2014 Butterfly Count – July 10, 2014

It was perfect weather for a count – high of 80F, and mostly sunny.  We had four counters: Me (Marcie O’Connor), Mike Reese, Karen Oberhauser, and Emilie Snell-Rood.

We saw 38 species (one less than our record), and 1164 individuals.  Click here for the details.

Emilie and I both took photos.  Here are a few of the highlights.

We watched Mike (O’Connor) demonstrate a short flight with his drone.

Drone flying 1

 

Karen in her gnat net.  The problem was actually black flies – they are so bad this year that we all wore nets for protection.

karen

 

Marcie

marcie

 

View from the top of Indian Grass Point

Indian Grass Point

 

Prairie Coreopsis

prairie

 

Here are some of the butterflies – click on an image to see a larger version.

Clay-colored Sparrow singing

Clay-colored Sparrow

 

Unexpected Cycnia (Cycnia inopinatus) – an unusual moth caterpillar on Green Milkweed (Asclepias viridiflora)

cycnia on green milkweed

 

A pretty fly – I’ve submitted it to Bugguide to see if anyone can identify it.

fly

 

Some very large fungi

fungi 1

 

This moth pupa was hanging from what looks like caterpillar hairs.

pupa

I took the pupa home, and a few days later it hatched into a wasp in the subfamily Ophioninae.  Most of these wasps are internal parasites of caterpillars.

parasitoid

 

We put up the moth lights.

moth sheet

 

Here are a few of the moths we saw.  (Click on a photo to see a larger version.)