Hackberry Emperors on Cornell campus.

[Meena Madhav Haribal]

Recently, in the last 15 days or so, I noticed Celtis occidentalis Hackberry have been planted on Judd Falls road on the west side between Campus road and Tower Rd. I also noticed that some more have been planted on Campus road too. The trees are young maybe five years old.  

This afternoon while walking from Dairy Bar to Route 366, I saw an orange butterfly land on the tree.  It turned out to be Hackberry emperor. After few seconds it landed on a branch a foot away from to get a good picture. But unfortunately, I had not taken my cellphone with me. I was pleased to see it. But was thinking this lone butterfly may not have a partner. Next tree the same species. I saw another Hackberry Emperor! Pleased that it had a companion. Hope they were male and female. So we should see some progeny.

Now my question is how the Hackberry Emperors came here.  My hypothesis is that they were already on the tree as larvae or pupae when the trees were brought in and planted.  So the next question is where the trees came from.  I know grounds departments purchases some of them and some are raised somewhere on the campus. I will have to follow up with the grounds department to see from where the trees were procured from.  There is a tree map for the campus that was prepared in 2009. Recently quite a few new species of plants have been planted. I also have noticed that they are cutting down some oaks along the road. I don't know if they have updated it or not. Here is the list 

https://cugir.library.cornell.edu/catalog/cugir-008025

Meena Haribal

Ithaca NY 14850

42.429007,-76.47111

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