Wyandot in Philly?

[ciprit]

The is PLENTY of cinquefoil (buttercups) in my Philadelphia neighborhood.  In
fact, there is a large grassy, weedy area nearby just FULL of it.  And there's
strawberry on my lawn.  Also, there's a 14 mile long natural park about 1 1/2
mi. from my house with plenty of trees & flowers native to the area, a creek,
some meadowy areas, etc.  It's not exactly forest or anything, but to give you
an idea of the type of space it is, one can often spot white-tailed deer and
woodpeckers in the park.  It's also a good place to observe at least one species
of Polygonia-- I've seen either Questionmarks or Commas there.  I'd have to look
at my notes to remember which one I thought I observed.

My point is, could there be sufficient natural habitat in my area to support
Wyandot?  If not, I'll have to agree that I saw a Common Checkered Skipper.

Christina

Randy Emmitt wrote:

> Mike,
>
> Today I found the second ever sighting or collection of a Grizzled Skipper
> presumably a Appalachian Grizzled Skipper  (Pyrgus wyandot) in the Mountains
> of North Carolina. I was in a meadow at it`s edge and it landed in front of
> me. I studied it closely and grabbed my Glassberg`s to confirm it. I studied
> Glassbergs then again the skipper and got all the field marks. It was very
> worn on the hindwing and matched perfectly. I put away my Glassberg`s and
> looked and it was gone. I searched for nearly  an hour to no avail. I had my
> camera in hand, but I was alone so I wanted to confirm it before I missed a
> photo and possibly the skipper ID. Actually the Grizzled Skipper was
> considered to be absent.
>
> The field it was in was full of Cinquefoil (Potentilla canadensis) and
> strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) the grizzled Skippers host plants and 150+
> American Coppers(new state high count). I`ll be adding new photos of  West
> Virginia White, American Copper, Silvery Blue, Creole Pearly-eye, Dreamy
> Duskywing, Sleepy Duskywing and Whirlabout to my Butterflies Found in North
> Carolina site tommorrow and/ or saturday.
>
> Randy Emmitt
> Rougemont, NC
> Butterflies Found in North Carolina Online!
> http://www.rlephoto.com/butterflies/butterflies.html
>
> Michael Gochfeld wrote:
>
> > The Appalachian Grizzled Skipper  (Pyrgus wyandot) has not been recorded
> > in NJ despite lots of searching, for many many years.  Dale Schweitzer
> > and Art Shapiro provided evidence that wyandot is specifically distinct
> > from centaurae (a primarily Old World butterfly with a race freija in
> > Canada.
> >
> > Even in the days of Beutenmuller (1893) this was considered "exceedingly
> > rare".  It occurred in trap rock glades in northern and northwestern New
> > Jersey, at least through the 1930's (Rutgers specimens 1937 1938), but
> > Comstock (1940) already considered it rare.  I think it was one of the
> > species that disappeared during the heavy pesticide use era of mosquito
> > control of the late 1940's early 1950's (after which there are no
> > records). But I understand the species continues to disappear over a
> > much wider area of the northeast (perhaps accelerated by anti-Gypsy Moth
> > campaigns), or something else.
> >
> > In addition to (or perhaps in preference to the strawberry (Fragaria
> > virginiana), Schweitzer lists the Cinquefoil (Potentilla canadensis) as
> > its local host.
> >
> > Mike Gochfeld