[Ctleps-l] Steep Rock Today

Peter DeGennaro degennap at gmail.com
Wed Apr 13 22:54:15 EDT 2016


Hi Peary,

A couple of examples come to mind. As I understand it, warm early springs
followed by freezes tend to bring out leps only to kill off the emerging
adults, which results in lower numbers in later year generations.

And warm springs can bring out oak blossoms too early before the waves of
migrating warblers can feast on nectaring insects. Instead the oaks will
have leafed out (to the dismay of birders too).


As for American Ladies, there have been reports of a larger than normal
migration this year at Cape May. The CT early date is April 8th:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.ctbutterfly.org_pdfdocs_butterflydates.pdf&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wPbNkt6T_H4X7m_PlvSFCGU2a9-csNvfRK2IVMi-mp0&m=Z1AkHiy0zD4fyMo-Rz4Ampae6yJIq34dqVY-UTTTDbM&s=8tnS1n7dLOrFfpSaxYtxHoXylF19sAIq-3wJ7dUyvks&e= 

Peter DeGennaro

On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 10:06 PM, Peary Stafford <pearydstafford at gmail.com>
wrote:

> So here's my contribution to the firsts of today:
>      Scouting for a wildflower walk we are supposed to host on the 7th of
> May, I found a bunch of flowers we were hoping to see then in bud or in
> bloom today. (Trailing Arbutus, Bloodroot, Round-leaved Violet, Round-lobed
> Hepatica, Dentaria).  Made me concerned that we were well ahead plant-wise
> but on schedule lep-wise which would create problems for butterflies and
> their hosts.
>      I ran into our Land Steward and we talked about the question; he
> suggested that if species evolved together they would react similarly to
> external stimuli like temperature and length of day.  If so, we needn't
> worry about a lack of synchronicity between the insect and its host plants.
>
>      Unconvinced, I started back to the truck and what pops up but a West
> Virginia White, lover of the nearly-blooming Dentaria. (April 26 is the
> first I've had it here before at Steep Rock, but the earliest date in the
> state seems to be APRIL 13, 2002 according to an old list I have.)  Seems
> my friend was right about plants and animals being in tune with each other!
>
>    One shot attached.
> Peary
> PS. I'd love to hear others' thoughts on whether warm or cold springs or
> summers can get things out of synch between the plants and animals.
>
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