Eastern-tailed Blue

The Blue butterflies (Polyommatina) are a subfamily of the Lycaenidae, or gossamer-wings, family. The gossamer-wing family consists of approximately 6000 species world wide with about 100 of these in North America. They include the blue, copper, harvester and hairstreak subfamilies. All of the gossamer-wing butterflies are relatively small. The males have reduced forelegs so they walk around on only four legs while the females, as in these pictures, have six normal sized legs which they walk on.

The eastern tailed-blue is the most common blue that we find in my area. It is pretty easy to identify the eastern tailed-blue because it is one of only two types of blues have a small hair-like tail at the base of the hindwing. The only other tailed-blue is the western tailed-blue and they have either one or no orange spot on the underside of the hind wing above the tail, compared to the two orange spots on the eastern tailed-blue. I photographed this blue on the shores of the ST Croix at the Carpenter Nature Center.

Butterflies

Life for butterflies is hard here in Minnesota. The butterflies that live here need to find a way to survive the harsh winter climate. They accomplish this in a variety of different ways.
For example the eastern tailed-blue, pictured above, will over winter in its larval form. It will usually find a seed pod to crawl into for cover. When winter is over the caterpillar already has a food source at hand.

The cabbage white butterfly, on the other hand, survives winter in its pupae state. Because it has already begun to change over the winter we usually see these types of butterflies emerging from their chrysalis as early as the beginning of May. Other types of butterflies will over winter as eggs or as adult butterflies.

Butterflies on the Sand

Most of the time when you think of butterfly habitat you envision open fields full of blooming wild flowers or ornate flower gardens. These are good places to look for butterflies but another place to look, that most people do not think of, is the shore line of lakes, rivers and streams. Like most living things butterflies need to ingest minerals and one way to do this is to suck up the dissolved minerals in wet sand. In this first pic a male cabbage white is partaking of minerals from the sand. We can tell that it is a male because it has a single spot on the fore wing, females have two spots.
The eastern tailed-blue can be identified by the small "hair-like" tail that protrudes from the hind wing. The only other member of the blue family that has a tail is the western tailed-blue. To distinguish between the eastern and western varieties of tailed-blue look for the orange spots near the tail on the hind wing. If the blue has two orange spots then it is an eastern tailed-blue if it only has a single spot then it is a western tailed-blue. While we do not see many western-tailed blue in the southeastern part of Minnesota their range does overlap in the northern part of the state and into Canada.
The viceroy butterfly is a monarch look a like, however it is easy to distinguish the difference once you know what you are looking for. First off the viceroy is typically smaller then the monarch, with a 2.5 to 3.25 inch wingspan for the viceroy and a 3.5 to 4.5 inch wingspan for the monarch. This can be difficult to judge, however, unless you are lucky enough to see them both together. The easy way to tell the difference is to look at the hind wing. On the viceroy there is a line running across the hind wing which is not present in the monarch. All of these butterflies where photographed at Afton State Park in September of 2008.

Butterflies

During the summer, when the birding gets a little slow, I have turned to photographing other parts of nature. At the beginning of last September I found quite a few interesting butterflies to photograph. Even though the least skipper is pretty common in North America many people over look it due to its small size.

Even though the Cabbage White butterfly is a common sight around woods, roadsides, farms, gardens and yards it is actually not native to North America. They originally came from Europe and were accidentally released into Canada back in the 1860s.
It is easy to distinguish between the male and female cabbage white by the number of spots on the forewing. If the butterfly has one spot, such as the first picture, then it is male but if it has two on the forewing, as shown above, then it is a female..
The eastern-tailed blue is another small butterfly that can be found through out most of the eastern part of North America, from the eastern coast of Canada and The US west to North Dakota, Colorado and central Texas, as well as parts of Mexico and the West Coast.
The eastern-tailed blue is a member of the Gossamer-wing family of butterflies and can be identified by the long hair like tail on the hindwing for which it gets its name. The only other blue butterfly with a tail is its cousin the western-tailed blue which is a bit larger and lacks orange spots at the base of the hind wing.

Eastern-tailed blue butterflies have a number of different types of host plants. Since their proboscis, or feeding tube, is not very long they look for short tubed flowers or ones that are open. Favorites include white clover, white sweet clover, shepherd's needle, wild strawberry, flea-bane. asters, winter cress and others. In the picture above two eastern tail blue are using their proboscis to drink nectar from a birds-foot trefoil flower.

Butterflies Just Around the Corner

The weather here has been pretty nice the past few days with our high temps getting up into the 70s yesterday and today, which is about 15 to 20 degrees above normal for this time of year. With a little bit of rain, they are predicting some for this weekend, things should really green up. So it should not be too long before the wild flowers begin to dot the fields and I butterfly season begins.
I have already seen a few of the early risers so far this year, mostly morning cloak and one eastern comma, but I can hardly wait until butterflies are in full force and eastern tail blue, like the one pictured above, are fluttering by the blooming wild lupine.
By now the monarchs, who have been hibernating down in Mexico and California, have come out of their state of suspended animation and have laid their eggs. The larva that hatch from the eggs will head north after they reach the adult butterfly stage and it will be the offspring of this new generation, that will be our first brood of 2009.
The first brood will live out their lives and lay eggs which will be our second brood, these are the ones that will hatch next August and then head south before the winter comes so that they can begin the process all over again. These pictures where taken near the Old Cedar Ave Bridge back on September 15th.

MyWorld: The Tiny World of Insects.

Each week bloggers take a look at the world around them and post for MyWorld. They take pictures of marvelous places that they share with their readers, but how often, when we are looking at the world around us, do we take a step back and notice the world beneath our feet. This is a world that is full of interesting creatures, that come in many exotic shapes and colors, that many people never take the time to explore. This week we will explore a small piece of this tiny world with pictures that I took on August 28th at the Carpenter Nature Center.

Back when I was a kid I spent a lot of time tipping over rocks and looking at beetles. Back in those days there was no Internet, computers, or field guides for bugs the only thing we had was an outdated set of encyclopedias which were very little help. Even though I could not ID them I still liked to watch them. These days with help from the Internet I can at least make an attempt at identification. I believe that this may be a dogbane beetle which is a beetle that lives in the eastern portion of North America and feeds on the leaves of plants in the dogbane family.
The Autumn or yellow-legged meadowhawk is easily distinguished from the other red colored meadowhawks by the fact that they have yellow legs instead of black. The Autumn meadowhawk is a late bloomer, meaning that they do not begin to mature into dragonflies until late July, so they are one of the most common dragons that are still seen in October and even early November depending on the weather.
The eastern tailed-blue butterfly is a very small butterfly that is often over looked. They look similar to their cousins the western-tailed blue but the eastern version usually has two orange spots on the wings. On this example it appears that the second orange spot on the far wing has been worn and lost much of its color but it definitely has two spots on the bottom of the near wing.
The monarch butterfly is the most recognizable butterfly in North America, and perhaps maybe even the entire world. The Caterpillar of the monarch feeds exclusively on members of the milkweed family, which makes the monarch toxic to most predators.
Many people are aware that monarchs, like birds, fly south for the winter, however this is not true for many monarchs. In the northern portion of North America we typically see two broods of monarchs each summer. The first brood of the summer are the offspring of monarchs that hatched in the south. They intern will produce a brood that will migrate south and then they will die. It is the second brood that we gather together in September and fly down to wintering grounds in Mexico or southern California. At the wintering ground they gather together and go into a hibernated state until the spring. When they wake up from hibernation they lay their eggs and then die and this is how the species continues.

I believe that this butterfly was an eastern tiger swallowtail but it is difficult to be sure since most of the edges of its wings are missing. The other option would be a Canadian tiger swallowtail, Carpenter Nature Center is with in the range of both versions, which has a continuous yellow band on the edge of the fore wing. There is also a black form of the female tiger swallowtail that looks very similar to the black swallowtail.So if you are lucky enough to live in a place where it is already warm enough for insects to survive take a look at the flowers, in the long grass, at the local pond or under a rock because you might find something really cool and interesting to look at. For those of us up here in the north we will still have to wait and be happy just to look at pictures.

Butterflies a Sign of Spring Longing

Today was a pretty nice day, at least as far as late February days in Minnesota go. The sun was shinning, the snow was melting and the temps probably got up close to 40 degrees. It felt good and made me think of the warmer days to come when there are plenty of things for me to go out and photograph with out having to travel half way across the state.
Things such as warblers, flycatchers, dragonflies and butterflies. Like this eastern tailed-blue that I photographed at the Carpenter Nature Center back on August 17th 2008.
Carpenter has some real nice fields which are full of natural plants and grasses as well as wild flowers.
Blooms, like the one on this thistle plant are very attractive to bees and butterflies who are looking for pollen, nectar, or both.
The monarch butterfly is most often associated with the milkweed plant. This is because milkweed is the host plant for the larval or caterpillar form of the monarch. The host plant is the plant, or plants, that the larva eats. The monarch caterpillar eats the milk weed, which is toxic, and thus becomes toxic itself which helps to discourage predators. Even though the monarch caterpillars host plant is milkweed the monarch butterfly drinks nectar from many different types of blooming flowers. Eventually it will return to the milkweed where it will lay its eggs on the underside of the milkweed leaves.

Old Cedar Bugs

If you have been a constant visitor to Ecobirder you may have noticed that the number of posts featuring insects has decreased dramatically from a couple of months ago. That is because winter has arrived and early this year and days with high temps in the 30s are a bit of a problem for the insect community. So the only insects that I see these days are the occasional spider that Michelle, my wife, hollers about or once in a while a centipede that my kitten Misty is stalking with her mad bug pawning skillz. Don't worry though I am saving some bug picks to post through out the winter to continue to bring you as much variety as possible. One of the last time that I went out and photographed several insects was at the Old cedar Bridge area at the beginning of October (10-2).
All during the late summer and fall my bug photography was hampered by grasshoppers. Most of the places that I visited where filled with grasshoppers at that time of the year. As I would walk through the fields, or even down dirt paths, quietly stalking a butterfly or dragonfly grasshoppers would go flying from the grass in front of me. Like an early alert system they would startle my prey which would, very often, take off right before I got my shot.

Once in a while I would get lucky though and my subject would not notice the hoard of grasshoppers fleeing before my gigantic size twelve hiking boots. Like this cabbage white butterfly who was too intent on sucking the nectar out of this flower to notice my approach.
This eastern tailed blue did not even flinch when it came face to face with my 9" Canon zoom lens.

Woolly bear caterpillars are a sure sign of fall. During the falls months, like October, they quit their eating and look for a sheltered place to hibernate for the winter. When the temps warm up again and spring arrives the woolly bear will wake up and spin a cocoon. A couple of weeks later they will emerge as an isabella tiger moth.

Going Buggy at Afton State Park

Well this weekend turned out to be very nice weather wise here in Minnesota. Both days turned out to be sunny with mostly clear skies. The temps on both days got up into the mid sixties which is pretty good for late October. This afternoon while I was out enjoying the weather I spotted quite a few meadowhawks and a few large darners still lingering. I also spotted a monarch, most of them flew south weeks ago, as well as a sulfur and a couple of cabbage whites.
Back on September sixth there were quite a few butterflies around when I visited Afton State Park. Afton is located on the St Croix River a little ways north of where the St Croix joins with the Mississippi.
The reason that I went to Afton was to try and find some of the rare clubtail dragonflies that are only found around the St Croix River in Minnesota. but while searching for dragons I came across quite a few butterflies. Although the cabbage white is a common through out most of North America it is not actually a native to the continent. It was accidentally introduced from Europe into Canada in the 1860s. You can tell that this is a male cabbage white because it only has a single spot on the fore wing, females have two spots.

I also found a fairly good numbers of eastern tailed-blue butterflies. These are similar in size to the endangered Karner blue but they are much more common and are easily identified by the small tendril or tail projecting from the hind wing. The only other blue in our area with a tail is the western tailed-blue. You can tell the difference because the eastern has two or more orange spots near the tail where the western has only a single orange spot. We see a lot more eastern tailed-blue.
At first glance I thought this next butterfly was a monarch but when I was able to examine it more closely I realised that it was a monarch copycat.
The viceroy resembles the monarch, which is toxic to most predators because of the milkweed it eats when it is a caterpillar, this helps it to avoid predators. Viceroys are noticeably smaller then monarchs and have a stripe running across the hind wing that the monarch does not have.
I did find one dragon that appears to be a clubtail. Unfortunately I was only able to get off a couple of quick shots before it flew off across the water where I could not follow. It was not a very great picture but I think that it may be a russet-tipped clubtail, possibly one that only recently emerged. There is only one record of Russet-tipped clubtails in Minnesota and that was in Houston County on the far south east tip of the state, according Odonata Central. Hopefully this information is up to date and correct, if not I am sure that Hap will let me know. I have also found other dragons that I believe were russet-tipped clubtails down at Carpenter Nature Center, which is also on the St Croix River a little south of Afton. I plan to make a photo set and send it to the Minnesota Odonata Survey Project. If I am correct with my identification,hopefully they will be able to tell from the photos, then perhaps the russet-tipped clubtail will get added to the species checklist for Washington County.

Butterflies at Dodge Nature Center

Even though I appears to me like we have less butterflies around this year then we did last year I did find a couple on my visit to Dodge Nature Center in mid June.
The first is a common ringlet. These butterflies are common in the northern and western part of the US as well as southern Canada and Alaska. They are a member of the satyr (Satyrinae) subfamily and are commonly found flying close to the ground.
This second butterfly is an eastern tailed blue. I was really excited when I first saw it fluttering around the blooming lupine. I had hoped that it might be a Karner blue. The Karner blue is a sub-population of the Melissa blue which lives in the great lakes area and is currently listed on the endangered species list. The caterpillar of the Karner blue only eats lupine so any blue that is sighted around lupine in this area could potentially be a Karner blue. Since this one had a small tail poking off the bottom of the wing, it is a bit tough to see at this angle, then it could not be a Karner but was either and eastern or western tailed blue. The western-tailed blue only has one orange dot on the lower wing so since this one had more then one it must be an eastern-tailed blue.

Blue butterflies at Crex Meadows

With the butterfly and dragonfly populations finally exploding in June we on the look out for insects as well as birds on our trip to Crex Meadows at the beginning of the month. We were particularly hoping to find and photograph a Karner Melissa blue butterfly.
The Karner blue is listed on the endangered species list because it depends on lupine as the host plant for its larval form, caterpillar. The best place to find karners is in middle of Wisconsin but there is a small population that is know to inhabit Crex.
So as we travelled through the park photographing birds, butterflies and dragonflies we would stop and look for blue butterflies any time that we spotted a good size patch of lupine. We never did find a Karner, it was still pretty early in the summer, but we did find an eastern tailed-blue, which is pictured in the top two photos. The eastern tailed-blue is pretty easy to ID. There are only two blue butterflies with tails in the area, the western-tailed blue, which has only one orange spot on the bottom wing near the tail, and the eastern-tailed blue which typically has more then one orange spot on the lower wing.
We also found a silvery blue, notice no tail and no orange on the under side of the wing. We were pretty excited because this was our first pic of a silvery blue, I have not been photographing butterflies and dragonflies for very long, but I wished that I could have taken a pic with its wings open. The upper side of the wings is a silvery almost metallic blue color. Oh well, maybe the next time that we go out looking for Karnes again I will get a shot of a silvery blue with its wings open.