American Ladies in the East

Jeff Crolla/Martha Hancock jeff at primus.ca
Tue May 1 01:50:46 EDT 2001


In Toronto, Ontario I saw a single V. virginiensis on April 29 and three or
four more on April 30th (all worn but still in pretty good shape). This is a
little early according to the Toronto checklist (earliest date given is May
1). Vanessa atalanta rubria are also around but I haven't seen a cardui yet.
At Point Pelee both were first seen on April 8 this year and on April 23 a
clear influx of 900 (!) immigrants of virgineinsis was reported along with
1200 V. atalanta and a single V. cardui. Not surprising some virginiensis
have made it as far as Toronto by now. It appears clearly to be an immigrant
in southern Canada although occasional successful overwintering cannot be
ruled out.

Michael's comments on the question of overwintering were interesting. In
1984 Opler & Krizek (Butterflies east of the Great Plains) gave virginiensis
as resident throughout the eastern US but Opler revised this in 1992
(Peterson Guide to eastern Butterflies) to resident in the SE U.S. only and
an immigrant to the E/NE U.S. and southern Canada. The literature is
contradictory on this point. For example Shapiro (1974 Butterflies and
skippers of NY state) reported virginiensis as somewhat migratory but
overwintering regulary in NY state. Iftner et al. (1992 Butterflies and
Skippers of Ohio) similarily describe it as resident and occasionally
migratory in Ohio, whereas more recently Allen for example (1997 Butterflies
of West Virginia) says it is a spring immigrant as far south as W. virginia.
I would be interested in any comments/information on this question as I am
working on an article that touches on this. Also be interested in any
literature references to southward migration of virginiensis in the fall.

Jeff

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Gochfeld" <gochfeld at EOHSI.RUTGERS.EDU>
To: <LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 09:28 PM
Subject: American Ladies in the East


> Apropos of the migration of Painted Ladies:
>
> American Ladies, Vanessa virginiensis, is unusually common this spring
> in central and northern New Jersey. First appearing about mid-April
> after a very cold and protracted late winter/early spring, the
> individuals are still quite worn. They are present in the tens and
> twenties, not an inundation, but unusual numbers nonetheless. They don't
> really seem to be migrating as much as hanging around. There is some
> speculation that these may have overwintered locally as adults (hence
> the very worn condition) rather than being migrants from further south.
>
> M. Gochfeld
>
>
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