Vanessa at night

[Michael Klein]

I have had a similar experience with Vanessa cardui in southern California.
Four years ago in mid-March I was on a property site performing a sensitive
bird survey ( I am a consulting biologist).  This was in Yaccipa east of
Riverside.  It had just rained/snowed the evening before and the snow levels
were down to 1,500 feet.  This property I was on was at 2,600 feet and there
was snow everywhere.  At 8:15am with the temperature of 34degrees F, I had 6
cardui flying past me heading northwest.  I recent years I have observed
cardui many times with air temps in the mid-40's F or lower and they were
either sunning on rocks or actively nectaring.  Definitely a hardy
butterfly.

Michael Klein
San Diego

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu]On
Behalf Of Woody Woods
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2002 7:10 PM
To: jrg13 at psu.edu; Leps-l at lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: Vanessa at night

Vanessa cardui is one of those butterflies that can warm itself by shivering
its wings when ambient temperatures or higher body temps from solar basking
are not enough. I have seen them do this and fly steadily in indoor flight
rooms where the temperature was about 20-21 degrees C.

I've also seen a number of species fly at night at temperatures of 17-18
degrees C after release from measurements I was making a few years back in
Costa Rica. Most flew to nearby plants or trees and immediately perched,
some
after brief shivering (Helicinius montana and others) but some flew off into
the night or spent confused hours around the porch light bulb.

Woody

John Grehan wrote:
>
> I have occasionally found lycaenids in light traps, but I do not know if
> they came in
> at dusk or after dark.
>
> In New Zealand I would find cicadas in my light trap during the height of
> their season. In
> a 1 x 1 m box I would sometimes have cicadas to a depth of about 15 cm (6
> inches). Not
> much good looking for moths then.
>
> John Grehan
>
>
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--
*********************************************************
William A. Woods Jr.
Department of Biology
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd                      Lab: 617-287-6642
Boston, MA 02125                        Fax: 617-287-6650
*********************************************************


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