flying in N. GA

[DR. JAMES ADAMS]

Listers,

	Okay.  I've been listening to all the babble, especially out of 
Texas, about all the nice things everyone is seeing.  And Ron 
continues posting about some of the stuff out in SC. It's time to 
wake up the leps in N. GA, and it happened over the last week.

	With apologies to Bob in Texas, I had several Orange Tips 
flying through my back yard in the last couple of weeks, and they 
will continue to increase in number over the next couple of weeks.  
Unlike eastern Texas, the butterfly has a relatively long flight period 
here, from the first few the second week in March until the middle 
of April.  I doubt sincerely that any one individual survives that 
entire time period, but continued emergences keep the flight going. 
 It may be that, in the N. GA mountains, the unpredictable early 
spring weather is responsible for extending the flight period out.  
Also seen this past week:

	Mourning Cloaks and Question Marks (Nymphalis antiopa and 
Polygonia interrogationis; these don't really count since they 
hibernate as adults.

	New eclosers:
		Celastrina ladon (Spring Azure)
		Colias eurytheme (Alfalfa Sulphur)
		Pieris rapae (Cabbage Butterfly)
		Tiger Swallowtail (Pterourus glaucus)
    Psycomorpha epimenis (the daytime flying Springtime 	
    			Agaristid moth, images to be up this week on my 	
    website, Chris!)

The moth season here never ends, though some pretty nice things 
    have started flying recently.  Most notably is the geometrid 
    Ceratonyx satanaria, but most members of the Psaphidinae
    in the noctuids have also been flying.  I captured one of the many 
    beautiful morphs of Phaeora (formerly Nacophora) quernaria on 
my  back porch last night.  I've also seen several Cerastis 
    tenebrifera on my back porch, a noctuid that is not at all 
    common here.  In other words, things are looking up!

    James



Dr. James K. Adams
Dept. of Natural Science and Math
Dalton State College
213 N. College Drive
Dalton, GA  30720
Phone: (706)272-4427; fax: (706)272-2533
U of Michigan's President James Angell's 
  Secret of Success: "Grow antennae, not horns"

 
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