Robber fly (probably Diogmites neoternatus) with a Japanese beetle.  These robber flies
commonly hang by one leg, especially when carrying prey.

Field Trip Report: Property of Richard and Susan Day
August 19, 2007

The weather threatened rain but it never happened, and we had a fantastic day at the Day's property.  For the second year in a row, we saw over 30 species, with this year's trip hitting 40 species of butterflies and skippers!  No particularly unusual species were seen (scalloped sootywing was probably the most uncommon) but the numbers and great looks we got at swallowtails, emperors, and skippers were amazing.  One sight in particular stuck out: we found a small tree that had been riddled with holes from either woodpeckers or some kind of borer.  There were 40 to 50 butterflies of about 5 species that were sap-feeding at the tree, from the base all the way up to the top.   A great big thanks to the Days for their hospitality and for the ice cream!

 Our butterfly species list (40 species) for the day was: pipevine swallowtail, black swallowtail, giant swallowtail, spicebush swallowtail, tiger swallowtail, cabbage white, orange sulphur, clouded sulphur, cloudless sulphur, little yellow, eastern tailed-blue, gray hairstreak, summer azure, American snout, great spangled fritillary, pearl crescent, question mark, Eastern comma, American lady, painted lady, red admiral, common buckeye, red-spotted purple, hackberry emperor, tawny emperor, Northern pearly-eye, common wood nymph, monarch, silver-spotted skipper, scalloped (Hayhurst's) scallopwing, common sootywing, least skipper, fiery skipper, Peck's skipper, Northern broken dash, little glassywing, sachem, Delaware skipper, zabulon skipper, dun skipper.
*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




Eastern tailed-blue
Lots of Eastern tailed-blues were puddling on the mud surrounding the Day's marsh.

little glassywing


Gray hairstreak
Gray hairstreak

Spicebush swallowtail


  Pipevine swallowtail

Clearwing moth

Orange sulphur (left) &
Cloudless sulphur (right)
These two puddling male sulphurs provide a nice side-by-side comparison of the two species.  Note how much bigger the cloudless sulphur is, plus its color is much more of a chartreuse yellow as compared to the "orangey" yellow of the orange sulphur.  Too bad a clouded sulphur isn't in the picture, it would be nice to compare its clear butter yellow color to the other two.

Little sootywing


Silver-spotted skipper

Flower spider with skipper
This flower spider had captured a tasty meal after lurking under the lantana flower.
Whitetail skimmer
These two males are busy "flying it out" in a territorial battle in the Day's marsh.  Many dragonflies have "non-contact" fights, in which they chase each other and display.  The outcome of these types of fights seems to be determined by which male has the most energy, as opposed to which male is the biggest.

Black swallowtail caterpiller
(early instar)
When black swallowtail caterpillars are small, they are bird-poop mimics.  The Days had many caterpillars on the rue growing in Susan's butterfly garden.
Black swallowtail caterpillar
(later instar)
This individual is just starting to change from a bird-poop mimic to the more familiar black, yellow, and green form.

Black swallowtail caterpillar
(later instar)
Painted lady
Late summer and fall are painted lady time!

Chinese mantid
(photoshopped)
This photo of a mantid was a little ordinary, so I decided to funk it up a bit in photoshop.


Horse fly

Robber fly

This is the same robber fly from above.

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