Species barrier. I think what is happening now with glaucus and appalachiensis is that there is much hybridization going on at low elevation sites. Some hybrid offspring will look like pure glaucus, some like pure appalachiensis, most in-between. My philosophy is that if it looks like Appy, it is Appy, even if derived from a hybrid parent female. This would be acceptable because there really is no way to tell if a specimen is pure Appy or an Appy-like hybrid, unless you did DNA analysis – which would be really neat. In this light, I’d say you have Appy. Like at George Thompson WMA, Appy may occupy the top of the ridge, and the hybrids on the lower slopes.”
In the bird watching arena birders have the same reporting / decision making to make with Black-capped Chickadee / Carolina Chickadee. East and west of the Appalachian spine where “pure” Black-capped Chickadees breed in WV / VA there is a “hybrid zone” and genes of each species have been found going east and west of the mountains. As you get further form the mountains there is less Black-capped Chickadee traits until you get to ‘pure” Carolina Chickadee. For those folks living in or near those zones a lot of the oberserved birds look and sound like a Black-capped. There is probably some mix of both species in these areas with predominate Black-capped genes. They get reported as such and are accepted as such. If it walks like a duck and acts like a duck….well you know the rest.
On Saturday Green Ridge State Forest was on the menu. The highlights for the day were FOY Hoary Edge, FOY Common Roadside-Skipper a probable Pepper and Salt Skipper (I didn’t get the best look and then it flew never to be re-found).
On Sunday Barry Marts, Mike Smith and I went to Blackwater Falls SP and Canaan Valley NWR in West Virginia. Double digit Northern Azures (C. lucia) were on the wing in various stages of wear. We were also looking for Cherry Gall Azure (C. serotina) which start their fly a bit later than lucia but came up empty. Highlights there included Pepper and Salt Skippers , FOY Meadow Fritillary and FOY Common Ringlets. The aggregate totals of all trips are below:
5-22 Gambrill SP and Frederick City Watershed, MD 4 Dreamy Duskywing 8 Junvenal's Duskywing 1 Indian Skipper 3 Hobomok Skipper 1 Pepper and Salt Skipper 4 Pipevine Swallowtail 1 Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail (and other fly over candidates) 8 Brown Elfin 5 Appalachian Azure 1 Red-spotted Purple 5 Pearl Crescent 1 American Lady 9 Little Wood-Satyr 5-23 Green Ridge State Forest, MD 3 Silver-spotted Skipper 1 Hoary Edge 12 Northern Cloudywing 15 Dreamy Duskywing 17 Juvenal's Duskywing 2 Wild Indigo Duskywing 3 Indian Skipper 7 Hobomok Skipper 2 Common Roadside-Skipper 2 Zebra Swallowtail 4 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 2 Eatern Tailed-Blue 1 Red-spotted Purple 7 Pearl Crescent 1 Red Admiral 1 American Lady 22 Little Wood-Satyr 5-24 Blackwater Falls SP / Canaan Valley, WV 2 Juvenal's Duskywing 1 Indian Skipper 3 Hobomok Skipper 4 Pepper and Salt Skipper 2 Black Swallowtail 4 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 4 Orange Sulphur 1 Eastern Pine Elfin 5 Eastern Tailed-Blue 12 Northern Azure 10 Meadow Fritillary 30 Pearl Crescent 1 Red Admiral 2 American Lady 7 Common Ringlet
Click on any image below to enlarge
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