[Ctleps-l] NE CT Leps

[Raymond Simpson]

Hey all,

For my first trip of the season I visited some powerline cuts north of
Killingly.  It got hotter than forecast and was clear early and overcast
late.  By far the nicest was northeast of Tracy Road.  The part near 395
did not have an obvious access point due to wire fences and trucks were
coming in and out of the industrial park so I didn't go too far in that
direction.  The main part I checked had nice dry sandy habitats intermixed
with rock outcrops.  There was some blueberry and Andropogon patches which
reminded me of Mansfield Hollow and the Jersey pine barrens.

Nectar was honeysuckle, a pink flower on a bush, various small wildflowers,
and a weedy spurge.  Many skippers were perching and unidentified flybys.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - 1
Spicebush Swallowtail - 1 (pink azalea looking bush)
Cabbage White - 3
Clouded Sulphur - 4
American Copper - 6+
Frosted Elfin - 3 (only one colony found tucked near a fenced area) they
are fresh
Pine Elfin - 3 (fresh, 2 on spurge)
Spring? Azure - 8+ (netted individuals all females and were violacea forms)
Gray Hairstreak - 1
Pearl Crescent - 12+
American Lady - 3 (worn)
Red Admiral - 1
Little Wood Satyr - 1 (fresh out with wings still kind of floppy)
Common Ringlet - 2 (fresh, in small more mesic satellite cut paralleling
395)
Northern Cloudywing - 1 (in Tracy cut, fresh)
Common Sootywing - 2 (dark fresh males, in same cut as Ringlets)
Dreamy Duskywing - 4+ (more small flybys probably this species too)
Juvenal's Duskywing - 6+ (4 netted and confirmed, all males of diff. wear)
Wild Indigo Duskywing - 1 (on honeysuckle, fresh and dark)
Peck's Skipper - 3 (all males, fresh in wet part of Tracy cut)

No Sleepy, Cobwebs or Indian Skipper.  Might be too late for Cobweb and
early for Indian because habitat was excellent.

Odes:  mostly small black and yellow libellulids, a immature Corporal, and
a medium-small gomphid (exilis?)

Tiger Beetles: Cicindela sexguttata common, Cicindela scutellaris a few in
sandy areas and like Jersey ssp rugifrons but reddish brown in color.

Moths: a few day flying geometers were dark above and rusty red to orange
below.  Saw a flyby Hemaris species but probably thysbe.

Stopped by Paquag SF on the way back and noted some large white cedars in
the parking lot near the pond.  There were honeysuckles in the understory
but it was too late and cloudy to expect Hessel's.  I think it has been
collected here in the past and would be worth checking for that species.

Ray Simpson
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