Old Lyme Tawny Emperor

[Hank Golet]

>From Hank Golet  7-11-11

 Sometimes it just pays to stay home.  Some of you may remember last year as I was checking my pipevine I noticed a Tawny Emperor  on a buddleia right near by and a closer look found it was  in the clutches of an ambush bug.

  Around eleven this morning I was cutting back some honey suckle vine that was crawling up my garden fence right near where I have a blueberry patch.  I was bending over cutting near the ground when I saw a shadow of a butterfly that was flying around IN the berry patch. Tawny Emperor.

The berry patch is 24X30  has a 6 foot high chicken wire fence (1X 1  1/4 inch) around it and a half inch mesh nylon net that was used on a fish weir for Atlantic Herring at Grand Manan, New Brunswick, which I put over the top each year.  There are two Hackberry trees near by, the nearest with branches less than 8 feet from the patch.

 I have found butterflies inside the fencing every year, usually a few, mostly Red Admirals but also,E Commas and Question Marks.  I think I have had Red Spotted Purples but not certain.
  
So, how,,and why do they get in??  Do some  crawl in and pupate there.  I prune the berries in march and have never found any kind of a chrysalis there but could probably  overlook it. 

I have a couple of cool images from this morning if you want to see them.

Also, my FOY (besides the Tawny) Mulberry Wing today and for the past week Broad-winged Skippers, as many as a dozen, mostly on some swamp milkweed that I have in the yard

Other dates for Tawny in my yard have been;

2010  8/6
2009  8/18
2008  7/30
2007  8/8
2005  7/5  Neighbor Ted Hendrickson's house 
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