Report from 64 45'N

[Kenelm Philip]

	This is an odd-numbered year--when strange things happen in Interior
Alaska, since there are 7 species of butterflies which have odd-year flights
here. One occasionally picks up a few specimens during the off-year, de-
pending on the species and the exact site--but in odd years these can be
very abundant indeed.

	Last summer, the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest near Fairbanks
produced _one_ _Erebia mancinus_ (Taiga Alpine) as far as I saw. This
summer they're out in hundreds along the road through the bog in the
Tanana River floodplain. _Oeneis jutta_ (Jutta Arctic) should be along
fairly soon now--that's another odd-year bug here.

	Yesterday (9 June) the first _Clossiana chariclea_ (Arctic
Fritillary) of the summer turned up in the bog. Some workers maintain that
this is conspecific with what has been called _C. titania_ in North America.
Since _titania_ flies in late summer every year in these bogs, while the
clearly different _chariclea_ flies (for a rather short period) in the same
bogs in early summer on odd-numbered years only, I prefer to think the
story is more complicated. For the time being, I consider these two taxa
as representing different species--one of which ('_titania_', which may not
be the same as the palaearctic _titania_) flies only in taiga, while the
other (_chariclea_) flies in taiga and tundra both, being an early-summer
species in taiga, a mid-summer species at and near treeline, and a late-
summer species at high elevations (or on the North Slope). An interesting
situation...

							Ken Philip

P.S. The mosquitoes are out as well. As someone said recently in a cartoon,
if you sit really still they'll come up and eat right out of your hand...




 
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