Five species of Swallowtails

[Michael Gochfeld]

John's observations of butterfly abundance "inland" are interesting in the light 
of Harry Pavulaan's observations away from the coastal plain.  We're getting 
mixed results in NJ and southern NY.  The coastal plain counts are all dismal.  
Some of the inland counts are showing high numbers, others very low.  However, 
diversity seems to be good (it's numbers that are low).  But five Swallowtails 
sound really exciting.  Several of us were lamenting the dearth of butterflys on 
our Fourth of July Count and remembering wistfully our experience at Tonga 
(Zaire) where we had 120 individuals of five species of Swallowtails packed 
together into a square foot of mud.  If I can figure out how, I'll post the 
picture of that phenomenon. Just remembering it years later, it was 
breath-taking. 
--------------------------------------------------------
Name: Michael Gochfeld
E-mail: Michael Gochfeld <gochfeld at eohsi.rutgers.edu>
UMDNJ/RWJMS and EOHSI, Piscataway, NJ
Date: 07/17/98
Time: 16:53:36