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BUTTERFLIES AT QUIVIRA NWR
Roy and Pat Beckemeyer were at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge on the 19th of October. They went mostly to check out the birds, but it turned out to be a great butterfly day - better butterflying than birding!
They saw all of these but the Question Mark while walking along
the roadside at the Big Salt Marsh. The butterflies were working the tiny asters lining
the road, and were struggling to stay in one place as the wind was blowing hard from the
south.
Butterflies seen on 19 October at QNWR:
Alfalfa
Dainty Sulphur
Little Yellow
Cloudless Sulphur
Bronze Copper
Gray Hairstreak
Western Pygmy Blue
Regal Fritillary
Reakirt's Blue
Gorgone Checkerspot
Pearl Crescent
Question Mark
Painted Lady
Buckeye
Monarch
Checkered Skipper
Sachem Skipper
An unidentified grayish skipper
Another unidentified dark skipper with a whitish streak on the front wing.
Nineteen different species in one day, and almost all in one location, made for pretty
good butterflying! They also saw Variegated Meadowhawk and Common Green Darner
dragonflies.
NEW "INSECTS IN KANSAS" BOOK - Reviewed by Jim Mason
The long-awaited 3rd edition of "Insects in Kansas" is finally out. Co-authored by Stephen White and Glen Salsbury of the Kansas Department of Agriculture, it fills a large void in regional natural history reference materials.
Insects In Kansas (IIK) was first published in 1943. A revised edition came out in 1962 and has long been out of print. Those few of us able to find either one in a used book store or garage sale have seldom been disappointed with it when looking up some odd little varmint we happen to come across. Despite the daunting task of trying to present a comprehensive sample of the 15,000+ insects estimated to occur in the state, the authors managed to do just that.
The first two editions had to make do with line drawings, black-and-white photos and only 5 color plates. The 3rd edition is in full color and most of the ~850 species shown are illustrated with a color photograph of a live or pinned specimen.
The new IIK covers 25 orders (and most if not all of the North American families within the orders) plus chapters on galls, eggs, immature stages and non-insects such as mites and ticks, spiders, harvestmen, scorpions, centipedes, pseudoscorpions, windscorpions, millipedes and isopods (roly-polys).
The pages covering each order have different colored edges, making it easier to find what you are after. It has a wire binding so it will open flat at any point.
It also has a 36 page introductory section on insect diversity, nomenclature, seasonality, metamorphosis, morphology, economic importance, beekeeping and collecting.
It has no keys, and I guess that may be considered a drawback. They could have put in a key to the major orders at least. That would not take up too much space and be helpful to get the reader into the right chapter anyway.
IIK is a wonderful resource for everyone from 4-H entomology kids to professionals. I wish I had written the darn thing myself!
IIK may be purchased at your local extension office or at the Owl's Nest gift shop in the Great Plains Nature Center.
KANSAS' WINTER BUTTERFLIES
"Not possible!" you say. Ah, but it is true! There are butterflies here in the cold months, and while they may not be out flaunting themselves for our enjoyment we should be aware of the presence nonetheless.
Of course, many species are hibernating in the larval or pupal stage. This is the most common method insects use to cope with winter. The ability of these little smidgens of life to endure until spring is amazing. They may not even be in an insulated situation. Viceroy caterpillars wrap themselves in a dead leaf attached to a twig. Swallowtail chrysalises may just be hanging off the side of a weed stem somewhere. Many species will be snuggled down in the grass stems of leaf litter or perhaps behind some loose tree bark but that's still no way I would want to spend the winter in Kansas!
Remarkably, there are a few species that overwinter as an adult. The Goatweed, Comma, Question Mark, Mourning Cloak and Red Admiral may do so. A mild, sunny day in January might offer a chance to see one of these in flight. On a walk along a path through a wooded area you might even have a pugnacious male dart out and box your ears!
Many species cannot tolerate our winters in any stage of their life and re-colonize Kansas from the south in springtime. The Cloudless Sulphur is one of these. The number of them we see each year is directly related to conditions further south during our winter. An ample supply of larval food plants and a lack of extreme weather in southern Texas will result in a larger crowd for the northern migration.
All this may be small comfort for those of us missing the elusive flashes of color in the yard that butterflies provide. But the season will turn again in a couple of months and even if we don't get to have a balmy day in February to go look for them, we can rest assured they are doing their level best to rejoin us come spring.
(Sorry, but things have been a little hectic since the nature center's Grand Opening, so I haven't got out any Snouts since August. To fill space, I decided to recycle this article from the January 1995 issue. I hope it warms you up a little in this particularly cold winter!)