Queen in NJ: what should its status be

[Michael Gochfeld]

With regard to David Moskowitz' recent photographing of a Queen (Danaus 
gilippus) in central New Jersey,  Jim Springer wrote: 

-----------------------------------------------------
Mike,

I imagine that this Queen has been human assisted.  Do you know of any 
other reports from NJ?

Thanks,
Jim
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GOCHFELD'S RESPONSE

Jim,

I know of no other records from NJ. It sounds like a reasonable thing to 
 "imagine" that it was human assisted, but there's no reason why strong 
 flying Danaus butterflies couldn't show up out of range. 

One kind of assist might be school releases, but I don't know whether 
Queens are widely used for such purposes. 

David looked closely to see what might be a "fingerprint", but 
apparently concluded it probably wasn't.  Also the photographs show an 
extremely fresh individual, suggesting a local emergence rather than a 
long-distance flight. 

Therefore another more likely kind might be horticultural trade in 
Milkweeds.  We  are beginning to see Scarlet Milkweed (Asclepias 
curassavica) in nurseries. If plants are brought up from a more 
tropical region for sale here, they could easily transport a 
caterpillar unharms.  I bought a Pipevine at a Florida nursery and when 
I got it home (NJ) it had six Polydamas larvae on it. They devoured the 
plant thereby committing suicide---so no inadvertent introduction there. 

There have been other southern vagrants in NJ and neighboring states, 
going back a century or more, when presumably human assists would have 
been less frequent.   

The term "vagrant" implies that the creature got to an unusual location 
on its own, so perhaps the term "accidental" is less value laden, since 
 it makes no judgement as to how the occurrence occurred. 

Anyway it's a fascinating record and the suggestion that it might be a 
"western" source will prompt closer scrutiny of David's photos. Perhaps 
those on the leps-list will email David and invite him to email the 
photos to them for examination. 

Mike Gochfeld



=====================================================
-----Original Message-----
From: David Moskowitz [mailto:Dmoskowi at ecolsciences.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2001 9:14 AM
To: springer at naba.org
Cc: sightings at naba.org
Subject: Queen in central NJ!!!!!!!!


Dear Jim: I found and photographed a male Queen (yes a Queen) in East
Windsor, NJ yesterday. The butterfly was nectaring on swamp milkweed,
canada thistle, and dogbane in a wet meadow/old field. I have great
photos of the upper and lower surfaces. I can't find any records for
this species in NJ. Burger and Gochfield don't list it, even as
accidental, the USGS web page doesn't show NJ records or even anything 
closer than NC, the Mulberry Wing NY sightings don't include it, and 
it's don't listed as a rare stray in the Butterflies of Delmarva. 

I assume, it is either a release, an escape, or possibly a stray. The 
wher I found it, is only about 1/4 mile from exit 8 on the turnpike and 
there are really only farm fields and a little development in between. 
Maybe it was carried along by a truck or other vehicle?

Now for some details on the butterfly. It was nectaring and patrolling. 
I watched it and photographed it for about 10 minutes before I lost it 
flew through some very dense rose and I lost it. I could not relocate 
it. Unfortunately I did not realize how unusual the sighting was until I 
got home last night and started checking its distribution out. 
Otherwise, I probably would have collected it. But, I did take detailed 
field notes and nice close up photos.

The butterfly is in very good condition. It has a very slight tear (beak 
mark?) on the hind wing margin. There is some loss of scales on the
upper surface of one forewing and a series of lines on the other that 
could suggest the lines of a fingerprint. However, there is no evidence 
on the photos of scale loss on the underside of the wing opposite these 
areas of scale loss on the upper side that would suggest that someone 
had held the wings. I would think that holding the wings in such a way 
that would create an impression of the lines of a fingerprint on one 
surface would certainly remove scales on the other surface. I think I'm 
going to try it with a monarch and see what happens.  The butterfly also
has pretty distinct white scaling along the black veins of the
undersurface of the hindwing.  My books seem to suggest that this is 
related to the western populations of the species.

.

Dave Moskowitz       



 
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