Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: We had our 2nd Fall Season Butterfly Count, 1 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
The second National Butterfly Center-Bentsen RGV State Park seasonal count was held on October 25, 2009 in Mission, Texas. Temperature 69-90 degrees. Wind 5-15 mph. 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Partly cloudy.

Highlights were: Uncommonly large amounts of Queens and Large Oranges. Large amounts of American Snouts and Lyside Sulphurs. Other highlights included Banded Peacock, Band-Celled Sister, Mexican Bluewing, Malachite, Gray Cracker, Guatemalan Cracker, and Guava Skipper

12 Participants: Gil Quintanilla (coordinator) , David Dauphin, Jan Dauphin, David Hanson, William T. Pendleton , Javier de Leon, Cynthia A. "Cat" Traylor, Carol Navarro Adams, Rosemary Seidler, Vicki Lefevers, Diane Perkins, Phil Perkins

Total Species: 85

Pipevine Swallowtail (35)
Black Swallowtail (5)
Giant Swallowtail (23)
Checkered White (4)
Great Southern White (10)
Giant White (2)
Southern Dogface (85)
Cloudless Sulphur (11)
Orange-barred Sulphur (2)
Large Orange Sulphur (19,871)
Lyside Sulphur (44,968)
Tailed Orange (11)
Little Yellow (13)
Mimosa Yellow (1)
Sleepy Orange (43)
Dainty Sulphur (5)
Gray Hairstreak (15)
Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak (48)
Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak (1)
Western Pygmy Blue (47)
Ceraunus Blue (39)
Fatal Metalmark (43)
Rounded Metalmark (2)
Red-Bordered Metalmark (35)
Red-Bordered Pixie (1)
American Snout (55,317)
Gulf Fritillary (132)
Zebra Heliconian (28)
Variegated Fritillary (36)
Mexican Fritillary (2)
Theona Checkerspot (153)
Bordered Patch (137)
Elada Checkerspot (7)
Vesta Crescent (4)
Phaon Crescent (92)
Pearl Crescent (1)
American Lady (9)
Painted Ladty (12)
Common Buckeye (26)
Tropical Buckeye (3)
White Peacock (78)
Banded Peacock (1)
Band-Celled Sister (1)
Mexican Bluewing (14)
Common Mestra (1)
Gray Cracker (2)
Guatemalan Cracker (1)
Malachite (1)
Tropical Leafwing (1)
Hackberry Emperor (5)
Empress Leilia (175)
Tawny Emperor (450)
Monarch (26)
Queen (56,052)
Soldier (2)
Guava Skipper (1)
White-Striped Longtail (2)
Longtailed Skipper (1)
Brown Longtail (35)
Falcate Skipper (1)
Sickle-Winged Skipper (3)
Hermit Skipper (1)
White-Patched Skipper (64)
Mournful Duskywing (1)
Funereal Duskywing (1)
Common/White Checkered-Skipper (45)
Tropical Checkered-Skipper (27)
Laviana White-Skipper (31)
Turk's-cap White-Skipper (13)
Common Sootywing (24)
Julia's Skipper (1)
Fawn-spotted Skipper (1)
Clouded Skipper (95)
Southern Skipperling (19)
Fiery Skipper (37)
Whirlabout (23)
Southern Broken-Dash (40)
Sachem (17)
Common Mellana (80)
Nysa Roadside Skipper (3)
Celia’s Roadside Skipper (3)
Eufala Skipper (47)
Olived-clouded Skipper (2)
Brazilian Skipper (2)
Ocola Skipper (18)

Total Individual Butterflies: 178,727

So far the fall season has been slow for us. The drought, constant 100+ degree temps and late rains really affected our species numbers. Last fall we had 113 species. Although there are massive amounts of snouts, lysides, queens and large orange sulphurs we haven't seen any of the rarer species we normally get during the fall. There's still hope - we did get a decent amount of rainfall on Monday and we've had one cool front with another supposedly to come in later in the week. Hopefully that will bring the Mexican strays our way!!!

~ Cat

ps...I know having 85 species in one day may be a large amount for some folks but it really isn't our norm for the fall months. On a good note we did have some folks from England and others from Massachusetts and other northern states who were absolutely thrilled to see so many butterflies. The abundance of queens, snouts, large orange sulphurs and lysides were a hit. Lots of folks were standing in front of the blooming mistflower bushes taking snapshots of the hundreds of butterflies flying around them :o)