Northern exposure...

[Grkovich, Alex]

I have a couple of related observations I wanted to add here.

1. We have a very large "garden area" out back, with an actual garden (some
tomatoes, pumpkins, sunflowers, onions, garlic, etc etc.). Otherwise it's a
sort of wild field with willows etc. and oak/pine forest bordering the area.
Last year the area produced about 25 species of butterflies/skippers. We
"watch" back there, mostly.

We have an annual colony of Question marks (Polygonia interrogationis) which
breed there and which glorify the area every summer. Late last July, I was
down there doing some weeding and watching two/three summer form (umbrosia)
Question Mark patrolling and perching. They adopted favorite perches, and
darted to investigate any passing birds, dragonflies etc. Quite
aggressively, I might add. They might have been partly investigating for
mates, or they also may very well have been protecting the perch. Some
investigative flights tended to be quite long, but they always return, and
usually to the same spot. Or they may select three perches and rotate
between them.

One older male was flying rapidly near me; all of a sudden he disappeared
behind an azalea bush behind me; then I saw him "hopping" behind the bush.
By the time I got to where he was behind the bush (no more than 3 to 5
seconds), he was in the clutches of a robber fly which had already had eaten
part of his head.It was violent and quick. The butterfly had made a couple
of violent attempts to get free, but of course, to no avail.

2. Last July I was in western Maine on a day trip. One of the species I have
been investigating, and was that day, was the Common Wood Nymph (Cercyonis
pegala), and its variability across New England (and everywhere else, for
that matter). I was in a large milkweed field along Rt. 26 south of Oxford,
Maine when I began watching a specimen bouncing across the field. Suddenly,
out of absolutely nowhere, a dragonfly swooped down, grabbed the butterfly
in flight and carried the helpless thing up to a nearby oak tree branch. As
Guy wrote below, I am not entirely certain how the butterfly was carried, it
seems that it may have been held by the front pair of legs of the ode. The
ode wasted no time in eating the butterfly head first after landing on the
branch. \Indeed, the meal may well have started in flight. 

3. A couple of summers ago, I was taking a lunch time walk in the Boston
Common garden. I noticed a house sparrow stalking a small day-flying moth
among lupine flower/plants. The moth was caught, but then escaped. Over the
following 2-3 minutes, I watched an absolutely horrible battle between the
desperate moth and the hungry bird. Several times the moth was caught in the
bird's beak and subsequently escaped. Each time the moth was further wounded
and had it's wings ripped, but it continued to fight. A couple of times I
thought it might escape, and it was successful once or twice in hiding
around behind a few plants, perhaps giving it an opportunity to fly, which
it probably still could. But the bird was also very persistent, and finally,
the bird was able to secure it one last time in its beak, violently shake
beak and moth, until the moth was unable to use its wings effectively; even
then, it managed one last time to break free from the bird's beak. But it
could not escape, it was at this time too badly wounded and could not lift
itself from the ground. The bird caught it one more time, and quickly
devoured it. The battle was over.

I have also many times, as everyone has no doubt,  found butterflies in the
grasp of crab spiders and ambush bugs on, for example, milkweed flowers.  

Alex


> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Bill Cornelius [SMTP:billcor at mail.mcn.org]
> Sent:	Monday, January 28, 2002 1:53 PM
> To:	leps-l at lists.yale.edu
> Subject:	Re: Northern exposure...
> 
> I saw A hornet take a vanessa out of the air, it flew with the vanessa to
> a
> branch and cut off it's wings. it appeared to bite rather than sting to
> make
> the kill. I couldn't see how it held the butterfly, it happened very fast
> & may
> have stung it in the air. The weather was warm & the hornet ment business.
> 
> There's a report of vanessas carrying on after dark late in the year. The
> report is in one of the old journals of the lep soc. sometime between '83
> or
> '90 (+/- ?) The author was looking for supporting info too.
> 
> Bill
> 
> "Guy Van de Poel & A. Kalus" wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> >
> > I've regurlay seen Vanessas (atalanta as well as cardui) rather late in
> the
> > evening, but always when it was warm enough for them to fly, mostly on
> warm
> > summer evenings.
> > In the area I live in, Heidelberg/Germany, there are a lot of old pear
> > trees, just standing in the fields. In september/october a lot of these
> > pears will fall to the ground and start rotting, and attract a lot of
> > atalantas, Polygonia c-album and bees, flies, wasps, ...
> > Hornets will be always around, to hunt every insect coming to this free
> > meal.
> > I've seen them carry away all kinds of flies, honeybees, ..., but never
> a
> > butterfly. The ones they chased could always get away, it were scenes
> like a
> > world war 2 'Battle of Britain' dogfight between Spitfires and
> > Messerschmitts.
> > Hornets are a bit clumsy, letting themselves fall on their prey, and
> > keeping it to the ground by their greater mass while sting-killing it.
> > The butterflies always got away early enough, or the hornets could not
> get a
> > good grip on them, their large wings not being a good surface to cling
> on
> > to.
> > Still, I found two sets of atalanta-wings, nicely cut off, the remains
> of
> > dogfights that a hornet won.
> > Hornets do fly at night, and it could be noted that the atalantas had
> > increasing difficulty to shake off the hornets the later it got, and of
> > course the less direct sunlight they had to warm themselves up.
> > Maybe the casualties were atalantas that stayed too late?
> > (or were drunk - rotting pears contain something like alcohol).
> >
> > Guy.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Andrew Warren <warrena at mail.science.orst.edu>
> > To: Kenelm Philip <fnkwp at aurora.alaska.edu>
> > Cc: <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
> > Sent: zaterdag 12 januari 2002 23:41
> > Subject: Re: Northern exposure...
> >
> > >
> > > Ken,
> > >
> > > The record of V. atalanta dead on sea ice on May 21st raises a
> queation
> > > that has been bugging me for quite some time. I am prepared to take a
> lot
> > > of heat on this one, but what the heck, I am curious if others have
> > > experiences that may support or refute this theory.
> > >
> > > Can Vanessas fly at night?
> > >
> > > What really made me consider this possibility seriously was an
> encounter
> > > on May 27, 2000, with a tattered Vanessa annabella at my mercury vapor
> > > light just before midnight (Idaho: Blaine Co., Silver Creek PReserve,
> 3 mi
> > > W Picabo, 4900'). After an active night of moth collecting, on my
> last of
> > > probably a dozen trips to the sheet , I was astonished to find a V.
> > > annabella sitting in the middle of the sheet (again, just before
> > > midnight), when no annabella was there earlier!!! Now, in the tropics
> I
> > > have taken all kinds of butterflies at MV and UV lights (swallowtails,
> > > Pierids, Lycaenids, etc), but this almost
> > > always occurs shortly after sunset, and soon after the lights have
> been
> > > turned on (one could argue that these butterflies were perhced for the
> > > night very near the light source and became disturbed and attracted to
> the
> > > light). The only butterflies in the tropics that I have taken at
> lights
> > > well after sunset are species known to be crepuscular or nocturnal
> (such
> > > as several genera of very large Pyrgine skippers). So this encounter
> in
> > > Idaho with an annabella after I had been mothing for several hours, to
> me,
> > > suggests that the insect was active in the area, and was not simply
> > > disturbed by my lights from its nocturnal perch. Interestingly,
> despite
> > > two days of intense butterfly collecting before and after May 27th at
> > > the same site failed to result in the sighting or capture of any
> > > additional annabellas.
> > >
> > > Then I remembered how on two occasions I have seen V. annabella
> extremely
> > > active just before sunset, when no other butterflies were observed
> (one in
> > > Douglas Co., COLO on June 13,1998- a male hilltoping literally just
> before
> > > sunset; and 5-VI-2000 just outside of The Dalles, Wasco Co., ORE- a
> female
> > > that never could be approached for a
> > > photograph (but was followed for several minutes- she would not stay
> > > still).
> > >
> > > Growing up in Greenwood Village, Colorado, I vividly remember Vanessa
> > > atalanta guarding territories on roof-tops in the neighborhood just
> before
> > > sunset- again when no other butterflies were active.
> > >
> > > Okay, those are the observations that make me think the Vanessas may
> have
> > > the ability to fly at night, at least during favorable conditions.
> Does
> > > anyone have similar stories of crpuscular or nocturnal Vanessa
> encounters?
> > >
> > > Andy Warren
> > >
> > >
> > > On Fri, 11 Jan 2002, Kenelm Philip wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > > The _Vanessa atalanta_ (Red Admiral) northward flight this year
> > > > reached rather high latitudes:
> > > >
> > > > In Alaska, Jack Harry reported one specimen at mile 323 Dalton
> > > > Highway, 69 degrees N, on 2 July. A number of _atalanta_ were seen
> near
> > > > Haines, 59.25 degrees N.
> > > >
> > > > In Canada, William Davies found a single specimen on the sea ice
> > > > about 4 km off East Bay, Southampton Island (mouth of Hudson Bay),
> at
> > the
> > > > odd date of 21 May. Latitude was approx. 64 degrees N.
> > > >
> > > > Ken Philip
> > > > fnkwp at uaf.edu
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
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