Cassius Blue

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Rick Borchelt

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Jun 18, 2026, 5:59:41 PMJun 18

to <mdlepsodes@googlegroups.com>

For those who haven't seen the iNaturalist post, Peter Martin had a *very unexpected* Cassius Blue in Freeland, MD (northern Baltimore Co.) nectaring at white clover.

Cassius does have a known tendency to vagrancy, especially in the Midwest, as this BAMONA map notes. Rick Cheicante notes in commentary on the iNat sighting that there was a small irruption last year in NC.

None of the known/expected food plants exist or are common enough to support even a transient population here, I suspect. With the possible exception of lima beans!

So far only the singleton sighting.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/372272263

Rick Borchelt
College Park, MD
preferred personal email: rborchelt |AT| gmail |DOT| com

http://leplog.wordpress.com

Rick Cheicante

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Jun 22, 2026, 2:35:59 PMJun 22

to MDLepsOdes

Congrats to Peter Martin on the Cassius Blue discovery, and to Walt Gould on his King's Hairstreak.

Thanks for mentioning me Rick, but I must defer proper credit to Jim Brighton for enlightening us with the NC Cassius Blue irruption of '25 in the iNat observation. The poster and the tags can sometimes get muddled in the conversational threads, but it was Jim that pulled that.