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Omaha, Nebraska
July 25-31, 2011
Backyard butterfly weekly list. Number indicates the number of days sighted. Names in bold represent new sightings for the year.
Butterflies:
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (6)
Cabbage White (5)
Monarch (3)
Black Swallowtail (2)
Summer Azure (1)
Orange Sulphur (1)
Eastern Tailed Blue (1)
Pearl Crescent (1)
Red Admiral (1)
Skippers:
Silver-spotted (5)
Peck's Skipper (3)
Least Skipper (1)
Day-flying Moths
Ailanthus Webworm Moth (1)
Snowberry Clearwing (1)
Hummingbird Clearwing (1)
Eastern Tiger Swallowtails have become the dominant butterfly in my backyard. Males and females, yellow and dark morph are all frequent visitors to the yard. At any given moment, I would consider it unusual to not see two or more feeding at my butterfly bush. Monarchs are a close second, but they'll occasionally stray from the butterfly bush to sample the Zinnias.
Two new butterflies this week, Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) and Eastern Tailed Blue (Cupido comyntas) I wasn't able to get a good picture of the Blue, but the Crescent is pictured to the left. Finally got a good picture of a Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) pictured below.
No recorded Sachems this week. To be honest, I'm terrible at ID'ing the grass skippers so I could have seen a few but not been able to get a positive ID. One new moth, Ailanthus Webworm Moth (Atteva aurea). No pics, but you can see one here. They are unmistakeable. Two weeks a row with both Snowberry and Hummingbird Clearwings. Awesome.