[Ctleps-l] Long-tailed Skipper, Bronze Coppers

[Peter DeGennaro]

6/16 - my brother and I were in the area, so we stopped at Portland
Fairgrounds in Portland for a quick visit to try for Bronze Copper. We
were successful in finding some coppers very close to the parking
area. However, the butterfly of the day was a LONG-TAILED SKIPPER at
the treeline line along the Connecticut River. This is obviously very
early to find one in CT, but I researched a bit and could not find any
records of this species this year north of Georgia (I did not check
south of the Carolinas). I'm probably overlooking some records so if
anyone knows of any, let me know. And it gets weirder - the one I
found spent most of its time attempting to ovitposit on various
plants; I ended up finding six eggs. So it must have found a male at
some point.

The Bronze Coppers were all in good condition except for one very worn
male. They were most common on the left side of the dirt road not far
from the parking area (the spot where one could view the Red-necked
Phalarope a few weeks ago). We counted seven in total, but this is
only a small portion of the habitat. If anyone goes for photographs
and wants dorsal shots, I recommend getting there early in the morning
before it gets hot.

Photographs of the skipper and coppers to follow once I catch up on
uploading to Flickr.

Peter DeGennaro