Lack of butterflies - NOT

[Shueyi at aol.com]

Just a note from Sothern Indiana.  There is absolutely no shortage of
butterflies in the forests along the Ohio River.  I spent a couple of hours at
a natire preserve in the region, and saw hundreds of swallowtails, 5 species
in all (zebra, giant, spicebush tiger and pipevine).  Skippers abounded on
purple cone flowers. and gemmed satyrs were more aboundant than I've ever seen
them.

The same seems to be true of wetland species  in northen Indiana and southern
Michigan, where all the usual wetland butterflies were seen a couple of weeks
ago in typical numbers.  Mitchell's satyr seems to be as abundant as it ever
gets at the two sites where I worked on mark-release-recapture (about 100
marked individuals at one site - over 130 at the other).

And at Indiana's single known site for regal fritillaries,  males are more
common than I've ever seen them, patrolling patches of common milkweed up to a
kilometer from the "core" prairie.  I counted at least 5 different males and a
lone female at this site (usually you're lucky to see even 1 male this far
form the "breeding grounds" and I've never seen females off the core site).

John Shuey