alien butterfly in my garden

[Robert Thorn]

On 8/14/01 9:56 AM, "James Kruse" <fnjjk1 at uaf.edu> wrote:

> A friend in Madison, Wisconsin has a Heliconius charitonius (Zebra
> butterfly) that was caught within the city limits of Madison several years
> ago. This butterfly has strayed as far north as SW Illinois in the past, but
> he caught it about 2 blocks from the local butterfly house that did have H.
> charitonius in it at the time. I've been in this butterfly house, and it has
> pretty good butterfly security. There are double doors to the outside, then
> a foyer and gift shop, then another set of doors into the butterfly area.
> However, I suspect there is a crack somewhere rather than this being a real
> stray. 
> 
> I like Ken Philip's idea of punching a _small_ (smaller than paper puncher)
> circular hole in one of the hindwings (in the discal cell or something) for
> all live butterflies brought outside their normal range (including school
> reared Vanessa in Fairbanks, AK, for example). I suppose that might "ruin" a
> few butterfly house pictures, but if folks had the reasons properly
> explained to them (and they cared about bioinventories and their importance)
> they may be more accepting of it.
> 
> A Zebra (of any type) that naturally found its way to Wisconsin would be a
> significant find! Too bad there is a lot of doubt about the one that was
> found.
> 
> Regards,
> James J. Kruse, Ph.D.
> Curator of Entomology
> University of Alaska Museum
> 907 Yukon Drive
> Fairbanks, AK, USA 99775-6960
> tel 907.474.5579
> fax 907.474.1987
> http://www.uaf.edu/museum/ento
> 
> 
> 
> 
> on 8/13/01 10:49 AM, Charles V. Covell at covell at louisville.edu wrote:
> 
>> Yesterday, Sunday Aug. 12, I went out of the house to check the garden for my
>> periodic count of butterfly species.  There on a peony leaf stood what turned
>> out to be a _Heliconius ismenius_, too far out of its range in Central to
>> South America to be a migrant.  Howver, about 3 miles from our house the
>> Louisville Zoo is operating a butterfly house this summer, Martin Feather in
>> charge.  Some coincidence that this Heliconiine flew that far from its point
>> of escape at the zoo to land in the back yard of just about the only person
>> in
>> Louisville, KY beside Martin who would note this as an alien.  Kind of makes
>> me wonder how many escapees there are over there!  Anyone else have or know
>> about a similar occurrence?  Cheers, Charlie
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
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> 
Several years back I volunteered to docent the butterfly house at the Ohio
State Fair here in Columbus.  It's an outdoor enclosure, but has double
doors and most of the anti-escape devices.  Yet, on my lunch break I
strolled down to a planted garden of prairie plants about .2 mile away, and
there flitting among the coneflowers was a Queen.  There's been only one
valid record for Queen in Ohio (from Columbus, oddly enough).  Yet there
were several Queens flying in the butterfly house.  Given that this one was
in fairly good condition, I had little doubt from whence it came.  It might
be very useful for butterfly display houses to mark their butterflies in
some way.  The wings could be nicked or punched, but that might affect their
flying ability or aesthetic value.  A more ingenious solution would be to
dab some UV-reflective paint on them, as that wouldn't change their
appearance (to us at least).

Rob Thorn


 
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