FoxRidgeOct05

Variegated Fritillary resting on a leaf.

Our last field trip of the year yielded a really nice species count for this late in the season; we identified a total of 16 species of butterflies and as usual saw some other cool bugs in the process. Highlights included a variegated fritillary, a hackberry emperor (more commonly seen earlier in the season) and a walking stick. Many of the butterflies we saw were sucking on horse and/or dog poop in the parking lot and on the road.

Our butterfly species list included: Black swallowtail, cabbage white, clouded sulphur, orange sulphur, cloudless sulphur, eastern tailed blue, pearl crescent, variegated fritillary, painted lady, red admiral, common buckeye, eastern comma, question mark, hackberry emperor, monarch, and silver-spotted skipper.

All photos copyright P.V. Switzer. No use without permission.

Female eastern tailed blue	A "5 pearl crescent" turd!
Common Buckeye It's amazing to see such a beautiful butterfly enjoying a poop snack. Butterflies get salts and perhaps sugars and nitrogen from sucking on feces.	Painted Lady The numbers of painted ladies have declined from their population explosion several weeks ago, but we still saw many different individuals on our trip to Fox Ridge .
Stick Insect Stick insects are camouflage personified (insectified?). We found this cool bug crossing the road; its stick disguise didn't blend in as well to asphalt.	Syrphid fly This small syrphid fly is enjoying some sweat on an elbow, hence one of their common names: "sweat bees". Although some small bees have the same sweat-loving behavior, syrphids are just disguised as bees and are typically harmless. To some other insects, their larvae are far from harmless; their maggots are often predators in aquatic or terrestrial habitats. If you get a close look at them, you can tell syrphid flies from actual bees and wasps because the flies have only two wings.

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