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------------AUGUST, 2000-------------

June field trip a success

June 24 was a warm, sunny day - just perfect for butterflies! Eight interested butterfly watchers made up the group, including new member Chris Wells and three young friends. After a pleasant drive from Wichita to the Maxwell Game Refuge, we learned that the next trailer ride to visit the bison herd was departing in only a few minutes. We promptly got seats and rolled onto the reserve. All the new bison calves were a joy to watch. And - since we were there mainly to see butterflies - a few Regal Fritillaries obliged us and zipped by the trailer as we bumped down the lane!

After a picnic lunch, we drove to the adjacent McPherson County Lake for some up-close looks at the insects. We were disappointed to find only a couple of Regals, but a fresh Yucca Giant-Skipper made up for that! Several Coral Hairstreaks and a very cooperative Snout also helped spice up the viewing.

We saw twenty species:

• Black Swallowtail
• Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
• Clouded Sulphur
• Cloudless Sulphur
• Coral Hairstreak
• Reakirt’s Blue
• Eastern Tailed-Blue
• American Snout
• Variegated Fritillary
• Regal Fritillary
• Gorgone Checkerspot
• Pearl Crescent
• Mourning Cloak
• Painted Lady
• Red Admiral
• Common Buckeye
• Common Wood Nymph
• Monarch
• Common Checkered-Skipper
• Yucca Giant-Skipper

4th of July Count 2000

The year 2000 4^th of July butterfly count was held on Saturday, July 8. Five persons ventured out into the summer heat to see what Pawnee Prairie Park had to offer us this year. A relatively cool June may have kept the butterfly numbers down. We only saw 19 species and 124 individual insects, although we did see some species we have never recorded on the count before, namely a Queen, two Funeral Duskywings and a Peck’s Skipper. The Common Wood Nymphs came through once again as the most numerous species, although the Eastern Tailed-Blues were a close second.

Here is the list:

• Checkered White    1
• Cabbage White    2
• Clouded Sulphur    14
• Orange Sulphur    7
• Cloudless Sulphur    2
• Olive Hairstreak    1
• Reakirt’s Blue    5
• Eastern Tailed-Blue    30
• Gorgone Checkerspot    2
• American Lady    1
• Red Admiral    2
• Hackberry Emperor    5
• Common Wood Nymph    31
• Queen    1
• Silver-Spotted Skipper    6
• Funeral Duskywing    2
• Common Checkered-Skipper    10
• Peck’s Skipper    1
• Delaware Skipper    1

Cody Paintings Make a Splash

The display of Dr. John Cody’s paintings of Giant Silkmoths really brightened up the lobby of the Great Plains Nature Center this spring. Over a hundred persons visited the exhibit, despite the lack of publicity, and the response was uniformly positive.

If you missed the show you can still see three of the paintings on the web at: http://www.gpnc.org/johncody.htm

Several of the paintings are available as prints or posters in the nature center gift shop as well as note cards bearing eight different images.

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