Southern Dogface Sulphur at Point Pelee…

[Steve Pike]

Yesterday at 4:20pm Bob and Karen Yukuch sent out an alert on the Pelee WhatsApp rare butterfly alert (mssg me privately if you’d like to join) of a Southern Dogface Sulphur seen south of the North West Beach parking lot in the regenerated (old) parking lot area.  

By the time a few of us reached the site it was too late in the day and very few butterflies were flying.  

Thinking I would have another chance this morning in the same area at 10:10am and with only 20 minutes of searching I managed to find not only one but two together and both were in immaculate condition which could mean these have hatched from an earlier egg laying female which also happened in 2008 (as the food plant is present here) which was the last time the species was seen at Pelee.  

This morning Bob posted that he noticed several iNatralist reports coming from Toledo, Ohio recently as well so hard to say if this is a current invasion or all part of an earlier influx of the species.

Looking at historical Pelee records this is only the third time they’ve been seen here.  

As an aside as a group it seems we’ve established the official Pelee Butterfly Checklist at 91 species as Zabulon Skipper was recently added August 14th.

I managed a couple good phone photos which are attached.  

For interests sake here’s a list of what we believe to be accurate for the Pelee checklist, if you notice any errors please message me privately, thanks.

Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus)

Long-tailed Skipper (Urbanus proteus)

Northern Cloudywing (Thorybes pylades)   

Hayhurst’s Scallopwing (Staphylus hayhurstii)

Juvenal’s Dusky-Wing (Erynnis juvenalis)

Horace’s Dusky-Wing (Erynnis horatius)

Funereal Dusky-Wing (Erynnis funeralis)

Wild Indigo Dusky-Wing (Erynnis baptisiae)

Common Checkered-Skipper (Pyrgus communis)

Common Sooty-Wing (Pholisora catullus)

Clouded Skipper (Lerema accius)

Least Skipper (Ancyloxypha numitor)

European Skipper (Thymelicus lineola)

Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus)

Peck’s Skipper (Polites peckius)

Tawny-edged Skipper (Polites themistocles)

Crossline Skipper (Polites origenes)

Long Dash (Polites mystic)

Northern Broken-Dash (Wallengrenia egeremet)

Sachem (Atalopedes campestris)

Hobomok Skipper (Poanes hobomok)

Broad-winged Skipper (Poanes viator)

Zabulon Skipper (Lon zabulon) 

Dion Skipper (Euphyes dion)

Dukes’ Skipper (Euphyes dukesi)

Dun Skipper (Euphyes vestris)

Brazilian Skipper (Calpodes ethlius)

Ocola Skipper (Panoquina ocola)

Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor)

Zebra Swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus)

Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)

Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes)

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)

Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus)

Checkered White (Pontia protodice)

Cabbage White (Pieris rapae)

Great Southern White (Ascia monuste)

Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice)

Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme)

Southern Dogface (Zerene cesonia)

Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae)

Mexican Sulphur (Eurema mexicanum)

Little Sulphur (Eurema lisa)

Sleepy Orange (Eurema nicippe)

Dainty Sulphur (Nathalis iole)

Harvester (Feniseca tarquinius)

Bronze Copper (Lycaena hyllus)

Acadian Hairstreak (Satyrium acadicum)

Banded Hairstreak (Satyrium calanus)

Hickory Hairstreak (Satyrium caryaevorum)

Striped Hairstreak (Satyrium liparops)

Northern Oak Hairstreak (Satyrium favonius ontario)

Olive (Juniper) Hairstreak (Callophrys grynea)

White-M Hairstreak (Parrhasius m-album)

Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus)

Marine Blue (Leptotes marina)

Eastern Tailed-Blue (Everes comyntas)

Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon)  

Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta)

Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus)

American Snout Butterfly (Libytheana carinenta)

Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia)

Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele)

Aphrodite Fritillary (Speyeria aphrodite)

Regal Fritillary (Speyeria idalia)

Meadow Fritillary (Boloria bellona)

Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis)

Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)

Northern Crescent (Phyciodes cocyta)

Baltimore Checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton)

Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis)

Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma)

Gray Comma (Polygonia progne)

Compton Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis l-album)

Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)

Milbert's Tortoiseshell (Aglais milberti)

American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis)

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia)

Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax)

Viceroy (Limenitis archippus)

Goatweed Leafwing (Anaea andria)

Hackberry Emperor (Asterocampa celtis)

Tawny Emperor (Asterocampa clyton)

Eyed Brown (Lethe eurydice)

Appalachian Brown (Lethe appalachia)

Little Wood-Satyr (Megisto cymela)

Common Ringlet (Coenonympha tullia)

Common Wood-Nymph (Cercyonis pegala)

Monarch (Danaus plexippus)

91 species.

[james holdsworth]

Very cool, always thought a better name for this species would be “duck- faced”, lol.

[Steve Pike]

Yes that or some kind of “doodle-dog” James lol.

As the day progressed and a number of us searching we began seeing more.  

Bob and Karen Yukich and I covered an area one kilometer south of North West Beach parking lot and also including north of NW lot to the new observation deck overlooking the northern most regenerated parking lot.

It gets a bet messy double counting individuals but with Bob and Karen’s count of 21 and a few more I had with a few others a conservative estimate of 25 for today is accurate.  

Not one I saw was worn, all seemed extremely fresh or even just emerged.  A subsequent search of the tip area including west beach and heading north revealed none by any of us which if seen at these sites would make me think they were recent arrivals from the south which I doubt the ones found today in the NW Beach area are.

For anyone interested in coming to see them they were most active after 11am and best seen by walking on the beach side (not the west beach hiking trail) of west beach heading either north or south of the Northwest beach parking lot.  

Their large size and clear bright yellow colouration and obvious black forewings made them easy to pick out from the smaller Orange and Clouded Sulphur’s and considering how fresh they are I would assume they will be around for the next several days as no significant weather patterns are forecasted.  

Good luck to anyone trying!

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[Nick Godfrey]

Steve  Pike - I would like ot be added to the Pelee Whats App group - my phone number is 9058157186 - do you need anything else?

[rick cavasin]

Just a reminder to folks on the list - messages sent to this list are accessible on the web:

https://groups.google.com/g/onbutterflies/c/zKaFq5-RZnM

So you shouldn't post things like phone numbers, or other personal information.   I'm not sure who has administrator privileges now - I think it used to be Rayfield.  Whoever is the administrator could get Nick's message taken down.

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[Nick Godfrey]

Thanks for looking out for me Rick

[Chris Cheatle]

Still a few flying about, but numbers already seem much lower than reported when 1st seen. Extremely flighty, patience required

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