A live panel discussion of The Extraordinary Caterpillar film featuring panelists:
The Caterpillar Lab director Sam Jaffe, botanist Laura Reeves, Homegrown National Park co-founder Dr. Doug Tallamy, moderated by New York Times columnist Margaret Roach.
October 14th -- 12 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. EST (Phoenix Time 9-10:30 a.m.)
Stream The Extraordinary Caterpillar film on demand, free with registration!
https://www.thecaterpillarlab.org/registration
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Ten of us searched for butterflies in Pivot Rock Canyon during the sunny and warm morning of 22 August. The canyon bottom was verdant and flowery indicating good monsoon rains, but there was disappointingly no surface water anywhere along the streambed we explored. Among the most abundant flowers were yarrow and fleabane, both of which were being used as nectar sources by butterflies and other insects. The butterflies were abundant, but not diverse. Arizona Sisters and Mylitta Crescents were particularly numerous with a few Sisters even landing on the skin, clothing, and packs of the participants (see photo)! This is our 4th year visiting this canyon and, it continues to show promise. Last year we saw a total of 12 individual butterflies in 6 species. We did better this year (dozens of individuals in 10 species) presumably because there has been more rain there.
Here are the species we saw: Clouded Sulphur, Unidentified White, Spring Azure, Ceraunus Blue, Painted Lady, Arizona Sister, Mylitta Crescent, Northwestern Fritillary, Tiny Checkerspot, Taxiles Skipper
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A group of 16 people keen to see and learn about butterflies gathered at the Aspen Corner trailhead near Flagstaff on a sunny Saturday morning, July 11. We were not disappointed. The field of sneeze weed across the road from the trailhead yielded a Thicket Hairstreak and, once we hit the open area above the tank, we had an amazing assortment of blues and skipperlings. The muddy areas around the tank were also productive and yielded two species of swallowtails, a checkerspot, a Queen Alexandra’s Sulphur, and more blues. Here is a list of all 31 species that we saw. A good and butterfly-rich time was had by all.
Western Tiger Swallowtail, Two Tailed Swallowtail, Baird’s Swallowtail, Dainty Sulphur, Queen Alexandra's Sulphur, Orange Sulphur, Southern Dogface, Sleepy Orange, Checkered White, Gray Hairstreak, Thicket Hairstreak, Spring Azure, Acmon Blue, Silvery Blue, Greenish Blue, Boisduval’s Blue, Ceraunus Blue, Marine Blue, Melissa Blue, Lupine Blue, Northwestern Fritillary, Variegated Fritillary, Arachne Checkerspot, Mourning Cloak, California Tortoiseshell, Northern Cloudywing, Mexican Cloudywing, Russet Skipperling, Garita Skipperling, Edward’s Skipperling, Taxiles Skipper
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