Butterfly Transit at Brukner, July 21, 2013

I wasn't able to walk the butterfly transit last Sunday so Phil sent me some of the photos he took.  He said the day was a good one for seeing butterflies.  As I looked at his photos I realized I wasn't as good at identifying butterflies as I thought.  When I see them in the field, I can see their relative sizes..  I can't always tell the size from the photos.  I will do the best I can with identification.

To start with, there is always at least one skipper, one I can't identify.

                                    Unknown skipper (superfamily Hesperioidea)

Next is an Anglewing which in our area is usually a Question Mark or an Eastern Comma.  If the observer doesn't see the silver identifying spots on the underside (Ventral) they are not easy to tell apart.

                                    Anglewing (genus Polygonia)

And here was another puzzler.  If it is a rather small butterfly, it might be a Pearl Crescent.

                                    Pearl Crescent?

The rest of the butterflies were a bit easier to identify.  Below is a Hackberry.  The right sunlight made the coloring a bit difficult to get.  It is a darker butterfly than the photo shows.  The dark spot on the forewing was what made me determine what it is.  (Watch me be wrong...won't be the first time)

Here are two views of a Spicebush Swallowtail.  So nice the Swallowtails have those "tails".  There are several dark swallowtails with orange-red spots on the underside.  It was the top view that made me decide this was a Spicebush.  Again, I hope I am right.

Easiest of all to identify is the Tiger Swallowtail.  Nothing else is colored like it.