Tiger Swallowtails of NY: Finger Lakes, Part II

[Chuck]

14 June 2024: 0 observed.

15,16 June: went north to the Lake Ontario shoreline area. Due to the cooling effect of the lake this area runs about 2 weeks behind my primary research area, and indeed the wild roses and berries are still blooming. Despite sunshine and reasonable warmth, 0 observed.

[Chuck]

17june2024: Sunny, 88F/ 31C. Yesterday I was wearing fleece. What a change.
Observed: 2

Started at my secondary hilltop, where I spotted so many Spring Form. I can drive almost to the top, and it's flat on top. One flew across a forest trail, one I spotted about 300m away blasting along the edge of the forest. I do not know which taxon.

Then went to my primary hilltop, which I have to hike up to. Zero.

Milkweed is now about 10% in bloom. I remember from my mental notes that the MST population explosion happens about one week after 95% bloom (they delay feeding on the other nectaring plants too.) So figure maybe 1 week of blooms maturing, one week delay, that would put the MST explosion about 01 July- just on time (last year was late due to cold and rainy June.)

The Turtlehead is just about to bloom, MST will also use that early on.

[Chuck]

18June2024; 84F/ 29C hazy sun. Very humid.
Observed: 0

Started in a lower elevation meadow south of my primary fields. Speyeria and Euphydryas phaeton both eclosing now and in numbers. The Speyeria are all males, didn't look closely at the E. phaeton.

Went to the top of my secondary hill, nothing.

[Chuck]

19june2024; 84F/29C sunny, humid.
Observed: 0
Screw this, I didn't go out. I'm tired of tromping around in the sun for nothing. I saw two this week, so the week gets checked off.

20june2024: 88F/31C sunny, humid.
Observed 1; captured 1
I'm not going to the field today either. Forget it. So I ran errands. Pulling onto our dead-end street I saw a Tiger fly across the road, and alight! I pulled over, grabbed my net and jumped out. It flitted from flowers to flowers on a Elderberry. I caught it.


NYON_HOM_240620

So, what is it- Spring Form, or MST? The black abdominal band seems awfully narrow for Spring Form.

[Chuck]

21june2024: zero observed.

22june2024: zero observed. Started on the south shore of Lake Ontario; 71F milkweed 50% bloom. Nothing. Went to a well forested park south of Rochester NY, 84F, milkweed 85% bloom. Nothing. But I did get to reconnect with urban and suburban drivers: throwing rubbish out auto windows, make 4-lane changes, left lane bandits, looking at their phone. No wonder I hate urban areas, they're just self-centered, garbage people.

23june2024: Stormy. None observed.

eta: first actias luna of the year last night to BLB. Back in the olden days they'd be long finished by now.

Back on Tigers: while looking at old notes for luna observations, I'd forgotten some notes I had on Tigers:

29May1989: Thousand Acre Swamp, Penfield NY: p glaucus

05-07june1989: Finger Lakes region NY: P glaucus very common

07july1989: [interesting:] "P glaucus still occur, fresh". "still occur" noted because back then, by July Tigers were rarely found.



16may1990, Finger Lakes NY: 1st P glaucus, 80F

26may1990, Sodus Point NY: 1st P glaucus, 70F sunny

02june1990, Finger Lakes NY: glaucus common

14june1990, Finger Lakes NY: P glaucus "very common"



10june1997: Alaska: "Papilio glaucus [note: it's canadensis] common along Rt. 3 (George Parks Highway north of Sheep Creek.) 24C partly cloudy.

12june1997: Homer, AK: saw one Papilio "glaucus" [canadensis]

19june1997: Fingerlakes region, NY: "observed first P. glaucus"; 24C sunny

[Chuck]

24-27june2024: out of state catching other Tiger species.

28-30june2024: Lake Ontario shoreline- heavy rains and wind. None observed. Large patches of milkweed appear to be full bloom.

[Chuck]

01july2024: 6 observed, 2 captured.
70F/21C, breezy, mostly sunny

On my primary hilltop: captured 1 beat female on Turtlehead, one male on Milkweed. Most observed were on milkweed. So MST is flying now, just on time.

Also saw first P troilus, male.

[Chuck]

02july2024: 74F/23C, mostly sunny.
4 observed, 2 captured (2F, one on milkweed one on Turtlehead)

Odd to not see as many despite nicer weather than yesterday. I started atop my primary hill and saw only three, so went to my secondary hill where I saw one blast across a field.

[mothman55]

MST are having a big year in Central Ontario. I spent a couple of days (July 3 and July 4) in the field looking for hairstreaks and was surprised to see quite a few fresh tiger swallowtails. Yesterday I captured 3 fresh males, must be MST as much too late in the season for fresh canadensis, and too far north for glaucus, plus they are larger than canadensis.

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A couple of friends also commented that they have seen an unusually high number of fresh tiger swallowtails recently. Here is a photo from yesterday, I have these two in the freezer.

[Paul K]

I don’t see any around GTA.

I went to search for P.glaucus and troilus last weekend south to St.William forests and only found couple of old specimens. The season there was also much earlier this year.

[Chuck]

Great to see you guys have a volume of MST in Ontario now.

I spent the long weekend on the southern shore of Lake Ontario w/o any field work but still saw a few.
03july24: 3 observed, Wayne Co.
04july24: 1 observed, Wayne Co.
05july24: none observed
06july24: 1 observed, Cayuga Co.
07july24: none observed

[Chuck]

08july24: didn't go out. 1 observed Ontario Co.

09july24: 1 observed, 1 captured (M on Bergamot)
86F/ 30C, 95% high cloud cover

Sweating like I'm in Belize. Weather says it's 53% humidity which isn't unusual but boy does it feel more humid.

It's been a week since I was back on my primary hilltop. Milkweed is now 80% past bloom, Bergamot is in full bloom. Elsewhere, Teasel is just starting, and the yellow cup plant fields have plenty of blooms but I know the Tigers won't move to them for weeks.

The low count of observed Tigers (MST) I attribute to the cloud cover. MST will run away if it gets cloudy or starts to rain. If the sun doesn't come out, they don't come out. Contrast that with glaucus which doesn't seem to care, I've seen them en masse nectaring with black clouds overhead and light rain. For whatever reason, our MST demand sunlight.

[Chuck]

11july24: Pennsylvania: 75F/24C, 99% cloud, occasional rain.
8 observed, 1 captured (F on thistle)

I was challenged concerning the range of MST in NE USA. BOLD has COI for specimens in Canada, and a few from Catskill Mountains in NY, and mine from Finger Lakes, but that's it.

So I drove to NE Pennsylvania, Pocono Mountains area. 100% cloud cover most of the day; rain showers in the area.

It wasn't until almost 2pm that I saw a Tiger. Milkweed is past bloom, and thistle just starting. My only capture was a female on a single flower of thistle; the rest were just flying around.

This female looks very MST to me:

[Chuck]

12-14july2024: 85F, sunny. Went to Lake Ontario shoreline, not looking for Tigers, but did see one.
Observed 1.

15july2024: A day I won't forget.
Observed 1.

Finally! After 40 years of saying "next year" I attended my first LepSoc meeting at Cornell. I met many of the big names in the business. In the afternoon it was slow, so I went out looking for Tigers. 93F/34C, sunny.

Actually, I was looking for a skipper for one of our members; last year I went there a week earlier, but didn't see the skippers because the milkweed hadn't bloomed; now 1 year and 1 week later, the milkweed was past bloom. No skippers. No nectaring Tigers either; not much of anything really.

Around 4pm I joined the group at a state park for BBQ. Chatted, grabbed a beer, and got my plate full of fabulous BBQ. That's when I got the call from my frantic wife.

"My car is destroyed!" Huh? 3" hail took out the windshield and dented it.

"The basement is flooded!" Uh oh. Must have had very heavy rain.

I hemmed and hawed about driving the 2 hours home.

"The garage is flooded." IMPOSSIBLE. It's 18" above the road. On the very top of a hill comprised of sand.

"There's a woman walking on our street up to her knees in water!" IMPOSSIBLE. That's when I figured I'd better go.

I said goodbye to our host Jason, who introduced me to Chris Schmidt, the one guy I'd die to spend hours talking to! But I had to run.

Got off the highway and it looked like a hurricane hit. Trees shredded, roads covered with green leaves; trees down. I took a photo of rotation in the clouds- and that's two hours after the initial hit. Our plants and flowers are crushed by the hail. 3" hail took out the basement window covers, allowing the heavy rain to flood in. Locally, there's a photo of a tornado, and the next town over was wrecked- an entire row of 150 YO maples down, telephone poles snapped in half. I can't imagine how my primary study field looks, but I'm not going to make it today.

[jhyatt]

Chuck,

That sounds terrible! Hope the damage isn't anything that can't be fixed. Your collection isn't in that basement, is it? At least there's no word of anyone hurt. And maybe it was time to think about a new roof anyway? Life often seems like just one dern thing after another. And thanks for thinking about that skipper for somebody...

[kevinkk]

Best wishes Chuck. I always think about my things when I see people experiencing damage to their homes from weather and other events,
our stuff means so much to us, clearly life and limb is the thing we want to be safe, but digging through rubble for what's left is a tragedy.

[eurytides]

Chuck, this is terrible! I hope your wife and kids weren’t injured. Losing stuff sucks, but in the end, it’s just “things.” Having said that, I certainly hope you didn’t sustain damage to your collection and other items you hold dear. I hope your wife was exaggerating a bit when she was describing the flooding???

The last female tiger you posted does look like MST.

I was in the St. Williams area last week as well, just missed Paul I guess. Didn’t see many tigers. Found lots of A. clyton pupae though. I also found Callosamia angulifera larvae which was my whole reason for the trip. This is a very rare silkmoth for Canada and I am excited to rear them.

[Chuck]

Thanks guys,

No serious damage other than my wife's vehicle. Still have some repair to do, but not urgent anymore. My reference collection was never threatened, and other than the vehicle the only property loss was moving boxes; now just some home repair. The heavy rains created their own little river, right into the basement so that needs to be fixed.

16july2024 was also heavy rains, so didn't go out.

@eurytides, great find with the angulifera; they're stunning adults. I've previously reported that here SW of you we had promethea in quantity forever, which were replaced by angulifera...but now, virtually no Saturnidae. My first find of angulifera in this area was July 2009, a beat, dead specimen found floating in the lake...I was soooo excited. Subsequently, some of the females that came to lights which I retained I cannot determine to be promethea or angulifera, so I presume they are hybrids.

[eurytides]

Hybrids between these taxa are not very common. When you have a bit more time on your hands, perhaps you could share some pics?

[Chuck]

When you have a bit more time on your hands, perhaps you could share some pics?

Time I am rather short of. I am so far behind in everything I want to do. You may be retired by the time I get to it. I just dumped another couple hundred papered specimens, some of which dated to the 1970s because I know I'll never get to them.