Please join the eleventh annual Spring butterfly count of the Santa Catalina Mountains of NE Tucson with old and new friends on Sunday, March 28, 2021.
Due to COVID there will be no meeting spot or compilation dinner. Please contact Mary prior to the count date if you want to participate.
Thanks!! Mary Klinkel, compiler
A number of factors can be presumed to have affected this count, including the large fire in the Catalinas last year which affected a large part of this circle, exceptional drought in SE AZ, relatively cold weather in the week before the count, and high wind on the day of the count. My choice of March 28, 2021 for the count was due to Easter occurring on the following Sunday, which I chose to avoid. I also chose to have a weekend count date so people still working weekdays could participate. All of these conditions and considerations led to the lowest by far number of butterflies seen on this count, now in it's eleventh year.
There were a similar number of parties and participants to previous years, a total of twelve parties and 24 participants.
Butterflies seen:
1. Two-tailed Swallowtail (Papilio multicaudata) 2
2. Spring white (Pontia sisymbrii) 3
3. 'Desert' pearly marble (Euchloe hyantis lotta) 43
4. 'SW' Sara orangetip (Anthocharis sara thoosa) 86
5. Sleepy orange (Abais nicippe) 1
6. Great purple hairstreak (Atlides halesus) 3
7. 'Siva' Juniper hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus siva)
8. Thicket hairstreak (Callophrys spinetorum) 1
9. Brown elfin (Callophrys augustinus) 44
10. Gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus) 1
11. Marine blue (Leptotes marina) 62
12. 'Echo' Spring azure (Celestrina ladon echo) 1
13. American snout (Libytheana carinenta) 3
14. Gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) 2
15. Fulvia checkerspot (Chlosyne fulvia) 2
16. Sagebrush checkerspot (Chlosyne acastus) 42
17. Tiny checkerspot (Dymasia dymas) 34
18. Mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) 2
19. Painted lady (Vanessa cardui) 7
20. Empress leilia (Asterocampa leilia) 14
21. Golden-headed scallopwing (Staphylus ceos) 1
22. Sleepy duskywing (Erynnis brizo) 2
23. Mournful duskywing (Erynnis tristis) 1
24. Funereal duskywing (Erynnis funeralis) 1
25. Common streaky-skipper (Celotes nessus) 1
26. Fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus) 10
27. Eufala skipper (Lerodea eufala) 1
plus Pontia sp. 3; Erynnis sp. 4; Blue sp.1
Thank you all for your dedication to citizen science and great help with this count! Every year's information is important and you have made a contribution to documenting trends of butterfly numbers. I hope you'll join the Summer Sabino Canyon/Santa Catalina butterfly count to be held in July.
Mary Klinkel, compiler