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

[rcech at nyc.rr.com]

Peter: Any nurseries / transported plant outlets / soy bean fields
w/out-of-state stock in the area (incl. at the fairgrounds)?  The
possibility of southern hitchhikers is not out of the question w/a sighting
this unusual, esp. if it ends up being one-off. Very interesting! 

Rick Cech 

-----Original Message-----
From: Ctleps-l <ctleps-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Peter
DeGennaro
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2018 10:34 PM
To: Butterfly Posting <Ctleps-l at mailman.yale.edu>;
Northeasternlepidopterists <neleps at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Ctleps-l] Long-tailed Skipper, Bronze Coppers

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
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