Lab bugs

I feel it's a letdown to have a post without pictures... but I'll have to overcome that because that's exactly what this post is!

This past Monday for our Restoration Ecology lab, we checked out a couple more prairie remnants here in Story County.  I didn't take my bins or camera but I did keep a mental note of the butterflies.  I recall:

Black Swallowtail
Orange/Clouded Sulphur
Cabbage White
Gray Hairstreak
Eastern Tailed-Blue
Pearl Crescent
Monarch
Viceroy
Common Buckeye
Common Checkered-Skipper
Fiery Skipper
Tawny-edged Skipper

With October a week and a half away, I'm wondering when I'll start to notice dwindling diversity here in central Iowa....

Loess Hills

Aaron Brees and I spent a morning over in the Loess Hills of western Iowa again on Sunday.  Conditions were quite windy which kept overall numbers seemingly lower than on previous trips.

We were lucky to stumble on a single LEONARD'S SKIPPER at one of our last stops...

       

Here is a spider preying on a TAWNY-EDGED SKIPPER:

If anyone out there has comments on this skipper, I'd appreciate input!  In person, I passed this off as a Tawny-edged Skipper but I'm not sure if the bold spots on the upperside is within range for those:

As with previous trips over to the Loess Hills, we didn't have much trouble finding SOUTHERN DOGFACES, including this one that (finally) perched for me:

And lastly, we were both struck by the contrasting pattern of this crescent.  Granted, I'm not very confident in ID'ing crescents only from the uppersides.  Anyone have any ideas?  Just a very contrasting Pearl?

Leonard's and more...

Aaron Brees and I spent this past Saturday (4 September) looking for butterflies in western Iowa, south of Council Bluffs.

For me, I was most interested in finding LEONARD'S SKIPPER which proved to not be exceedingly difficult (thanks to Aaron knowing the nectar source: blazing star).  What WAS rather difficult was getting a very cooperative one.  Alas, I came back with a random assortment of ID'able photos:

       

       

TAWNY-EDGED SKIPPERS came in a variety of looks.  Here is one:

Another one of the most common species was SACHEM.  Here is a female:

A "second-lifer" for me were the many REAKIRT'S BLUES that we found throughout the day.  Here is one on some goldenrod:

... and here it is with an EASTERN TAILED-BLUE for comparison:

One of the better finds of the day was this JUNIPER HAIRSTREAK, which was only my second-ever:

While on the theme of hairstreaks, I took a couple seconds to play with the common Gray Hairstreaks:

Not on my radar screen was this lone COMMON ROADSIDE-SKIPPER which turned out to be quite late for Iowa.  I only managed one picture but I believe it to be easily identifiable:

Another great find was yet another FUNEREAL DUSKYWING.  This is maybe the 8th or 9th state record for Iowa (all the previous records were found this summer as well!).  Here is a picture of our most recent:

Another second-lifer for me was SOUTHERN DOGFACE.  We saw several but I definitely failed in getting any decent photos of any.  Here is a feeble attempt:

Not much to say about this guy except that it's a RED-SPOTTED PURPLE and that I only took the picture because I was a little shutter-happy:

Come on people, focus on the butterfly, not the plant.  It's a WILD INDIGO DUSKYWING:

I only remember one REGAL FRITILLARY that day but this one actually sat down a couple times.  I'm sure Aaron got some better photos than this:

I'm not sure if this list is correct or not (and maybe Aaron will correct me), but here is what I remember seeing that day:

Eastern Tiger-Swallowtail
Black Swallowtail
Giant Swallowtail
Cabbage White
Orange Sulphur
Southern Dogface
Dainty Sulphur
Little Yellow
Gray Hairstreak
Juniper Hairstreak
Eastern Tailed-Blue
Reakirt's Blue
Variegated Fritillary
Regal Fritillary
Pearl Crescent
Gorgone Checkerspot
Polygonia Sp.
Mourning Cloak
Common Buckeye
Red-spotted Purple
Viceroy
Monarch
Common Wood-Nymph
Silver-spotted Skipper
Funereal Duskywing
Wild Indigo Duskywing
Common Checkered-Skipper
Fiery Skipper
Sachem
Least Skipper
Leonard's Skipper
Tawny-edged Skipper
Common Roadside-Skipper

~33 species

Although not butterflies, I snapped a couple shots of the VARIEGATED MEADOWHAWKS:

       

... and this RED SADDLEBAGS:

     

Lastly, we can get to things that aren't actually insects!  For example, I couldn't pass up this tree frog:

Buck/Fire/Peck

I can't believe it's been over a week since my last butterfly update.  I apologize...

I was happy today to find not one but three new butterflies for my "Yard List".  They were:

Common Buckeye

Fiery Skipper

Peck's Skipper

I wasn't really expecting PECK'S SKIPPER to show up here but alas, I noticed this guy fluttering around.  It even perched for a picture, maybe my new best for this species:

A couple seconds after that, a different skipper came in and harassed the Peck's... turned out to be my first FIERY SKIPPER for the yard.  Here it is as if it were asking "Hey, you don't happen to be a female Fiery Skipper, do you???"  The Peck's Skipper was having none of that:

Later after the Fiery Skipper gave up, I caught a glimpse of it from above: