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Butterfly Society of RI

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Welcome to the Butterfly Society
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OUR MISSION is to promote public awareness and appreciation of lepidotera (moths and butterflies), to locate, inventory, create, and encourage preservation of butterfly habitats, and to help people understand the effects of habitat loss, pesticide use, and degradation of butterfly populations.

Tiny Blue Butterfly for Spring

Story: A tiny blue butterfly brightens early spring


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A tiny blue butterfly brightens early spring

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, April 28, 2007

KEN WEBER

IT'S A DELIGHTFUL blue, a tiny but most welcome dash of color in a landscape still emerging from months of winter drabness. This blue is on a butterfly, one that symbolizes a major milestone as spring -- real spring -- finally settles in.

In fact, spring is part of the butterfly's name; it's called the spring azure, named both for its early appearance and its sky-blue wings.

The azure, for all its meaning to those eager for spring, is rarely the first butterfly seen each year. That is nearly always the mourning cloak, a much larger creature that shows up on abnormally mild days, usually some time in March. But the mourning cloak has a distinct advantage; it spends the winter as an adult, hibernating beneath tree bark or in some similar shelter. When spring seems imminent, the mourning cloak has only to crawl out and bask in the sunshine. The little azure has to develop or "hatch" from a chrysalis.

Mourning cloak butterflies are rather handsome creatures, too, though a little less colorful than the azure. They have wings of a deep, rich brown, almost mahogany, bordered with yellow. Each wing also has a row of blue dots on the inner edge of the yellow, but those dots are difficult to see. With wingspreads of three inches or more, the mourning cloaks are three to four times the size of the azures.

The mourning cloaks, so named because their color patterns supposedly resemble cloaks once worn by people in mourning, are woods butterflies and we typically see them long before the first leaves appear. They get their first nourishment from tree sap but seem to spend more time resting on logs and dead leaves, soaking in the warmth of the sunshine. They flutter up when people or other intruders come by, but rarely fly far. When colder weather returns, as it almost always does in March, the mourning cloaks simply retreat to safe shelters.

Occasionally, the sharp-eyed may see other early butterflies as well. There are a couple of species of tortoiseshells -- somebody thought their mottled wing coloration resembled certain turtle shells -- that also spend the winter as adults. They're smaller than mourning cloaks and not nearly as abundant. Among other early-spring butterflies are two with bizarre names, the comma and the question mark. Really! Both are named for tiny, virtually undetectable marks on the underside of wings. The question mark is mostly orange with dark spots. There are several varieties of commas and most also feature at least some orange. All deserve better names.

None of these butterflies, however, is as striking as the little azure. It rarely even exceeds one inch in wingspan, but it is unmistakable as it flies along dirt paths or gravel roads. The azure's wings are an exquisite shade of blue, not quite as spectacular, perhaps, as the blue of a male bluebird's back, but almost.

That's the upper side of the butterfly's wings. The under side is a pale gray with darker spots and streaks. And because the azure folds its wings when it lands and basks, unlike many butterflies, including the mourning cloak, photographers have a difficult time capturing on film that wondrous blue of the upper wings. In fact, when the azure lands on gravel and folds its wings, it virtually vanishes because it blends in so well with grayish stones.

At this time of year, the males among the azures are patrolling for females, or females looking for places to lay eggs. It takes a close look, but females can be determined by a narrow black border on their wings. Experts say adult females live only a few days. They mate on the first day out of the chrysalis and lay eggs the next day. Most of these early azures will disappear before the bulk of our butterflies, the swallowtails and admirals and fritillaries and the rest, even appear.

The azure's eggs are deposited on buds of plants such as blueberries and chokecherries, and the obscure caterpillars spend most of their time crawling around trees and shrubs, out of our sight. There will be other hatchings later in the year, other broods that eventually will produce the eggs and caterpillars and chrysalides that will result in next spring's first blue butterflies.

But the summer azures are not as brilliant as these first spring azures. Certainly, they never seem to look as blue. Maybe, it's just that by summer there is so much color around, in other butterflies and dragonflies and flowers and birds, that one-inch butterflies get lost in the scenery.

That's not the case now. This is when we should look for and enjoy azures. I tend to find them most often when I'm walking dirt roads and sunny trails. They also frequent old fields, the edges of woods, and damp areas. They seem most active from mid-afternoon to evening.

Spring azures are like many butterflies in that they take minerals and moisture from small puddles. We won't see dozens of them crowding together at puddles, as tiger swallowtails and some other species do, but little rainwater pools are good places to check.

Everybody who likes wild creatures, and natural beauty, and color, should take notice of the azures at least once each year. They help secure spring.

Ken Weber, whose columns appear here weekly, writes books on nature and outdoor recreation. ( kweber@projo.com)

RI Butterfly Checklist- Updated

Updated Checklist of Rhode Island Butterflies - from RINHS

For more information, contact: David Gregg (401) 874-5800 or dgregg@rinhs.org

Natural History Survey Releases New, Updated Checklist of Rhode Island Butterflies

Kingston: The Rhode Island Natural History Survey (RINHS) has incorporated the latest research on Rhode Island's butterflies into a new, updated "Checklist of Rhode Island Butterflies." The new checklist includes all species of butterflies recorded from Rhode Island and incorporates the latest information on rare sightings and historical records. The new list updates a checklist published in 1994 and incorporates numerous advances in butterfly identification and nomenclature as well as new data on Rhode Island sightings. For a limited time, hard copies of the new list will be available free from the Natural History Survey: send a self-addressed stamped envelope to RINHS, P.O. Box 1858, Kingston, RI 02881. The list, formatted for easy home printing, can also be downloaded for free as an Adobe PDF from www.rinhs.org.

The checklist includes information on 128 species of butterflies. Species are listed by scientific and common name and entries include information on species' rarity and conservation status, as well as frequently encountered alternative names. The checklist folds neatly to pocket size or it can be tucked into a field guide to help with identifications by narrowing the choice of possible species. The checklist includes space for field notes.

The checklist was prepared by lepidopterist Harry Pavulaan and Survey Executive Director David Gregg. Pavulaan has performed the most comprehensive research on the identification, biology, and history of Rhode Island butterflies. He is the author of numerous scholarly and popular articles, technical papers, and web projects on butterflies and moths of North America. Gregg has studied butterflies of coastal southern New England as a hobby for 30 years.

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Butterfly Info from Harry
BSRI Website
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Butterfly Images from Dr. Scheer and others
Story: A tiny blue butterfly brightens early spring
RI Natural History Survey