Earthyman Responds to a Customers Question on Advice on Planting Butterfly Milkweed : Asclepias Tuberosa Seeds

Question:  Hi.  I recently received 6 packets from you of Butterfly milkweed.  Could you provide some advice on planting?  I have a small flower garden ( full sun,) as well as 15 acres of various prairie plants and grasses. Began as all  switchgrass but I am slowly planting more and more grasses and forbs. Thanks.  Stan

Response:  Stan, you may start the seeds indoors after you have moist stratified them.  Place the seeds in a zip lock back mixed with moist vermiculite.  Leave them in a refrigerator for 30 days.  Remove and plant in open flats or small pots with sterile soil medium at a depth of 1/8th to 1/4th inch.  They must receive considerable light and warmth to adequately develop.  Once they have started to form the white root, they can be transplanted to your garden or field.  Keep the competition down from weeds and other plants.  They prefer well drained to excessively drained soils in full sun.  They do well in rocky poor soils with maximum exposure to the sun and wind.  If you want to do a dormant seeding, you may spread the seed now or anytime the ground is exposed.  Make sure your seeds are not on frozen ground as they may wash away.  Wait until the ground thaws and spread your seed but only lightly cover with a sprinkling of soil or compost no deeper than 1/8 to 1/4 inch. Nature can then freeze and thaw offering the best stratification.  Once plants are mature, you must be very careful when you attempt to transplant as the roots are very massive and at least 90% of the roots should be dug with plant and immediately transplanted.  You should start seeing blooms the second year and thereafter the plants will grow much stronger and have many blooms in the following years.  If your plants, for some reason die or disappear the following year after planting, they are probably in a poorly adaptable site for this species.

Thanks,

Howard aka "Earthyman"

"Helping You Create Your Own Natural Beauty"

Howard Bright
800-291-2143
1878 Old Mission Drive
Harpers Ferry, IA 52146

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[IOWA-INSECTS] Monarch butterfly research story-Where Are They?

Here in SE MN I noticed the same lack of Monarchs in mid-summer.  We also had robust milkweeds with very few larvae.  I heard from (entomologically oriented) folks in NE MN that in June they saw far more Monarchs than usual, but with their relatively low population of milkweeds the Monarch seemed to overload the larval food plant.  Then in August the flight of Monarchs here in SE MN was the lowest I have every seen.

Joel Dunnette

On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 8:21 PM, Bruce And Georgeann wrote:
I have been following this topic and want to ask about another angle of the past summer's Monarch slump -at least it was in Nw Iowa.

The Monarch Butterflies, were a real concern here this year.  We had quite good numbers showing up in early spring - in fact the dates were record early arrivals for us.  And I witnessed egg laying in the pasture...even photographed eggs as they were so obvious.  But the thing that really puzzled and concerned me was we had no egg hatches and no caterpillars all summer!  I have never, in my life, "Not" seen a Caterpillar all spring, summer or fall!!!???!!!  Why after finding eggs, I could later not find larva?

Then the summer was "scant" as far as Monarchs were concerned.  Nearly none, just a handful all summer.  This should not have been the case here, we had the largest crop of Asclepias (milkweeds) that I've ever seen here...we had A. tuberosa(Butterfly Milkweed) in record numbers...they were stunning all over the county...even the area farmers were asking me what that "orange plant" is showing up everywhere!  We had way more A. syriaca (Common Milkweed) than I care to see here  - the neighborhood is coated with seed parachutes from our pasture...not a real "good neighbor" relations maker with the local farmers.  We also had a good share (but down slightly from past years) of A. verticillata (Whorled Milkweed) and a small compliment of A. incarnata (Swamp Milkweed) in the ditches out front.

I witnessed a lone Monarch laying eggs on some Common Milkweed outside the studio windows in late August and tried keeping an eye on them - they were gone after just 3 days!?  I don't know of "egg" eaters in the insect world but maybe something is going on?  I know of parasitic wasps in caterpillars - but saw NO CATERPILLARS all summer (as I said before).  I haven't the foggiest idea what is going on?

This fall we had virtually no Monarch roosts here - we usually have 150-500 individuals roost here each fall.  13 was our high number in a roost this fall..."6" was the other high day..."high" used very sarcastically...

Some folks following this have raised issue with the drought hurting the mid section of the continent's Monarch survival...I'm sure that has some bearing.  They also have raised issue with GMO crops.  But it does nothing to explain a local phenomenon like we've been experiencing here...eggs laid but no hatching, no larva...with an abundance of food source for larva and adult stages.  We do not spray insecticides here on the acreage, but I have no knowledge of GMO crops or spraying issues in the surrounding area, so I can't speak to that.

Am I imagining things or is there anyone else raising these kinds of observations or concerns? ...Bruce Morrison, SE O'Brien County

The Birth of a Butterfly You Tube Video by jamesmenful

This is not intended for infringement, sound track used and copyright still belongs to the owner.
Background music by longzijun

The Birth of a Butterfly You Tube Video

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Chip in for Monarch Watch! A Fundraising Campaign In Chip’s Honor

“Chip in for Monarch Watch” Fundraising Campaign
—————————————————————-
The 2012 “Chip in for Monarch Watch” Fundraising Campaign is now underway!
Please help us spread the word about this annual campaign which brings in
funds to keep Monarch Watch’s education, conservation and research programs
going…and growing!

If you are in a position to offer financial support to Monarch Watch (or if
you know someone who might be), please consider making a fully
tax-deductible donation of any amount during our 2012 “Chip in for Monarch
Watch” fundraising campaign.

Visit http://monarchwatch.org/chip/ for more information or to submit your
pledge and tax-deductible donation. Be sure to check out the comments and
photos submitted by other donors – we are continually amazed by the
connections that are made through monarchs and Monarch Watch.

Last year’s campaign was a huge success, raising more than $31,000 – think
we can top that this year? 

Thank you for your continued support!

Chip in for Monarch Watch:http://monarchwatch.org/chip/

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In Midwest, Butterflies May Be Far Fewer.

Rich Beauchesne/Portsmouth Herald, via Associated Press

HABITAT The use of a herbicide has taken away a home for monarchs.
By ANDREW POLLACK  Published: July 11, 2011

As recently as a decade ago, farms in the Midwest were commonly marred — at least as a farmer would view it — by unruly patches of milkweed amid the neat rows of emerging corn or soybeans.

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Janet Jarman for The New York Times

WINTER HABITAT Pupils from Angangueo, a mountain town in Michoacan state in Mexico, during a celebration of migration of the monarch butterfly.

Not anymore. Fields are now planted with genetically modified corn and soybeans resistant to the herbicide Roundup, allowing farmers to spray the chemical to eradicate weeds, including milkweed.
And while that sounds like good news for the farmers, a growing number of scientists fear it is imperiling the monarch butterfly, whose spectacular migrations make it one of the most beloved of insects — “the Bambi of the insect world,” as an entomologist once put it.
Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed, and their larvae eat it. While the evidence is still preliminary and disputed, experts like Chip Taylor say the growing use of genetically modified crops is threatening the orange-and-black butterfly by depriving it of habitat.
“This milkweed has disappeared from at least 100 million acres of these row crops,” said Dr. Taylor, an insect ecologist at the University of Kansas and director of the research and conservation program Monarch Watch. “Your milkweed is virtually gone.”
The primary evidence that monarch populations are in decline comes from a new study showing a drop over the last 17 years of the area occupied by monarchs in central Mexico, where many of them spend the winter. The amount of land occupied by the monarchs is thought to be a proxy for their population size.
“This is the first time we have the data that we can analyze statistically that shows there’s a downward trend,” said Ernest H. Williams, a professor of biology at Hamilton College and an author of the study along with Dr. Taylor and others.
The paper, published online by the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity, attributes the decrease partly to the loss of milkweed from use of “Roundup Ready” crops. Other causes, it says, are the loss of milkweed to land development, illegal logging at the wintering sites in Mexico, and severe weather.
The study does not suggest the monarch will become extinct. But it questions whether the annual migration, the impetus for butterfly festivals around the United States and waves of tourism to Mexico, is sustainable.
Still, the paper does not present any data backing its contention that genetically engineered crops are reducing monarch populations. Some experts dispute that the monarch populations are declining at all, and say it is unclear whether the biotech crops are having an effect.
Andrew K. Davis, an assistant research scientist at the University of Georgia, said censuses of adult monarchs taken each fall at Cape May, N.J., and Peninsula Point, Mich., did not show any decline.
It could be that “even though the overwintering population is getting smaller and smaller, once they come northward in the spring they are able to recoup the numbers,” Dr. Davis said. His paper disputing that there has been a decline in the monarch population was published online by the same journal.
Leslie Ries, a research professor at the University of Maryland, said other butterfly counts she had examined also did not show a decline, but rather year-to-year fluctuations. Since milkweed populations are not likely to fluctuate as much, the milkweed is probably not the major determinant of butterfly populations, she said.
But two other researchers, Karen Oberhauser of the University of Minnesota and John M. Pleasants of Iowa State, cite other evidence for a decline: the number of monarch eggs in the fields of the Midwest.
“Monarch production has decreased significantly” Dr. Pleasants said. “The reduction is caused by loss of milkweed resources available to them.”
The two scientists have submitted a paper to a scientific journal and said they did not want to discuss their data before publication.
Roundup Ready crops contain a bacterial gene that allows them to withstand Roundup or its generic equivalent, glyphosate, allowing farmers to kill the weeds without harming the crop.
Because they make weed control much easier, the crops have been widely adopted by farmers. This year, 94 percent of the soybeans and 72 percent of the corn being grown in the United States are herbicide-tolerant, according to the Department of Agriculture.
That in turn had led to an explosion in the use of glyphosate, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. About five times as much of the weed killer was used on farmland in 2007 as in 1997, a year after the Roundup Ready crops were introduced, and roughly 10 times as much as in 1993.
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“It kills everything,” said Lincoln P. Brower, an entomologist at Sweet Briar College who is also an author of the paper documenting the decline of monarch winter populations in Mexico. “It’s like absolute Armageddon for biodiversity over a huge area.”
The amount of milkweed on farms in Iowa declined 90 percent from 1999 to 2009, according to Robert G. Hartzler, an agronomist at Iowa State. His study, published last year in the journal Crop Protection, found milkweed on only 8 percent of the corn and soybean fields surveyed in 2009, down from 51 percent in 1999.
Because of weed-control efforts, even before the advent of Roundup Ready crops, any one farm is not likely to harbor that much milkweed.
But the sheer amount of farmland in the Corn Belt has meant that farms, in aggregate, have accounted for a vast majority of monarch births, according to another study published by Dr. Oberhauser and colleagues in 2001. That study estimated that in Iowa, farms produced 78 times the number of monarchs as nonagricultural sites, and in Wisconsin and Minnesota, 73 times as much.
And while monarchs come from other parts of the country as well, the Midwest is widely believed to be where most of them are hatched.
Still, even Dr. Hartzler said in his paper that it was difficult to assess what impact the decline of Iowa milkweed was having on monarch populations.
A spokesman for Monsanto, the inventor of the Roundup Ready crops and the manufacturer of Roundup, agreed, saying “knowledge is still evolving about whether and how agriculture in Iowa affects monarch population biology.” And what is true of Iowa, he said, might not apply to other regions.
This is not the first time genetically modified crops have been thought to threaten the monarch.
In 1999, researchers at Cornell reported that monarch caterpillars could be killed if they ate milkweed onto which the researchers had dusted pollen from another type of engineered crop known as BT corn. That corn has a bacterial gene allowing it to produce a toxin that kills certain pests.
But subsequent research, financed in part by the biotechnology industry, found that caterpillars were not likely to be exposed to lethal amounts of BT corn pollen under actual field conditions. That concern has died down.
Scientists say it is not surprising that suppressing weeds would have an effect on insects, and probably not just the monarch.
The National Academy of Sciences discussed this in a 2007 report on bees and other animals that pollinate crops. The report cited a British study that found fewer butterflies in fields growing genetically engineered beets and canola than in fields growing nonengineered crops.
That raises the somewhat radical notion that perhaps weeds on farms should be protected. “There’s a change in agricultural thinking, because the weed-free field was the gold standard,” said May Berenbaum, head of entomology at the University of Illinois.
Still, she and other insect experts say it is unrealistic to expect farmers to give up the herbicide-tolerant crops — so efforts should be made to preserve or grow milkweed elsewhere, perhaps on farmland set aside for conservation. Monarch Watch is encouraging gardeners to grow milkweed.
Dr. Taylor of Monarch Watch offered a modest, possibly ironic proposal for biotechnology companies. “I would implore them to develop a Roundup-resistant milkweed,” he said.

A version of this article appeared in print on July 12, 2011, on page D1 of the New York edition with the headline: In Midwest, Flutters May Be Far Fewer.

National Pollinator Week

Did you know that one out of every third bite of food comes to us
thanks to pollinators? From beautiful butterflies to busy bees, it’s
clear that pollinators are essential to life on our planet.

But, declines in pollinators in North America and around the world
pose what could be a significant threat to biodiversity, global food
webs and human health.

Help pollinators in your neighborhood during National
Pollinator Week (June 22-28) by taking one or more of
these five simple actions:
1. Use Native Plants
2. Hang Hummingbird Feeders
3. Build a Bee House
4. Plant a Butterfly Garden
5. Certify Your Yard with National Wildlife Federation

The Popularity of Butterfly Gardening

At Ion Exchange, Inc. we love butterflies and we have many native plants that are excellent at attracting butterflies. Check out our butterfly package HERE

By Wings On June 23, 2009 @ 5:27 am In Guest Authors No Comments

Butterfly gardening has become popular, both to magnetize the scenic travelers and to help domain species of butterflies that were dwindling due to soul encroachment into their innate habitats. Butterflies feeling sunlight! Whether you wish to works a traditional plot or a container plot, make positive that the plants are in sincere sunlight for much of the day. If you’re forecast a butterfly plot, it’s important to keep in psyche that there is no one recipe for a successful plot. Butterflies like to “pond.” Your plot desires a place of watering puncture for the butterflies to juice from. This could be done by basically rich a terra cotta pot or small plastic bucket with small rocks or pebbles about two inches from the edge. Butterfly species that are indigenous to different areas are attracted to different types of plants. To forward butterflies, you’ll poverty to know the butterfly species that are found in your blackhead, and suggest them with plants that are special food sources for adult butterflies as well as those plants that they pretty for laying their eggs and nourishing maggot. Add water to permeate the lingering liberty. Place the puddle in the midpoint of your backyard, some values that relate to all butterfly gardens. Wherever you live and anything butterflies you prospect to magnetize, you’ll attract more of them if you pursue a few unfussy basics, Butterflies dearest to eat nectar. Use some of these nectar-producing plants to attract them: milkweed, azalea, goldenrod, black-eyed susan, zinnia, aster, phlox, Japanese honeysuckle, ironweed. A few nectar-producing shrubs are butterfly plant, many fruit leaves, privet, blue and redbud. Butterflies will flock to large expanses of plants in analogous colors that flourish at the same time rather than to release plants with just a few blooms. A carpet of violets, a sea of buttercups or a thick open pasture detailed of Queen Anne’s Lace is solid to be visited by dozens of butterflies. Butterflies like bags of influence! Group clusters of the same plant together to make them easier for butterflies to see. A group of quaint plants attracts them easier than distinct flora. Butterfly gardens should to provide both sun and shade. Like all insects, butterflies are cold-blooded creatures. They boom on thaw sun, and will relax on fixed rocks or perch for long notes on the twigs of a high plant in the sunlight. At the same time, they require shade and shelter when the sun is too hot, or on cool, imprecise living. A field that gets lively sun for at least 4-6 hours per day is the best spot for a butterfly plot, but don’t forget to embrace landscaping facts that offer shade.

Butterfly Forecast For Central Iowa for Aug 1-15th 2008

Reprinted by Ion Exchange with permission. Forecast for Central Iowa August 1, 2008-August 15, 2008

Butterfly numbers and diversity are at their peak right now. Diversity will continue to be at a peak until about the middle of September. Numbers will remain high after that—possibly as late as the end of October depending on the weather. However, by that time the diversity will have crashed and only a few species will be represented.
Many of the butterflies you see at this time of the year are newly emerged, but some, particularly the larger butterflies, may be individuals who have lived for several weeks. If you have appropriate habitat you may see the same individual eastern tiger swallowtail or great spangled fritillary over several days. Butterflies can become quite raggedy over a period of time, but can still survive.
There can be some unexpected butterfly watching opportunities at this time of year. A few years back I went on a ride on the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad (Boone, Iowa). The ride goes for several miles, and there are wooded stretches and areas with some prairie plants. I got great looks at lots of butterflies, especially eastern tiger swallowtails and giant swallowtails. The northwestern part of the route, near Fraser and Holst State Forest had very large populations of giant swallowtails.
Rides on bike paths can be quite good as well. You might need to keep the ID books at home and just concentrate on the ride, however.
If you happen to pass a hay field you might see clouds of butterflies—clouded and orange sulfurs in numbers much greater than you will see elsewhere. Puddles near a hay field may yield hundreds of these butterflies which all fly up at the same time.
Watch the white butterflies at this time of year. Cabbage whites are common, as are white forms of clouded and orange sulfurs. If you look closely, you can tell them apart quite easily—the forewings of cabbage whites coming to a point instead of being rounded, and lacking the black border. You may see a white butterfly that is clearly different from either—one that is very white with no border, but which has more dark spots on it than the cabbage white. That will be the checkered white, which is a migrant that comes in to the state late in the summer.
In normal years we would be seeing great numbers of little yellows about now. However, I have not seen any yet this year. There have been huge numbers of summer azures, however—many more than normal, and flying about 3 weeks after one would expect their peak.
The American snout is a distinctive butterfly with a long nose. It can form huge swarms in Texas, where certain forms of hackberry tree are found.
In Iowa it is found in smaller numbers. I usually see only a few individuals each year.
Cloudless sulfurs can sometimes be seen late in the summer. Once again, they are quite common in the south but not so common in Iowa. Cloudless sulfurs resemble the more common clouded and orange sulfurs but are quite a bit larger. Look for fiery skippers to be fairly numerous as well.
Some species are found here pretty much all summer but reach fairly high numbers late in the year. They include before mentioned clouded and orange sulfurs, eastern tailed-blues, pearly crescents, and silvery checkerspots.
Black swallowtails, painted ladies, red admirals and monarchs may be found in fairly high numbers in prairie and old-field areas, and hackberry and tawny emperors can be found in the woodlands.
Summer is flying by (in more ways than one). Make the time to enjoy the show.

Harlan Ratcliff


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.
http://www.wisconsinbutterflies.org/ sightings page.
http://www.naba.org/ sightings page.
Ratcliff, Harlan: 2003-2007 Unpublished butterfly survey results.

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.

Butterfly Forecast May 15-31, 2008

The Ion Exchange Inc is very happy to recieve Harlan's permission to print his Butterfly Forecast.
Butterfly Forecast for May 15-May 31, 2008 We are starting to get into a busier and more diverse part of the butterfly season. Butterflies will be present in small numbers, and there will be more variety than we have seen so far. Among the most conspicuous are the swallowtails. The eastern tiger swallowtail, black swallowtail, and giant swallowtail are all found in central Iowa and can be seen now. Three others--the zebra, spicebush, and pipevine swallowtails--are quite rare in Iowa. Theoretically they could be present in this time period but you are unlikely to see them.
Clouded sulfurs and orange sulfurs will be the most common easily seen butterflies. Two small blue butterflies will be common as well but being small they are easily overlooked. The first is the summer azure. (Iowa apparently has both the spring and summer azure, Celastrina ladon and C.
neglecta, although they are difficult to distinguish in the field. The individuals you see during this time period are most likely to be of the summer azure.) The second is the eastern tailed-blue. Iowa has other blue butterflies but they are quite rare in most of the state. There are also some hairstreaks that can be mistaken for blues. However, 99% of all the blues you see will be either a summer azure or an eastern tailed-blue. An easy way to distinguish them in the field is that the azure will fly up into the trees when approached, and the eastern tailed-blue will fly at ground level.
Other butterflies present now include common buckeyes, painted ladies, red admirals, pearly crescents, cabbage whites, monarchs, question marks, eastern commas, bronze coppers, red spotted purples, and hackberry emperors.
If you find a good bed of flowers now is a great time to enjoy and learn about some of the skippers. We have a small patch of dame¹s rocket (unfortunately not a native plant, but it was part of a ³wildflower mix² we bought some time back). Hobomok skippers chase each other around the flowerbed. They have courtship displays that usually involve three or more individuals. It is fun to watch them chase each other and make the little jet fighter pose where one set of wings is horizontal and the other pair is at about a 45 degree angle.
Of the skippers you see in flowerbeds, hobomoks will be the most conspicuous but the slightly smaller Peck¹s skipper may also be present.
Tawney edge skippers can also be seen at this time. You may run across a small skipper butterfly that can only be described as being a brilliant black with some small white spots. You are more likely to see it mudding than nectaring, at least in my experience. That is the common sooty-wing.
There are other skippers that are dark brown or nearly black but none as completely black as this one.
Watch for the small butterflies‹they are every bit as entertaining as the large ones.

Happy butterflying.

Harlan Ratcliff

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.
http://www.wisconsinbutterflies.org/ sightings page.
http://www.naba.org/ sightings page.
Ratcliff, Harlan: 2003-2007 Unpublished butterfly survey results.