Recently, as part of my quest to identify as many of the winged visitors to our spaces as I could, I visited the website for
Butterflies and Moths of North America "collecting and sharing data about Lepidoptera".
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| Sachem skipper/Atalopedes campestris |
Aside from the many beautiful images provided as an aid to identification, they also provide a search engine that can be refined down to the county you live in. Once the proper selections are entered, you are provided with what I have come to regard as "My List of The Usual Suspects".
The website's (slightly) more scientific approach characterizes it thusly: "The BAMONA database currently includes verified sighting records for 173 butterfly species from this region."
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| Common Checkered Skipper/Pyrgus communis |
Take a moment to think about that. One hundred and seventy three species. Just for Travis County. And that is "only" the butterflies. Once I saw the length of that list I didn't have the heart to determine how many moths are on record.
One hundred, seventy-three. Reader, that's a whole lot of butterflies.
Not that it works this way, but if I did manage to spot a different species and correctly identify one every single day? If I started the day I am writing this post (Saturday May 3rd), I wouldn't hit the end of the list until Wednesday, October 22nd.
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| Clouded Sulphur/Colias philodice |
Naturally once I printed out the list (three and one half pages, single spaced) I began to put a mark by the butterflies I'd sighted and made a reasonable identification for. I'd been paying more attention this year than usual and had developed this vague notion, pre-list-printing, that I'd seen most of what Travis County had to offer, butterfly wise.
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Juniper Hairstreak/Callophrys gryneus. Host plant is Juniperus ashei aka Texas Cedar trees.
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Clearly, I'm not even close. My current tally? A paltry eighteen twenty species.
Twenty. Twenty out of one hundred seventy three.
Ignoring for the moment the daunting prospect of a solid one hundred fifty species yet to see, photograph and identify, having the list on hand is a boon. As a starting point, it highlights the vast numbers of local flyers we support when we utilize native plants.
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| Gulf Fritillary Agraulis vanillae (Linnaeus) on Maypop vine. |
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| Ovipositing |
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| Eggs on Maypop leaf. |
Some of our native butterflies only visit one particular plant while others are more catholic in their tastes. Regardless, they have all evolved to co-exist with native plants species. It stands to reason the more of those we have growing in our spaces, the easier it is for them to not only survive but flourish in numbers. And who doesn't want that!
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| Hackberry Emperor/Asterocampa celtis. The host plant for this one is...you guessed it! Hackberry trees. |
Beyond that, when it comes to identification, it has been incredibly helpful to narrow a search down to species that are already known to frequent our area. There are more "brown with orange and white spots" butterflies than you'd guess flying around out there if you are including every single species in the world.
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| Common Buckeye/Junonia coenia |
The ability to rule out species that don't live (or migrate through) Travis County saves an awful lot of time. It certainly helps to limit my choices when the images I'm using for comparison only don't exactly match up spot for spot with some specimen I've blurrily captured with my camera.
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| This teeny tiny specimen is resting in the pomegranate. Honestly, I have no idea what this is - not even sure if it is a butterfly or a moth! |
Twenty species identified and counting... This could easily become a life long pursuit. But that's OK - as long term projects go this one's a winner. I'm already totally smitten with the subject matter.
