The first SE AZ butterfly count for this year, the Sabino Canyon spring butterfly count, has been scheduled for Friday, April 10. This count which aside from covering Sabino Canyon proper also covers all areas along the Catalina Highway right up to the top of Mount Lemmon (of course, at this time of year it might be a bit early for butterflies at 9000 feet). In addition, lower spots such as Lowe's Ventana Canyon Resort and Agua Caliente Park will be covered. This count is open to everyone, so please contact compiler Greg Greene, greenecycle@hotmail.com if you are interested in participating. You might have a favorite place you'd like to cover or Greg can assign you to one that needs coverage. There will be a compilation dinner after the count so we can share our count sightings. The time and location of the dinner will be announced at a later date..
Thank you to everyone who came out and participated in this year’s count! We had a total of 27 people in the field, divided into 14 groups, covering approximately 46.9 miles on foot.
In terms of overall numbers, we recorded a record high 68 species this year (67 species in 2025 & 2022), along with by far the highest number of individuals (15,255). Due to the record-breaking warm temperatures experienced over the winter, coupled with early-season rains, many species emerged earlier than usual this year which added to the excitement of possibly finding something new.
It’s worth noting that this year’s count took place approximately one week later than usual. Given the advanced emergence of many early-season species, it was not unexpected that we miss several species we typically encounter including the spring pierids: Spring White, Desert Marble, and Sara and Desert Orangetip, of which none were recorded. We also missed Brown Elfin for only the second time on this count.
While we may have missed some early season stuff we did observe a few things that are missed by a week or two, such as Cestus Skipper and Bronze Roadside Skipper. In total we added 4 species to the list (Leda Ministreak, Mexican Metalmark, and the two noted above). The presence of these and abundance of others suggests that early emergence may continue as the season progresses.
The most exciting find, for the second year in a row(!), was a Bernardino Dotted Blue (Euphilotes bernardino). The first documented occurrence was during the 2025 Spring Count, and as far as I know this is only the second sighting in the Santa Catalinas. Congrats to you all!
Butterflies found and counted:
Swallowtails (Papilionidae)
1 Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) 218
2 Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) 3
3 Two-Tailed Swallowtail (Papilio multicaudata) 36
4 W. Giant Swallowtail (Papilio rumiko) 1
Whites and Sulphurs (Pieridae)
5 Checkered White (Pontia protodice) 406
6 Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) 11
7 Southern Dogface (Zerene cesonia) 95
8 Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) 37
9 Mexican Yellow (Eurema mexicana) 132
10 Sleepy Orange (Abaeis nicippe) 53
11 Dainty Sulphur (Nathalis iole) 102
Sulphur sp. 5
Phoebis sp? 1
Hairstreaks and Blues (Lycaenidae)
12 Great Purple Hairstreak (Atlides halesus) 1
13 'Siva' Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus siva) 4
14 Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus) 78
15 Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak (Strymon istapa) 1
16 Arizona Hairstreak (Erora quaderna) 4
17 Leda Ministreak (Ministrymon leda) 8
18 Marine Blue (Leptotes marina) 12362
19 Western Pygmy-Blue (Brephidium exilis) 4
20 'Echo' Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon echo) 196
21 Ceraunus Blue (Hemiargus ceraunus) 31
22 Reakirt's Blue (Echinargus isola) 40
23 Acmon Blue (Plebejus acmon texana) 6
24 Bernardino Dotted Blue (Euphilotes bernardino) 1
Metalmarks (Riodinidae)
25 Mexican Metalmark (Apodemia mejicanus) 11
26 Fatal Metalmark (Calephelis nemesis) 2
Brush-footed Butterflies (Nymphalidae)
27 American Snout (Libytheana carinenta) 505
28 Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) 6
29 Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta cludia) 2
30 Fulvia Checkerspot (Chlosyne fulvia) 4
31 Bordered Patch (Chlosyne lacinia) 25
32 Sagebrush Checkerspot (Chlosyne acastus) 3
33 Tiny Checkerspot (Dymasia dymas) 7
34 Elada Checkerspot (Texola elada) 60
35 Texan Crescent (Anthanassa texana) 157
36 Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) 41
37 Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) 2
38 Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) 3
39 Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) 6
40 American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) 6
41 Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis) 5
42 Arizona Sister (Adelpha eulalia) 11
43 Empress Leilia (Asterocampa leilia) 297
44 Nabokov's Satyr (Cyllopsis pyracmon) 4
45 Monarch (Danaus plexippus) 2
46 Queen (Danaus gilippus) 34
Skippers (Hesperiidae)
47 Short-tailed Skipper (Zestusa dorus) 5
48 Northern Cloudywing (Thorybes pylades) 1
49 Desert Cloudywing (Achalarus casica) 2
50 Acacia Skipper (Cogia hippalus) 36
51 Golden-headed Scallopwing (Staphylus ceos) 10
52 Arizona Powdered-Skipper (Systasea zampa) 10
53 Sleepy Duskywing (Erynnis brizo) 1
54 Meridian Duskywing (Erynnis meridianus) 1
55 Mournful Duskywing (Erynnis tristis) 4
56 Pacuvius Duskywing (Erynnis pacuvius) 39
57 Funereal Duskywing (Erynnis funeralis) 13
58 White Checkered-Skipper (Pyrgus albescens) 31
59 Common Streaky-Skipper (Celotes nessus) 2
60 Common Sootywing (Pholisora catullus) 2
61 Orange Skipperling (Copaeodes aurantiaca) 29
62 Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) 1
63 Pahaska Skipper (Hesperia pahaska) 2
64 Cestus Skipper (Atrytonopsis cestus) 4
65 White-barred Skipper (Atrytonopsis pittacus) 19
66 Sheep Skipper (Atrytonopsis edwardsii) 7
67 Bronze Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes aenus) 3
68 Eufala Skipper (Lerodea eufala) 1
Duskywing sp? (Erynnis sp?) 3
Totals 15,255