Club member Bill Wasson gets a close-up photo of a particularly friendly red admiral.


Field Trip Report: Sand Ridge State Forest
June 24, 2007

We lucked out on weather (missing rain) and butterflies (some cool ones) on our trip to Sand Ridge.  Alas, we saw no regal fritillaries, but we did see plenty of other butterflies (21 species total!) and dragonflies (12 species total), many for the first time on a GPBC trip.  Highlights included a coral hairstreak, American copper, common wood nymph, dozens of red admirals, lots of great spangled fritillaries, and the fascinating sand prairie community itself (with lots of prickly pear cactus!).

 Our butterfly species list for the day was: pipevine swallowtail*, black swallowtail*, spicebush swallowtail, tiger swallowtail, cabbage white, orange sulphur, little yellow, eastern tailed-blue, coral hairstreak, American copper, pearl crescent, question mark, red admiral, mourning cloak, American painted lady, great spangled fritillary, hackberry emperor, common wood nymph, monarch, silver-spotted skipper, and least skipper. [* = seen on the way to Sand Ridge]

Our dragonfly/damselfly species list for the day was: green darner, calico pennant, halloween pennant, Eastern amberwing, Eastern pondhawk, blue dasher, common whitetail, widow skimmer, twelve-spotted skimmer, black saddlebag, red saddlebag, and azure bluet.


*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. Do not use without permission




American copper


Least skipper

Great spangled fritillary
Red admiral

American painted lady
 Monarch

In this picture, you can see (kind of!) two characteristics that help identify this individual as a male: the two small, black dots in the middle of the hindwings and the claspers at the end of his abdomen.


Common wood nymph

Mourning cloak


Question mark

Eastern tiger swallowtail

Coral hairstreak

According to "The Butterflies of Illinois", Sand Ridge is one of the few places in Illinois in which the coral hairstreak is relatively common.


Azure bluet damselfly
The azure bluet is a common damselfly species that belongs to a family (Coenagrionidae) of many very similar-looking damselflies that are difficult to tell apart.

Bee fly

This species looks to be the same species we saw last year at our June trip to Coneflower Hill Prairie (which were also nectaring on common milkweed).
Japanese beetles....NOT

These beetles are VERY similar to Japanese beetles in looks and behavior.  However, they are not quite as shiny and are missing the white spots along their sides and on the tip of their abdomen.  They are called "false Japanese beeetles" and are native beetles in a completely different genus (so aren't closely related).  They favor areas with sandy soil.

Eastern blood-sucking conenose
(sucking on a bee)
Halloween pennant

Twelve-spotted skimmer
This individual as a male that is almost mature.  When he is fully mature, he will have a completely light colored abdomen in addition to his white wing spots.
Common whitetail dragonfly
(female)
This is the female of the common and conspicuous common whitetail.  Males have a brilliant white abdomen and are commonly seen defending territories on ponds and slow-moving creeks and streams.
Grasshopper nymph
(feeding on a prickly pear cactus)
Robberfly
(perched on a prickly pear and eating a cricket)


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