Category Archives: Butterflies
Migration
As we slide down the slope behind the equinox, animals have accelerated their autumnal movements. My backyard now consistently hosts several migrant bird species each day. In the last week: rose-breasted grosbeaks, magnolia warblers, Tennessee warblers, American redstarts, gray catbirds, … Continue reading
Posted in Archosaurs, Butterflies, Travels
Tagged chimney swifts, fall migrants, gray catbirds, monarchs, nature, sewanee
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Guide to Sewanee’s butterflies now online
Eileen Schaeffer and Arden Jones’ guide to Sewanee’s butterflies is now available online (as a pdf at Issuu.com). Eileen and Arden are both rising seniors at Sewanee and have worked on this guide for the last two years, collating photographs, … Continue reading
Posted in Butterflies
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Results of the 15th Annual Sewanee butterfly count
Number of species detected: 24 (a little lower than most years) Number of individuals detected: 414 (way higher than most years) Average temp: also approx 414 We found almost no butterflies over the majority of the areas surveyed. It is … Continue reading
Posted in Butterflies
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Banded Hairstreak butterfly
This freshly emerged Banded Hairstreak (Satyrium calanus) was perched on a hackberry leaf outside my back door. Butterfly colors come from tiny scales that cover the wings. As these scales gradually wear away, so does the vibrancy of the insects’ … Continue reading
Posted in Butterflies
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Pipevines
This humble vine is at the center of a evolutionary tangle of butterflies: The vine makes poisonous defensive compounds which keep away most chewing insects. But pipevine swallowtails have evolved the ability to not only eat the pipevine, but to … Continue reading
Posted in Butterflies, Plants
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Annual butterfly count
Despite a wet start with few butterflies visible, the day dried out and warmed up and finally yielded thirty three species, one shy of our record from 2008. The best butterfly of the day was a goatweed leafwing, a very … Continue reading
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Northern Pearly-eye
I was lucky to get this photo. Pearly-eyes usually fly away when approached too closely. Note the black bases to the clubs at the end of the antennae — this distinguishes the Northern from the Southern pearly-eye. And the antennae … Continue reading
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