Butterfly Forecast

For all you butterfly lovers here is the forecast for the first part of July. Happy butterfly hunting! http://www.ionxchange.com and http://www.thenaturalgait.com

Butterfly Forecast for Central Iowa
July 1-15
Once again, the unusual weather has been impacting the butterflies. There have not been as many butterflies in the natural areas as would be expected in more normal years but there have been good numbers of dragonflies and damselflies. The dragonflies and damselflies are feeding on their preferred food mosquitoes. The mosquitoes have been feeding on their preferred food me.
There is a great web site dedicated to the dragonflies and damselflies found in Iowa. It can be found at: http://www.iowaodes.com. Those of you who have not seen it should make a point of checking this one out. It has great photos and great graphics.
I went up to Hoffman Prairie near Clear Lake with Nathan Brockman of Reiman Gardens on Friday. This was the fourth year of my annual exercise in futility, a search for the Poweshiek skipper. It may still be found there but Friday was not a good day for seeing butterflies. The sky was overcast nothing really came out. We did see a few pearly crescents and a Delaware skipper, but most of the butterflies stayed hidden because of the weather.
Folks, I think the Poweshiek skipper is intertwined with the history of Iowa. It could be called the Iowa legacy butterfly. Not only was it discovered here in Iowa by a colorful Iowa character, the Rev. Henry W.
Parker, but it was named for a place‹Poweshiek County in Iowa. Poweshiek County was in turn named for a man who played a very significant role in Iowa¹s history, Chief Poweshiek. It is a prairie obligate butterfly, tied very closely to the habitat that once covered Iowa and that we have mostly destroyed. We have in fact almost extirpated the butterfly from the state.
We do not currently recognize the value of this small butterfly, but I dream of the day when you will find signs going into Grinnell, Iowa that say ³home of the Poweshiek skipper².
Back to the forecast: Although the wet weather does reduce numbers, we will continue to see more butterflies, both in diversity and total numbers than we have so far in the summer. Summer azures have been fairly common in certain areas. You will see them flying high in the trees. Eastern tailed blue butterflies have already been present in the early spring but the second generation will show up in much more significant numbers starting about the first of July, and will become one of the most numerous butterflies by the end of summer.
The list of butterflies you can see in this timeframe is quite long. The most common ones include black and eastern tiger swallowtails, cabbage whites, clouded and orange sulfurs, gray hairstreaks, eastern tailed blues, red spotted purples, hackberry emperors, painted ladies, monarchs, and viceroys. Of course, there are also a number of skipper butterflies seen now, like the silver spotted skipper, least skipper, Delaware, tawny-edged skipper, dun skipper, and others.
If you get to a prairie or savannah look for regal fritillaries. If you have not seen them before you might be surprised at how much they look and act like monarchs from a distance. Check the thistle, milkweed, and wild bergamont flowers that are frequented by monarchs and if the prairie has regals you will find them there. Also check for butterfly milkweeds in bloom--they will almost certainly contain several hairstreaks.
You may start seeing numbers of the butterflies that do not over-winter in Iowa. Those include the checkered white, little yellow, cloudless sulfur, dainty sulfur, and American snout butterfly. Of course, the monarch and painted lady butterflies are in this list as well although they are already found in some numbers.
If you are looking for the rare, try the TNC-owned Medora prairie near New Virginia. There are regal fritillaries there, and also a good population of byssus skippers that should be showing up about now. It is also a great spot for silvery checkerspots, American ladies, gray coppers, and common wood nymphs.

Take plenty of water, and enjoy yourself.

Harlan Ratcliff
bugs@crosspaths.net

References:
Schlicht, Dennis, John C. Downey, and Jeffrey C. Nekola. 2007. The Butterflies of Iowa. The University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, IA.
Scott, James A. 1986. The Butterflies of North America. A Natural History and Field Guide. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA.
IA-BTRFLY: The Iowa Butterfly and Dragonfly list serve.
www.wisconsinbutterflies.org sightings page.
www.NABA.org sightings page.
Ratcliff, Harlan: 2003-2007 Unpublished butterfly survey results.