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mothman55 · by mothman55 » Sat May 25, 2024 6:39 pm

One of the more difficult hairstreaks to find is the early hairstreak (Erora laeta), rarely found and only in May in this area (Central Ontario). I was fortunate again this year to find a female, here are a couple of pics. Also an aberrant silvery blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus), note

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the absence of the usual spots on the ventral side. Its a female.

mothman55 · by mothman55 » Sat May 25, 2024 6:31 pm

In the previous post, the elfins in order are hoary, brown, and bog. The two that follow here are eastern pine and henry's.

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mothman55 · by mothman55 » Sat May 25, 2024 6:28 pm

Early this May is the time for elfins in Central Ontario. But this year was a great year for these little brown critters. There are five species in this area, and four of the five were as numerous as I have ever seen. The more rare one in the group, the bog elfin (Callophrys lanoraieensis) was also seen in multiple bogs this year, and I was fortunate to see my first ones. The other four species, brown (C. augustinus), hoary (C. polios), henry's (C. henrici), and eastern pine (C. niphon) were found in mass all over central Ontario. In my favourite elfin spot, I saw well over 100 elfins in a 3 hour period. Here

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are a few elfin pics from a couple of weeks ago.

kevinkk · by kevinkk » Sat May 25, 2024 6:24 pm

I had to look at the polyxenes I raised a few years ago from Ohio stock. Your butterfly has more orange, my specimens have smaller orange eyespots and no orange on the border.

mothman55 · by mothman55 » Sat May 25, 2024 6:17 pm

Yesterday while watching the lilacs for female Papilio canadensis north of Toronto, I got this interesting female polyxenes. It was the only one of this species I saw in amongst numerous P. canadensis, and in fact I see very few polyxenes in this area (Coe Hill, Ontario). Note the orange spots on the dorsal hindwings, certainly not typical, at least not around

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here.

mothman55 · by mothman55 » Sat May 25, 2024 6:06 pm

I was also a couple hours north east of Toronto the past 3 days. Canadensis males all over some of the backroads, in the hundreds. But this year the early lilacs are in full bloom the same time as canadensis major emergences. The past few years the early lilac was dead by the time the majority of canadensis came out. So with the lilacs in full bloom and canadensis out in droves, it was a good chance to see females (they don't puddle like the males). There were some especially heavily barred females like the one in this pic from yesterday.

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Paul K · by Paul K » Sat May 25, 2024 6:01 pm

So quick review on tigers.
Toronto And Mississauga: they are flying here around first two weeks of June, one generation only. They are larger than Canadensis and somehow looks like hybrid between glaucus and canadensis.
West of Toronto ( Hamilton, Cambridge and south west of it) I never recall to see tigers there in the spring but I maybe missed them. They are flying starting in end of July, August. I assume these are true P.glaucus as they certainly look like.
North/ east of Toronto ( about 100km ) we can easly find true canadensis around last two weeks of May, begin of June. They are much smaller.
I also found once at Georgian bay Tiger in mid July which I thought was canadensis but it was too late in the season and it is also larger specimen.
It is complex group and to exactly specify fly times and which actually species flies when and where one has to spend more time like Chuck is trying to do now in his region.

mothman55 · by mothman55 » Sat May 25, 2024 5:53 pm

OMG, it would take me days to spread all those, where do you find the patience?

Paul K · by Paul K » Sat May 25, 2024 1:25 pm

eurytides wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2024 8:34 pm Paul, both canadensis and glaucus can be found in the GTA region. MST isn’t expected until July, or maybe mid June this year given how warm it has been.

Well, it is not as simple as I thought it is too.
GTA is rather large and looks like it is boundary zone for Tigers. I don’t have time to post my observations but I’ll do it at some point

adamcotton · by adamcotton » Sat May 25, 2024 9:06 am

This is a flying ant (reproductive male or female, not sure which), perhaps genus Oecophylla. Ants are not my speciality, but I have seen these before. I seem to remember that the species in S Thailand has a green abdomen, rather than orange here in Chiang Mai. This ant is often found in fruit trees, where they build nests made by weaving leaves into a ball. They are voracious predators and eat any insects that feed on the leaves of the trees.

Note that the worker ants are wingless.

Interestingly the larvae of some Lycaenid butterflies live in these nests, mimicking ant larvae.

Adam.

nitinra · by nitinra » Sat May 25, 2024 5:00 am

Chuck wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2024 11:55 am I have a bin of various dried US leps you can have. They are of course papered and dried, so would require softening in order to be spread.

I'm amazed I even have any. I always kept many extras around for projects such as this, but it's been a long time since anyone had asked me so I unloaded thousands last year to an institution.

So I can send 100 or more if you want. But why not have the kids catch then set fresh specimens? It will be easier to set them, and the specimens would be theirs.

Which tribe/ nation are you working with?

Dear Chuck,
Thank you so much! Can you please PM me your price? Getting parental/school permits to collect butterflies is a lot more work for the university (University of Montana) and handling 50-60 kids would be difficult in the field. I will be relaxing the specimens 48 hours in advance and then get them to pin. I will be working with the Flathead reservation tribe school students. They will be taking the specimens with themselves. We will have half a day of butterfly walk (no catching in the wild, but I will be catching a few to show them some interesting biology), followed by DNA extraction of a few Pieris butterflies that we have reared in the lab and pinning. I unable to send you a PM.

lamprima2 · by lamprima2 » Sat May 25, 2024 3:49 am

Kevin,
I've just sent you a PM, please check.
Thanks

Boertje · by Boertje » Sat May 25, 2024 3:05 am

Hello

I am curious as to what species this is.

I've tried Google as well as Google Lens. Both continually and completely ignore the wings.
I've also tried searching based on the head, thinking that perhaps the mandibles are a distinguishing feature.

This is the second one I found. It was early morning (relatively) and still cool (relatively), so I am assuming it was waiting for the sun to hit its spot, it seemed very languid.
Location is south of Thailand, rural environment.

I am ready to be educated

Thank you!
B

lamprima2 · by lamprima2 » Sat May 25, 2024 12:40 am

Congratulations!

eurytides · by eurytides » Fri May 24, 2024 8:34 pm

Paul, both canadensis and glaucus can be found in the GTA region. MST isn’t expected until July, or maybe mid June this year given how warm it has been.

Paul K · by Paul K » Fri May 24, 2024 8:10 pm

Today May 24 I’ve seen 3 Papilios here in Toronto area ( north of) and I suspect that they must have been MST as we don’t have here either P.glaucus or canadensis.
I’ve seen about 100 P.canadensis two days ago 150km north of Toronto, they were all fresh and many came to mud puddling (Urine bait).

Chuck · by Chuck » Fri May 24, 2024 6:01 pm

I noticed for all "P canadensis" for this year in NY on iNaturalist, the observations east of Interstate 81 are wrong- they are all Spring Form. Also noticed most are on the ground.

So I headed a bit south where there are two ponds with shores, and watercourses, etc. Saw two. Drove 20 minutes south into the Bristol Hills, and saw nothing. Saw one on the way, one on return, both at valley level.

Observed 4, captured 0

Chuck · by Chuck » Fri May 24, 2024 12:27 pm

Magnificent!

Chuck · by Chuck » Fri May 24, 2024 11:50 am

Surely, somebody must have studies and published on this hump. Right? It is rather obvious. I mean, we have people publishing on Tortricidae, and this is far more interesting.

lamprima2 · by lamprima2 » Fri May 24, 2024 4:42 am

Interestingly, even the larvae of Liminites have a "hump", which is roughly corresponding to the “flipper” found in chrysalides and the cluster of setae in adult butterflies. Here: Full-grown larva of the red-spotted purple Limenitis arthemis astyanax (Fabricius). Photograph by Donald Hall, University of Florida (from https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/).

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