The Count Circle includes Montosa, Madera, Florida, Box and Gardner Canyons and surrounding areas in the Santa Rita Mountains. Santa Rita Mountains counts are held twice, one in the summer and one in the fall. Last year this count recorded 66 species.
Contact compiler Greg Green if you want to participate in this count.
As expected butterfly survey results were notably low, likely due to the combined effects of limited rainfall and prolonged above average temperatures. While I haven’t found a good resource for rainfall information in Madera Canyon, there is information available from Green Valley. Based on rainfall totals from NOAA and Rainlog it looks like the Green Valley area has received roughly 5 inches of rain from the beginning of August 2024 through the end of July of this year. For comparison, the yearly average for Green Valley is about 13.5 inches/year, so we’re well below the normal range.
The highest rainfall total in the past 12 months occurred just last month, with 2.63 inches recorded in July 2025. Nearly all of it fell during two events—approximately 0.9 inches on July 3–4 and 1.63 inches on July 16. This prolonged lack of consistent moisture has significantly limited new plant growth, leaving most nectar sources and host plants in poor condition. With rain in the forecast later this week, we can only hope it arrives and brings some much-needed relief to the region.
While numbers were incredibly low overall we did record an all-time high for one species (Lyside Sulphur) which was likely a result of a recent irruption in Mexico. The previous record high for Lyside Sulphur during the summer count was 5 (2015).
The official results of the 2025 Summer Santa Rita butterfly count:
Swallowtails (Papilionidae)
1 Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) 8
2 Two-Tailed Swallowtail (Papilio multicaudata) 17
Whites and Sulphurs (Pieridae)
3 Checkered White (Pontia protodice) 3
4 Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) 25
5 Southern Dogface (Zerene cesonia) 2
6 Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) 17
7 Large Orange Sulphur (Phoebis agarithe) 5
8 Lyside Sulphur (Kricogonia lyside) 71
9 Mexican Yellow (Eurema mexicana) 1
10 Sleepy Orange (Abaeis nicippe) 3
Hairstreaks and Blues (Lycaenidae)
11 Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus) 1
12 Leda Ministreak (Ministrymon leda) 2
13 Western Pygmy-Blue (Brephidium exile) 1
14 Marine Blue (Leptotes marina) 191
15 'Echo' Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon echo) 2
16 Ceraunus Blue (Hemiargus ceraunus) 132
17 Reakirt's Blue (Echinargus isola) 3
Metalmarks (Riodinidae)
18 Palmer's Metalmark (Apodemia palmerii) 10
Brush-footed Butterflies (Nymphalidae)
19 American Snout (Libytheana carinenta) 70
20 Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) 2
21 Theona Checkerspot (Chlosyne theona) 2
22 Bordered Patch (Chlosyne lacinia) 64
23 Tiny Checkerspot (Dymasia dymas) 73
24 Elada Checkerspot (Texola elada) 106
25 Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) 1
26 Red-Spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis) 4
27 Arizona Sister (Adelpha eulalia) 1
28 Empress Leilia (Asterocampa leilia) 26
29 Tawny Emperor (Asterocampa clyton) 1
30 Red Satyr (Megisto rubricata) 23
31 Queen (Danaus gilippus) 3
Satyr sp. 6
Skippers (Hesperiidae)
32 Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) 2
33 Arizona Skipper (Codatractus arizonensis) 30
34 Desert Cloudywing (Achalarus casica) 7
35 Northern Cloudywing (Thorybes pylades) 31
36 Drusius Cloudywing (Thorybes drusius) 1
37 Acacia Skipper (Cogia hippalus) 87
38 Golden-headed Scallopwing (Staphylus ceos) 14
39 Funereal Duskywing (Erynnis funeralis) 2
40 Common Streaky-Skipper (Celotes nessus) 7
41 Common Sootywing (Pholisora catullus) 14
42 Orange Skipperling (C. aurantiaca) 1
43 Pahaska Skipper (Hesperia pahaska) 1
44 Taxiles Skipper (Poanes taxiles) 3
45 Moon-marked Skipper (Atrytonopsis lunus) 10
46 Large Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes exoteria) 6
47 Cassus Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes cassus) 5
48 Bronze Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes aenus) 10
49 Eufala Skipper (Lerodea eufala) 1
Atrytonopsis sp. 1
Amblyscirtes sp. 1
INDIVIDUALS RECORDED 1110
SPECIES RECORDED 49