Almost Caught Up on Butterfly Transit Blogs...Butterfly Transit June 28, 2015

I have had other activities besides butterfly transits on my agenda these past few weeks.  We now have a new Pressure Tank for our water system so there is no longer water on the basement floor,  Tom is on the homestretch with the park district videos which takes a lot of computer time so, instead of working on the computer, I have been reading on the new Kindle I won in a raffle at the library.

The happiest event was the wedding in the family on July fifth.  John, known as Sean when he was young, is the first of our grandchildren to marry.  The wedding was lovely.

And now, to the butterflies seen on June 28...

There was a big group walking and looking.  Jim and Phil took photos.

The Great Spangled Fritillaries (Speyeria cybele) Wingspan: 2.9-3.8 inches (7.1-9-7 cm) are showing up in increasing numbers at Charleston Falls and in our yard as well as at Brukner on the transit where two were counted.

I haven't seen huge numbers of Eastern Commas (Polygonia comma) Wingspan: 2.0-2.4 inches (5.1-6.1 cm) but there always seem to be a few around.  Two were seen on the Butterfly Transit.

Eleven Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta) Wingspan 1.75-2.50 inches (4.4-6.4 cm) were spotted, the largest number of any one species seen on the June twenty-eighth transit.

The American Snout (Libytheana carinenta)  Wingspan: 1.6-1.9 inches (4.1-1.8 cm) was a special butterfly for the day.  They are not often identified though there may be more of them around than we realize.  Positive Identification is provided by the photos below. The "snout" is visible.  The snout is actually its long pointed palpi.

It takes a fast finger on the camera button to get a photo of an Eastern Tailed Blue (Everes comyntas) Wingspan: 0.75-1.00 inches (1.9-2.5 cm)  They never stop for long. This one is a female.

The group is getting better at spotting and photographing the little mostly brown butterflies.  This is a Banded Hairstreak (Satyrium calanus) Wingspan: 1.00-1.25 inches (2.5-3.2 cm)

Ruth thinks this is most likely a Little Glassywing (Pompeius verna) Wingspan 1.0-1.5 inches (2.5-3.8 cm).  The Glassywing, the Dun Skipper and the Northern Broken Dash look similar but not exactly the same.  The Little Glassywing has distinct translucent white spots on its forewing.

This is most likely the Northern Broken Dash (Wallengrenia egeremet) WingSpan: 1.0-1.5 inches (2.5-3.8 cm).  The markings on the wings are slightly different.  There are no translucent white spots on its forewing.

The group also saw larva.

This looks like  Spicebush (Papilio troilus) caterpillar.  We saw a larva a week ago.

In the past, we have seen the most butterflies in July.  We are all looking forward to the month.