Due to Covid-19 restrictions, there will not be a group walking together. You will be on your own for the most part, but we will be happy to guide you to the “hot spots” on grounds for butterflies. Sue, Libby and I will be wearing our ASDM docent uniforms with our name tags. We will have other tasks, but will switch out to be available to you as needed.
The trip will cover approximately 1.5 miles on cement paths and flat dirt paths on Museum grounds. After the trip, if you stay for lunch the museum has a cafeteria. If you bring a sack lunch, there are picnic grounds just outside the gate on the west side. You can also buy a drink and have your sack lunch on the cafeteria patio.
Late summer wildflowers are blooming: asters, fleabane, turpentine bush, and perhaps still some of the buckwheat in the Mojave Desert area. The ASDM Botany department plants many species of native plants which are butterfly larval foodplants, so the chances are good that we will see a variety of species. On Tuesday September 28th, 37 species were seen. These included Queens, Monarchs; Marine, Ceraunus and Reakirt's Blues, Tailed and Sleepy Oranges, Cloudless and Orange Sulphurs, Pipevine Swallowtails, Gray and Great Purple Hairstreaks, Empress Leilia and many others.
For questions please contact: Cindy Bethard at: cindynik@hotmail.com or text her cell: (520) 429-2650.
Photo: White-patched Skipper (Chiomara georgina) © Cindy Bethard
The group met at the pollination garden of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum on Tuesday, October 4, 2021 at 10 am. The group checked out butterfly hotspots at the pollination garden, demonstration gardens, Baldwin theater area gardens, Mojave Desert area, labyrinth garden, and desert grassland areas. The trip continued until noon. The co-hosts also pre-scanned the same areas earlier in the morning. 39 species were identified. Everyone enjoyed the bounty of butterflies! The list of species identified follows:
Pipevine Swallowtail Battus philenor
Giant Swallowtail Papilio cresphontes
Checkered White Pontia protodice
Great Southern White Ascia monuste
Orange Sulphur Colias eurytheme
Southern Dogface Colias cesonia
Cloudless Sulphur Phoebis sennae
Mexican Yellow Eurema mexicana
Tailed Orange Eurema proterpia
Sleepy Orange Eurema nicippe
Dainty Sulphur Nathalis iole
Great Purple Hairstreak Atlides halesus
Gray Hairstreak Strymon melinus
Leda Ministreak Ministrymon leda
Western Pygmy-Blue Brephidium exile
Marine Blue Leptotes marina
Ceraunus Blue Hemiargus ceraunus
Reakirt's Blue Hemiargus isola
‘Echo’Spring Azure Celastrina ladon
Fatal Metalmark Calephelis nemesis
Arizona Metalmark Calephelis arizonensis
Palmer's Metalmark Apodemia palmeri
American Snout Libytheana carinenta
Gulf Fritillary Agraulis vanillae
Variegated Fritillary Euptoieta claudia
Tiny Checkerspot Dymasia dymas
Texan Crescent Phyciodes texana
Painted Lady Vanessa cardui
West Coast Lady Vanessa annabella
Empress Leilia Asterocampa leilia
Monarch Danaus plexippus
Queen Danaus gilippus
Northern Cloudywing Thorybes pylades
Arizona Powdered-Skipper Systasea zampa
Brown-banded Skipper Timochares ruptifasciatus
White-patched Skipper Chiomara asychis
Funereal Duskywing Erynnis funeralis
Orange Skipperling Copaeodes aurantiacus
Fiery Skipper Hylephila phyleus
Eufala Skipper Lerodea eufala