VERY Early immigrants in the Mid West

Shueyi Shueyi at aol.com
Thu May 21 11:17:32 EDT 1998


Leppers,

I was just out yesterday in NW Indiana (Upper Midwest of the US) looking for
elfins and early spring skippers.  

I found some of my target species - dusted skippers (Atrytonopsis hiana) and
cobweb skipper (Hesperia metea), suggesting that the local fauna is in the mid
to late spring phenology.  But what amazed me was the presence of three
species of deep south immigrants, cloudless sulphur (Phoebis sennae), little
sulphur (Eurema lisa ) and monarch (Danaus plexippus).  All three of these
species show up in the sand savannas 40 miles south of Chicago every year, but
the Sulphurs in particular usually make their first appearance in late
July/early August.

My guess is that this should be an amazing year for southern strays in
northern climates, and that people looking for new state and provincial
records should have tremendous success this year.

John Shuey


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