butterflies
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Nymphs, Satyrs, Buckeyes, Monarchs
Common Wood-nymph (Cercyonis pegala). Little Wood-satyr (Megisto cymela).(One of the eyespot patterns is torn.)Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia).Monarch (Danaus plexippus). All spotted earlier this month at Mount Loretto State Unique Area. The Little Wood-satyrs are early summer fliers, which probably explains why I’m not too familiar with them. It’s hot out there in the meadows of…
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Papilio glaucus
Enjoy these images of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail — which spent a good deal of time drinking (?) out of the surprisingly fecund cracks between the bricks in Prospect Park — as I slip out this morning from behind the Backyard and Beyond desk to get married.“Arrival is the culmination of the sequence of events,…
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Butterflies So Far
Duskywing. Horace’s, I think. Erynnis horatius. Spotted in Doodletown.American Lady, Vanessa virginiensis, NYBG. Have also seen: Mourning Cloak (harbinger of the thaw); lots of Cabbage Whites; and, just Friday, my first Tiger Swallowtail of the year. * In the President’s commission to investigate nonexistent voter fraud, packed with professional vote suppressors, the essentially strategy of…
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Still Skipping
What a late, endless fall. This picture of a skipper was from last Friday, and there was at least one other of these quirky butterflies still working these amazingly productive ground-hugging buddleia. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m going full Thoreau in these posts. The inspiration for this blog was both a naturalist and a…
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Variegated
A Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) yesterday in the Buddleia pollinator-magnet at Green-Wood. First time I’ve seen this species here in NYC, although I’d seen one before in Arizona. They’re a southern species, uncommon here, but have been known to get up to Canada.
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Monarch, Comma
Spotted two Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) in Green-Wood today.Like perfect little kites of joy.Also saw some Cabbage Whites, Orange Sulphurs, and several skippers. Pretty good for a day with temps in the high 40s at sunrise. There was also this Comma (Polygonia comma).Soaking up the sun.
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Caterpillarpoop
This is that lone Monarch caterpillar I saw a few weeks ago. I saw it again the next day, along with this little green pellet. Some quick research revealed that it was exactly what you’d think it was. Something of what goes in must, after all, come out.
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Ocola Skipper
Note the long forewings here, which certainly makes it stick out of the common storm of skippers. This is an Ocola Skipper (Panoquina ocola), a butterfly of the southeast (and down to Paraguay) that occasionally gets as far north as Canada. It’s a “regular stray” up here according to the Kaufman guide. This is a…
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Lepidoptera Lowdown
A veritable blizzard of Lepidoptera over a patch of ground-loving Buddleja last week. Lots of skippers skipping. This is a male Sachem (Atalopedes campestris), I think. Several sulphurs ever so briefly alighting. This is purported to be a Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice)… probably: Orange and Clouded can mix it up genetically, so these are hard to…
Backyard and Beyond 