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| Field Trip Report: Lincoln Trail
State Park August 6, 2006 It was a great day
for butterflying at Lincoln Trail. We saw 18 species; this total
was despite only seeing 2 skippers (2 individuals - one each of two
different species). Highlights included LOTS of swallowtails,
lots of caterpillars, lots of dragonflies, and some neat robberflies
and sand wasps. See below for some photos.
*If anyone wants to provide more
complete identification or corrections for any of the below items, Our confirmed butterfly list was: black swallowtail, eastern tiger swallowtail (yellow and black morphs), spicebush swallowtail, giant swallowtail, cabbage white, clouded sulphur, orange sulphur, cloudless sulphur, little yellow, gray hairstreak, eastern tailed-blue, summer azure, pearl crescent, common buckeye, red-spotted purple, monarch, silver-spotted skipper, Delaware skipper. feel free to contact the club by email* |
Tiger swallowtail
Tiger
swallowtails were amazingly abundant - probably the most common
butterfly we encountered on our trip.
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 Butterfly
wing
Can
you name this butterfly? The answer is below.
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 Eastern tailed-blue
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 Pearl crescent |
 Eastern amberwing (male)
This male (and the female opposite)
are in a thermoregulatory posture called an "obelisk".
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 Eastern amberwing (female)
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 sand wasp
(Sphecidae, Nyssoninae) There was a quite a few sand wasps
in the sand underneath some swings in a playground. The wasps were busy
burrowing and bringing in prey. This female appears to be
carrying a shield bug and is starting to uncover her burrow.
Amazingly, these wasps find their burrows (which are completely covered
and hidden) by memorizing small landmarks near the burrow site before
they fly away. When they return, they look for the landmarks and begin
digging in the correct location.
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 sand wasp
(Sphecidae, Nyssoninae) This photo was taken just a minute
or so after the one on the left. She has uncovered her burrow and
is taking the bug down the hole. In the hole, she will lay an egg
on the immobilized prey and her grub will eat it alive. If you
see these wasps in a playground, don't panic -- they aren't aggressive!
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 Milkweed tiger moth caterpillars
These caterpillars are often found
in groups on common milkweed. They are voracious eaters and can shred
all of the leaves on a plant.
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 Milkweed tiger moth caterpillar
This is an older individual of the
same species of moth. Don't they look punk?
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 Widow
This male widow dragonfly is just
finishing up a snack. Like many dragonflies, he usually doesn't
feed while defending a territory on the water. Instead, he defends a
territory while he can and then flies away from the water to forage and
replenish his energy supply before returning.
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 Ants
These two ants were busy hauling this grub to their nest. |
Robber fly
(Asilidae) When I first saw this pair of robber flies, I thought they were mating. Then I remembered that flies mate "butt-to-butt" (facing opposite directions) not on top of each other like beetles. I took a closer look -- and it appears that one of these flies may be eating the other one! |
 Robber fly
(Asilidae) Robber flies are active predators, chasing down flying insects, grabbing them, and then piercing them with their mouth parts and sucking them dry. As vicious as they are, they don't bother humans at all. |
 Black swallowtail caterpillar
(on wild parsnip) |
 Monarch caterpillar
(on swamp milkweed) |
The butterfly wing above is a close-up of a common buckeye -- did you get it right? |
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