Western Massachusetts Whites May 7

[FSM...@aol.com]

Good Evening,

 

When I left for the Sherborn Power Lines on Monday morning, I was expecting one further nice day, so I stayed over at my brother's house [in Sherborn - how convenient!] and hit Oxbow NWR and Quabbin Gate 35 on Tuesday. More on those stops in my next post.

 

To my pleasant surprise, today [Wednesday] was also a great day, so I hit the road again - New Lenox Road [Lenox] in the morning, Fairgrounds Road [Chesterfield] on the way home. This was a highly successful trip, so I wanted to alert everyone, even though I am hopelessly behind on my photos, which will have to await the two forthcoming rainy days.

 

In any event, the "main colony" of mustard white is out and about in Lenox. I had 18+ in the big field, mainly in the wet area on the far side [near the woods]. I also walked the road along the river and had another 12+. These were nectaring on dandelion, whereas the ones in the field were mostly on the cresses. I was also struck by the fact that the three or four spring azures I saw flitting about were bigger and brighter than the ones in my part of the state. One good look [and two photos] toward the end of my sojourn solved that mystery. They were silvery blues!  According to Glassberg, there is an Appalachian population, which flies April - May whereas the northeastern populations fly late May - late June. Evidently, the ones I just saw are from the Appalachian population [makes sense...the Berkshires are part of the Appalachian chain], which I don't normally look for.

 

As for Chesterfield, the West Virginia whites have started to kick up their heels. I saw at least six, probably twice that number [they tend to double back - hard to keep track]. Plenty of aerial jousting by the males. Also, I had two instances of courting. One female exhibited the "take a hike" posture; the other appeared receptive, but the relationship was never consumated. Perhaps they was put off by the large mammal with the camera. One word of caution: This colony is protected by a voracious predator - the black fly. I survived by wearing long sleeves, long pants, and lots of DEET. Forewarned is forearmed. If you don't protect yourself, these suckers draw blood.

 

The flights of both these whites are fairly short and can be disrupted by crappy New England weather, so I wanted everyone to know that the clock has started ticking.

 

Cheers,

Frank

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[mnelson8]

Hi Frank,

That's interesting that Silvery Blues are flying already in Lenox.  As far as is known, the Appalachian subspecies (G. lygdamus lygdamus) does not occur this far north.  Our populations are the northern subspecies (G. lygdamus couperi), and they do sometimes emerge in early May.  But just to check on the one-in-a million chance that you discovered a population of the Appalachian subspecies, if you have any ventral shot(s), could you send them to me or post the link and point me to it?

Thanks,
Mike

Michael W. Nelson, Ph.D.
Invertebrate Zoologist
Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program
Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife
1 Rabbit Hill Road
Westborough, MA 01581
Phone: (508) 389-6374
Fax: (508) 389-7891
E-mail: mike....@state.ma.us
Internet: www.nhesp.org

[mnelson8]

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the photos!  The ventral shot is clearly ssp. couperi.  But it was nice to fantasize about a population of the Appalachian subspecies in Massachusetts.  If you have a copy of Butterflies of the East Coast by Cech and Tudor, the two subspecies are illustrated nicely on p. 144.

- Mike

FSM...@aol.com wrote:

Hi Mike,

 

Thanks for your help. The URLs for the two shots, one dorsal, one ventral, are below...

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fsmodel/2475153243/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fsmodel/2475971160/

 

White scale issues with the blossoms prevent these from being photo contest winners, but the butterfly was a very fresh male and the photos should be adequate for ID. To my uneducated eye, going by Glassberg's photos, the HW dots are a bit ambiguous, but definitely more like couperi, so this is probably just an early bird and I am guilty of premature ejaculation.

 

Cheers,

Frank