RED ADMIRALS EN MASSE, ET AL!
Leaping Lepidoptera! Friday, May 11th, was a banner day for
butterflies in our yard in Wichita. Literally scores of Red Admirals, Painted Ladies,
American Painted Ladies, and Question Marks were clambering all over our Valerian, Sage,
Phlomis, and other flowers. At times they were even crawling over one another to get to
the flowers. Along with them was a pretty moth that I first mistook for a skipper - there
were dozens of these about nectaring as well. Turned out they were "Bilobed
Loopers", which are noctuid moths. This moth is covered in the "Insects in
Kansas" book (p. 341). We don't frequently see large numbers of day-flying moths at
flowers (except for sphinx moths). - Roy Beckemeyer
[Ed. Note: I was driving around town on that day
and noticed a gazillion Red Admirals. That species seems to be having a banner year! Ditto
for those Bilobed Looper moths. Roy also submitted the following note on May 21. - Jim]
| I encountered a real get-together of Red Admirals when I went to Cheney to collect dragonflies. The picture shows the convention that was taking place on my car. Every time I tried to get close enough for a good picture they would scatter, but there were upwards of a hundred or more on the car when they were all settled. I guess they liked the warm metal - although the fact that it is red might have held some attraction as well. |
|
NEW REGAL FRITILLARY RESEARCH
A group of entomologists from Kansas State University have just
published the results of their study of the reproductive biology of the Regal Fritillary
in the Kansas tallgrass prairie. The paper may be downloaded in Adobe pdf format by
linking to the web site of the Entomological Society of America at:
http://esa.edoc.com/annals/v94n3/v94n3p427.pdf
The study basically found that females mate soon after their emergence
in mid to late June. They mate just once, then go into a reproductive diapause - i.e. they
are no longer receptive to mating, and they do not immediately lay their eggs. The eggs
then mature and are laid in late August to early September. This is seen as an adaptation
to the availability of their larval host plants (violets), which are seasonally
restricted.
The paper is titled "Evidence for reproductive diapause in the
Fritillary Speyeria idalia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)" by B.J. Kopper, S. Shu, R.E.
Charlton, and S.B. Ramaswamy, Annals, Ento. Soc. America, 94(3): 427-432. - Roy Beckemeyer
PRODUCT REVIEW: CDROM - BUTTERFLIES OF NICARAGUA
"Mariposas de Nicaragua" - a new CD about the butterflies of Nicaragua -
byJean-Michael Maes and Ronald Brabent.
- Reviewed by Roy Beckemeyer
Jean-Michael Maes of the Museo Entomologica
in Leon, Nicaragua, has become quite active in attempting to document the insect fauna of
this little-studied country, and the CD-ROM discussed here is one example of his efforts.
The CD covers Papilionidae (Swallowtails), Pieridae (Sulfurs), and Nymphalidae
(Brushfoots). I suspect that there will eventually be one on the Riodinidae (Metalmarks)
and Lycaenidae (Blues, etc.) as well.
The CD is in Spanish, so the general information will be available only
if you can read Spanish, although with a Spanish-English dictionary, you should be able to
understand what is covered. A work such as this shows one how advantageous it is to work
with Latin binomials, as the taxonomic names are quite recognizable.
The CD is set up to work like a web site. The Home Page has links to an
Information Page (Informaciones), an Acknowledgements Page (Agradacimientos), and Pages on
each family covered. Clicking on Nymphalidae, for example, yields a page listing 13
subfamilies of Nymphalids. Clicking on one subfamily, eg Morphinae, takes one down the
page to a table listing the Genera of Morphos. Clicking on a genus, eg Morpho, takes us to
a new page that lists species of Morpho, each a hot link to a species page.
The species page will generally include: a list of names under which
the species has been described in the scientific literature, including citations to the
articles; a brief discussion of distribution, generally a list of countries; a list of
host plants and a list of nectar plants, if these are known; a list of material examined
by the authors of the CD (ie specimens reviewed); a set of pictures of dorsal and ventral
views of museum specimens; and a list of references.
Although the use of specimen rather than live insect pictures does not
make for as attractive a publication for the non-scientific user, I would expect anyone
interested in Central American Lepidoptera to find this CD useful. The many butterflies
pictured are often very colorful, and a new student of tropical butterflies would be
entranced, I am sure.
There are few guide books to neotropical butterflies, especially those
of Central America - Philip DeVries' two volume "Butterflies of Costa Rica"
being an exception. This CD fills a void, and is quite reasonably priced when compared
with the cost of books having four-color plates in them. Purchase of the CD would also
help to encourage and continue the study of the insect fauna of Nicaragua.
The CD can be obtained by sending $30.00 US to:
Jean-Michael Maes
Museo Entomologica
AP 527, Leon, Nicaragua
MAY BUTTERFLY WALK
Roy, Pat and Cheryl came by to participate in our May 26 Butterfly Walk at Chisholm Creek Park. Several families from the general public were there as well. Our butterfly list included:
Checkered White
Clouded Sulphur
Spring Azure
Variegated Fritillary
Silvery Checkerspot
Question Mark
Mourning Cloak
American Lady
Painted Lady
Red Admiral
Hackberry Emperor
Monarch
Sachem
The Red Admirals were not nearly as common
as in the two weeks previous, but given the huge first generation this year, we should see
an abundance of them again in early summer. The Hackberry Emperors were few in number, but
fresh looking. Speaking of fresh, the Mourning Cloak we observed was brand new and gave us
a long look as it imbibed tree sap from a dying elm next to one of the boardwalk bridges.
White-lined Sphinx moths were seen, and a few Bilobed Loopers were
still around. Carpenter Bees were commonly seen nectaring on the Rough-leaf Dogwood, which
was in full bloom at the time and the chief attraction for all the nectar-loving insects
in the area.
Also, Roy listed these odonates:
Common Green Darner
Stripe-winged Baskettail
Eastern Pondhawk
Common Whitetail
Twelve-spotted Skimmer
Variegated Meadowhawk
Black-mantled Glider
Blue-fronted Dancer
Fragile Forktail
Eastern Forktail
LEPSOC DATABASE ON THE WEB
The Lepidopterists' Society has a database
on butterfly and moth sightings that its members have reported. The "Season's
Summary" can be accessed at:
http://ag.arizona.edu/lepsoc/
You may query the database by country (USA, Mexico, Canada), by
state or province, by county, and by taxon. It gives all the reported sightings back to
you in a table showing when, where, what, and by whom. - Roy Beckemeyer