Butterfly Ohio

Have you ever noticed that when you learn about something new, you suddenly notice it everywhere? Case in point, my family and I went camping and as we packed up to go home, I was wiping down the fly on our tent. It had rained and the fly was wet. We had camped under the trees. Oaks in fact. Well I was remarking to my husband that there were all these brown spots on our tent. We looked closer and realized it was caterpillar frass! Well it makes sense. According to Douglas Tallamy’s book “Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife In Our Gardens”, Oaks support more species of Lepidoptera than any other trees. Some 517 species. What did we camp under? Oak trees! Uhg.

I discussed the lack of monarchs in my last post. However, it isn’t just monarchs we are not seeing. We have had a lack of butterflies of almost all species, with a few notable exceptions. It is a phenomenon echoed across the U.S. and even the world (see reference 1 and reference 2 ). Is it mearly the wacky weather? Warm winters lead to poor hibernation in adult butterflies. Cool summers lead to poor reproduction and growth in all parts of the life cycle. Or are there other factors involved? One of the things I have learned working with butterflies and moths is that they are extremely interconnected to their ecosystems. Many rely on one single species of plant to survive. Remove that plant and they are in deep doo doo. So I was suprised to see another suggestion proposed. Take a wild guess. Any ideas? Earthworms. Yes, you heard me right, earthworms. Turns out those big meaty worms of our childhood aren’t even native. They were brought over by European settlers and they are changing the nature of our forests and gardens. Now, we have earthworms from Asia and other parts as well. What’s wrong with worms you say? Well, they are great at decomposing organic material, but for butterflies and moths, rapid decomposition is the problem. Remember that butterflies and moths go through the egg to larva to pupa to adult, life cycle. Depending on the species, any one part of this cycle takes place in a particular part of an ecosystem. Usually on a plant. But many butterflies and moth rely on the leaf litter of the floor of a forest, prairie, or even garden to complete their life cycle. Take for example the beautiful Juniper Hairstreak, Callophrys gryneus, Ohio’s only green butterfly. As a caterpillar it feeds on eastern red cedar, Juniperus virginiana. It migrates off the tree to pupate and spends the winter in the duff below the trees as a chrysalis. It relys on the leaf litter to protect it from the extremes of winter as well as from drying out.

Asian earthworms may be changing this for some lep species. In studies conducted on the east coast, these voracious worms are turning over the leaf litter at an amazing rate, bringing mineralized soil to the surface and reducing the organic duff layer to nada (reference 3). Without this duff layer many butterflies and moths may not be able to pupate properly, or survive dry or cold periods.

So are worms to blame for our lack of butterflies? Something to think about?

Monarch tags for the annual fall migration to Mexico are in at Monarch Watch. According their blog (http://monarchwatch.org/blog/), they still have tags available that start at $15. Monarchwatch.org is a great place to visit on-line, to learn all about the monach butterfly and it’s incredible journey south (and north) every year.

This has been a rough early summer for the monarch in Ohio. We have had few visiting monarchs since spring until the last two weeks. With the almost record breaking cold July, things did not really happen until this last week. In addition, I suspect another weather phenomenon took it’s toll. Texas had a record breaking drought. In April, the USDA designated 70 of Texas’ counties as natural disaster areas. The NOAA map shows the southern counties of Texas in “Exceptional Drought” status as of July 21, 2009. This is the heart of where those early spring monarchs return as they stop to find milkweed, lay eggs, reproduce, and their progeny move on to parts east and north to Ohio.

Some made it. We have seen some as early as April. However they were few and far between. I had my first female visitor to my yard approximately a month ago. She layed four eggs on my swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), of which I brought three in. I now have three chrysalises that we are eagerly waiting for their contents to emerge.

However, now we are seeing many more monarchs. I have two females constantly in my garden. They chase each other off the flowers. Monarchs are easy caterpillars to raise and a great experience for children. All you have to do is plant the correct plants. As we say in the butterfly gardening world “If you plant it, they will come”. Corny but true.

Tonight is the end of the 2009 Cox Arboretum Butterfly Festival. Thanks to all who came out to celebrate Ohio’s butterflies and moths. I hope you had a great time. I had a lot of fun meeting and talking with you. Thanks to Wayne Richards of ” The Lifecycles of Butterflies” for stopping by. Wayne pointed out lacewing eggs on our fennel. He and his sister Judy are working on a new book with all kinds of cool bug life cycles. Look for it in the future.

The staff like to think that butterfly festival has a special karma. The weather was wonderful and lots of butterflies and skippers made appearances. Considering we had the second coldest July on record (its official), we were lucky to have any butterflies at all. They waited for August. Walking around the grounds I saw several spicebush swallowtails, tawny edge skippers, Peck’s skippers, clearwing hummingbird moths, zebra swallowtail, and black swallowtails. Not bad considering they were zipping around the thousands of people on the grounds.

Now, welcome to this site. I hope you check in from time to time to see what is happening in Ohio with butterflies and moths. I hope to let you know what is in-flight, what events are happening, and recent scientific updates. All lep related!

Cheers,
Elisabeth