A blue-faced meadowhawk is on the lookout for flying insect prey.


Field Trip Report: Richard and Susan Day's Property
  August 9, 2009

The weather was hot and so was the bug hunting!  It was pretty windy, which made picture taking a challenge, but the heat and the wind didn't keep the bugs hunkered down as we feared it might.  In total we identified 35 species of butterflies and 16 species of dragonflies!  Highlights included beautiful, freshly emerged Delaware skippers, lots of spicebush and pipevine swallowtails, many cloudless sulphurs, and several blue-faced meadowhawk dragonflies.  A big thanks to Richard and Susan for allowing us to tramp around in their beautiful gardens and trails and for their wonderful hospitality!

Our butterfly species list was:  pipevine swallowtail, black swallowtail, giant swallowtail, eastern tiger swallowtail, spicebush swallowtail, cabbage white, clouded sulphur, orange sulphur, cloudless sulphur, eastern tailed-blue, summer azure, American snout, great spangled fritillary, silvery checkerspot, pearl crescent, question mark, American lady, red admiral, common buckeye, red-spotted purple, viceroy, hackberry emperor, northern pearly-eye, little wood-satyr, common wood-nymph, monarch, silver-spotted skipper, common sootywing, least skipper, fiery skipper, tawny-edged skipper, little glassywing, Delaware skipper, zabulon skipper, and dun skipper.

Our dragonfly list was: common green darner, prince baskettail, mocha emerald, flag-tailed spinyleg, halloween pennant, eastern pondhawk, slaty skimmer, widow skimmer, common whitetail, twelve-spotted skimmer, great blue skimmer, blue dasher, wandering glider, eastern amberwing, blue-faced meadowhawk, and black saddlebags.

*If anyone wants to provide more complete information or corrections for any of the below items, feel free to contact the club by email*

All photos copyright Paul V. Switzer. Please do not use without permission



Delaware skipper


Pipevine swallowtail

Common Wood-nymph

  Pipevine swallowtail

American painted lady
  Eastern tailed-blue

Blue-faced meadowhawk
Eastern pondhawk

Flagtailed spinyleg
Halloween pennant

Backlit leaves of arrowhead

There's no bug in this picture, I just liked the way the sun was shining through the leaves!
Delaware skipper on purple coneflower

Jumping spider
eating juvenile meadow katydid
Mocha emerald
Not a great picture, but these interesting dragonflies spend much of their time hunting insects on the wing - so if you want a picture of one doing its thing, you have to get it in flight!  This female was flying about 10 feet high.  You can tell its a female because you can see her ovipositor (egg layer) if you look closely underneath the tip of her abdomen (its the little protruding spike).  Mocha emeralds are related to Hine's emeralds, an endangered species on which Richard Day has participated in a lot of research projects. See this webpage for more information on Hine's emeralds. [Mocha emeralds are not endangered]

Little glassywing
Pipevine swallowtail
Swallowtails often keep their wing tips fluttering as they get nectar from flowers.  You can see the blur of this one's forewings as well as the iridescent color on its hindwings.


A wheelbug climbs on a leaf looking for an insect to grab so it can suck out its juices.
 Wheelbugs are one of my favorite bugs, unless I get careless holding one and it bites me!


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