Dana Williams from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies offers a talk with a field excursion. Find out more about Vermont’s butterflies and learn about the Butterfly Atlas.
More details to come!
Butterfly Atlas Talk
Bob Spear, Founding Director + Master #C
Bob Spear, Founding Director + Master Carver, is the featured member in summer Vermont Entomological Society News! (The article was written by current Executive Director, Wildlife Biologist Erin Talmage.)
The PDF of VES News is here: http://vermontinsects.org/vesnews/VES%20News%20-%20Summer%202012.pdf [5 Mb PDF]
More newsletters can be found here: http://vermontinsects.org/newsletter.html
Highlights of July 8th Butterfly Walk
We could not have asked for better weather during the July 8th ButterflyWalk. Clear blue skies and comfortable temperatures welcomed the eighteen nature lovers that joined Vermont Entomological Society naturalists and entomologists for an exploratory stroll on the Birds of Vermont Museum grounds. Make sure to check out the list of the many butterflies, insects, and other miscellaneous critters participants got to experience up close!
To learn more about the Vermont Entomological Society check out their website, where you can find gorgeous photos and information about the society.
Butterflies, Insects, and Misc. Critters viewed on July 8th:
Butterflies:
- Atlantis Fritillary Butterfly
- Clouded Sulphurs Butterfly (male)
- Dun Skipper Butterfly
- Monarch Butterfly
- Question Mark Butterfly
- Azure Butterfly
- Northern Pearly Eye Butterfly
- Red Admiral Butterfly
Moths:
- Sod Grass Veneer Moth
- Mottled Snout Moth
- Gypsy Moth (caterpillar)
- Plume Moth
Misc. Flying Species:
- Enallagma Skimming Bluet (blue damselfly)
- Bright Green Damselfly
- 12-Spotted Skimmer Dragonfly
- Red Dragon Fly
- Dragon Fly (exoskeleton)
- Crane Fly
- Scorpion Fly (female)
- Serpent Fly (mimics wasp)
Beetles:
- Click Beetle
- Japanese Beetle
- Whirligig Beetle
- Case-bearing Leaf Beetle
Other Species:
- Bush Katydid
- Grey Grasshopper (gripped and turned a dime – VERY IMPRESSIVE!)
- Large Tan Spider(male)
- Crab Spider (3 sighted, 1 was eating another insect)
- Water Boatman
- Water Scorpion
- Frogs & Tadpoles
- Leeches
- Salamanders
- Raven (heard)
- Black Billed Cuckoo (heard and sighted)
Interested in identifying butterflies in your own backyard? Check out “Gardens With Wings” for help identifying butterflies by their shape, wingspan, opened and closed wing color, common name and family name.
Highlights of July 8th Butterfly Walk
We could not have asked for better weather during the July 8th ButterflyWalk. Clear blue skies and comfortable temperatures welcomed the eighteen nature lovers that joined Vermont Entomological Society naturalists and entomologists for an exploratory stroll on the Birds of Vermont Museum grounds. Make sure to check out the list of the many butterflies, insects, and other miscellaneous critters participants got to experience up close!
To learn more about the Vermont Entomological Society check out their website, where you can find gorgeous photos and information about the society.
Butterflies, Insects, and Misc. Critters viewed on July 8th:
Butterflies:
- Atlantis Fritillary Butterfly
- Clouded Sulphurs Butterfly (male)
- Dun Skipper Butterfly
- Monarch Butterfly
- Question Mark Butterfly
- Azure Butterfly
- Northern Pearly Eye Butterfly
- Red Admiral Butterfly
Moths:
- Sod Grass Veneer Moth
- Mottled Snout Moth
- Gypsy Moth (caterpillar)
- Plume Moth
Misc. Flying Species:
- Enallagma Skimming Bluet (blue damselfly)
- Bright Green Damselfly
- 12-Spotted Skimmer Dragonfly
- Red Dragon Fly
- Dragon Fly (exoskeleton)
- Crane Fly
- Scorpion Fly (female)
- Serpent Fly (mimics wasp)
Beetles:
- Click Beetle
- Japanese Beetle
- Whirligig Beetle
- Case-bearing Leaf Beetle
Other Species:
- Bush Katydid
- Grey Grasshopper (gripped and turned a dime – VERY IMPRESSIVE!)
- Large Tan Spider(male)
- Crab Spider (3 sited, 1 was eating another insect)
- Water Boatman
- Water Scorpion
- Frogs & Tadpoles
- Leeches
- Salamanders
- Raven (heard)
- Black Billed Cuckoo (heard and sighted)
Interested in identifying butterflies in your own backyard? Check out “Gardens With Wings” for help identifying butterflies by their shape, wingspan, opened and closed wing color, common name and family name.
A beginner’s notes from the Annual Butterfly Walk
post by Kir Talmage, Museum Program Coordinator
I’ve just come back from the Annual VES Butterfly Walk. Thank you so much to Bryan Pfeiffer, Trish Hanson and many others for sharing their knowledge! We had about 35 guests or so on the walk, ranging from young kids to grandparents, new explorers to professional (and retired) entomologists. I’m a new explorer, practically a rank beginner with bugs. I love it.
You’ll no doubt get much more by coming on a walk, going outside, and paging through field guides. I went out with my just my notebook and camera, though. So, from my notes:
About observing tools: Water nets and butterfly nets are not the same. A butterfly net (for field insects, etc.) is longer, cone-shaped, and of a very fine soft mesh. The longer shape (compared a vaguely trapezoidal water net) allows one to “flip” the net closed, so the insect won’t escape while you are examining it. That’s less of an issue with a water net; water beetles and dragonfly nymphs aren’t so likely to fly off.
About Butterflies: Lepidoptera — the order that contains butterflies — means “scale(d) wing”, for the thousands of tiny, often iridescent scales that cover the wings. We found a clouded sulphur female (Colias philodice). One way (of several) to tell this was a female was because she had spots in the dark margin of her upper wing.
About Dragonflies and Damselflies: When identifying them, look at where the color is on which segments of the abdomen — look very closely! Also look at the profile of the claspers at the end of the abdomen. The different shapes (hook, c-clamp, straight, knobby, etc.) helped in identification.
About Daddy-long-legs: I had never noticed how the mouth parts fold so neatly, making such a even oval profile of their bodies. Lovely.
Here’s a cool online resource I just found too, for comparing multiple pictures of butterflies (and others): http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?guide=Butterflies What are your favorite online resources for Insects and Arachnids?
