This week's leps at Dinosaur SP

[Eric D. Thomas]

For the past 5 days I have observed the following species (all adults) at
Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill:

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Spicebush Swallowtail
Cabbage White
Clouded Sulfur
Striped Hairstreak
Gray Hairstreak
Eastern Tailed Blue
Great Spangled Fritillary
American Lady
Appalachian Brown
Monarch
Silver-spotted Skipper
Southern Cloudywing
Northern Broken Dash
Little Glassywing
Mulberry Wing (most common of all species)
Black Dash
Dun Skipper

It has been slow going as of late - our red maple/sedge wetland has been
essentially dry for 2+ weeks.  Some flowers have strong showing this year,
including Asclepias syriaca and A. tuberosa, while others seem lackluster.
In bloom and being visited including a few species of mountain-mint, vetch
sp. First of buttonbush in bloom - a real draw to mulberry wings.  Not much
A. incarnata or A. purpurascens seen this year here.  Lots of lep activity
after each bout of rain over last few days.

Saw Steve Grant's short article in H. Courant today about 4th of July
counts and highlighting Clay Taylor prepping for E. Haddam count.

Off - topic note:  had first cicadas buzzing on 7/1 at 9:00 am - first of
year for here.  Had seen increased (and early I would say) activity of
cicada-killer wasp making ground burrows over last week.  Usually hear
first cicadas around the 20-24th of July around here.  Also noticing
increase in honeybees at many flowers this year, esp. Aclepias vulgaris -
sorry, do not have bee id.

Eric D. Thomas
Dinosaur State Park
400 West Street
Rocky Hill, CT 06067-3506
Telephone(860)529-5816 Fax (860)257-1405
EMail: ericthomas at snet.net
WWW Home Page:  http://www.dinosaurstatepark.org