Baltimore Larvae and West Virginia Whites (and Garlic Mustard)

Wagner, David david.wagner at uconn.edu
Thu May 7 08:44:07 EDT 2009


Hello,

We have been looking for Baltimore larval nests at places suggested by all of you:  e.g., Rentschler field, Machimoodus State Park, Harkness Memorial, etc., but have yet to find nests.  We are interested in collecting early-spring larvae to determine their parasite fauna, and especially determine if the exotic fly introduced by the USDA to control the gypsy moth is attacking larvae here in CT (there are reports from Maryland).  If you see any nest or know where we should be looking for such, please let us know...the clock is ticking on opportunities for this spring.  Ideally we will get larvae from multiple sites.

Secondly, we are interested in observations relevant to garlic mustard being detrimental (or not) to the West Virginia White.  While the belief  in the conservation community is that garlic mustard equals doom for the butterfly, there is almost no data available addressing the matter.  (Many garlic mustard serves as an egg sink for the butterfly-females oviposit on the leaves but all larvae die, and that the butterfly soon disappears once the weed invades a woodland with the butterfly).  If you know of a site that recently had butterflies, but that no longer supports a colony, with a lot of garlic mustard, that is useful; conversely, if you know of a site that has had garlic mustard and butterflies for three+ years I would like to hear from you.

Thanks.

David L. Wagner
Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Storrs, CT 06269-3043
v. (860) 486-2139; f. (860) 486-6364






________________________________
From: owner-ctleps-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-ctleps-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of butterflypr at comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 7:45 AM
To: CT LEPS
Subject: Norwich butterfly exhibit

Has anyone heard anything about this?

http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/news_wtnh_norwich_exhibit_takes_flight_200905061712_rev1

Diane
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