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Much of a monarch butterfly’s (Danaus plexippus) life is spent migrating between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada-a journey that for some individuals can cover over 3,000 miles. However, this journey has become more dangerous and less successful for many because of deforestation, illegal logging, increased development, agricultural expansion, livestock raising, forest fires, and other threats to their migratory paths and summer and overwintering habitats. Since 1995, the Wildlife Without Borders - Mexico Program has made a continuing commitment to support the conservation of monarch butterflies.
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A tally of monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico rose to 56. 5 million this year from a record low of 34 million last year but conservationists said on Tuesday the increase was too slight to reduce the threat of extinction facing the insect.
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Congratulations to 11-year-old Ariel M., our youngest CAzBA member, who won two second-place ribbons at the Arizona State Fair for her photographs of an Orange Skipperling and a Texan Crescent. (Ariel competed in the amateur division against adults!)
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The Central Arizona Butterfly Association ran the 8th annual butterfly count at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum on 6 September 2014. This count is part of a national system of butterfly counts managed by the North American Butterfly Association. There are over 400 registered count sites that are visited each year in the US, Canada, and Mexico. The BTA count was first done in 2007 and has run every year since. Each year counters visit several areas within a 15 mile diameter circle centered on Superior High School. Sites visited include the Picketpost Trailhead, the grounds of BTA, the Oak Flats area, the town of Superior, and the Apache Tears riparian area.
This year 14 count participants tallied over 631 individuals of 35 species. The sites with the highest number of species seen were BTA (24) and the Oak Flat area (25). The species with high numbers of individuals seen were Cloudless Sulphur (250!), Pipevine Swallowtail (79), Sleepy Orange (58), Queen (40), Empress Leilia (39), and American Snout (37). This year’s count was not exceptional. To give some perspective the highest count numbers seen in any previous year were in 2010 when 55 species were sighted and over 1000 individual butterflies. - Ron Rutowski
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It was a good trip to east Clear Creek with great sunny weather and a decent number of butterflies. Despite the great sunny weather, the butterfly diversity was low. Target species for East Clear Creek are Northern Crescent and Long Dash. We managed to see two Northern Crescents, but dipped on the Long Dash.
Butterflies: Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme), Queen Alexandra's Sulphur (Colias alexandra), Checkered White (Pontia protodice), Sylvan Hairstreak (Satyrium sylvinus), Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus), Marine Blue (Leptotes marina), Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon), Reakirt's Blue (Echinargus isola), Weidemeyer's Admiral (Limenitis weidemeyerii), Atlantis Fritillary (Speyeria atlantis), Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa), Northern Crescent (Phyciodes cocyta), 'Arizona' Silver-spotted Skipper ( Epargyreus clarus), Pahaska Skipper (Hesperia pahaska), Tawny-edged Skipper (Polites themistocles), Taxiles Skipper (Poanes taxiles)
Thanks everyone! -Kurt Radamaker
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