The first SE AZ butterfly count for this year, the Sabino Canyon spring butterfly count, has been scheduled for Tuesday, April 8. 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..
Special Notes:
1. Greg may not be able to respond to your email until early April.
2. A US Interagency Recreation Pass or Senior is required for entry into some areas included in the count circle.
Thanks to all that came out and participated in this year’s count! We had a total of 22 people in the field which were divided into 11 different groups, roughly 40 miles on foot.
I think we all knew heading in it was going to tough out there given the continuing drought and lack of nectar, though I’m honestly a little surprised how well we did. In what might be one of the worst droughts to date we recorded 50 species, which is only the 4th lowest total over the past 15 years. That being said nearly half of those were “ones” or “twos” so overall there really wasn’t much flying. In terms of overall numbers we recorded the 3rd lowest total (602), with 2011 recording the 2nd lowest (584), and 2021 the lowest (371).
By far the most surprising find was a Euphilotes (originally thought to be an Acmon Blue), discovered by counters near Summerhaven.
English (Scientific )
Swallowtails (Papilionidae)
1 Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) 48
2 Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) 1
3 Two-Tailed Swallowtail (Papilio multicaudata) 15
Whites and Sulphurs (Pieridae)
4 Checkered White (Pontia protodice) 3
5 Spring White (Pontia sisymbrii) 4
6 'Desert' Pearly Marble (Euchloe hyantis lotta) 1
7 'Pima' Desert Orangetip (Anthocharis cethura pima) 1
8 'SW' Sara Orangetip (Anthocharis sara thoosa) 3
9 Mexican Yellow (Eurema mexicana) 2
10 Sleepy Orange (Abaeis nicippe) 8
11 Dainty Sulphur (Nathalis iole) 5
Sulphur sp. 1
Hairstreaks and Blues (Lycaenidae)
12 Great Purple Hairstreak (Atlides halesus) 2
13 'Siva' Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus siva) 5
14 Thicket Hairstreak (Callophrys spinetorum) 2
15 Brown Elfin (Callophrys augustinus) 36
16 Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus) 5
17 Arizona Hairstreak (Erora quaderna) 2
18 Marine Blue (Leptotes marina) 224
19 Western Pygmy-Blue (Brephidium exilis) 1
20 'Echo' Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon echo) 7
21 Euphilotes sp. 1
Metalmarks (Riodinidae)
22 Fatal Metalmark - (Calephelis nemesis) 2
Brush-footed Butterflies (Nymphalidae)
23 American Snout (Libytheana carinenta) 1
24 Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) 2
25 Theona Checkerspot (Chlosyne theona) 2
26 Fulvia Checkerspot (Chlosyne fulvia) 1
27 Bordered Patch (Chlosyne lacinia) 1
28 Sagebrush Checkerspot (Chlosyne acastus) 6
29 Tiny Checkerspot (Dymasia dymas) 2
30 Elada Checkerspot (Texola elada) 1
31 Mylitta Crescent (Phyciodes mylitta) 1
32 Texan Crescent (Anthanassa texana) 1
33 Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) 1
34 Satyr Comma (Polygonia satyrus) 8
35 Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) 20
36 American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) 1
37 Empress Leilia (Asterocampa leilia) 9
Checkerspot sp. 1
38 Danaus sp. 1
Skippers (Hesperiidae)
39 Golden-headed Scallopwing (Staphylus ceos) 74
40 Arizona Powdered-Skipper (Systasea zampa) 12
41 Sleepy Duskywing (Erynnis brizo) 7
42 Mournful Duskywing (Erynnis tristis) 8
43 Meridian Duskywing (Erynnis meridianus) 1
44 Pacuvius Duskywing (Erynnis pacuvius) 16
45 Funereal Duskywing (Erynnis funeralis) 6
46 White Checkered-Skipper (Pyrgus albescens) 2
47 Common Streaky-Skipper (Celotes nessus) 8
48 Common Sootywing (Pholisora catullus) 1
49 Orange Skipperling (Copaeodes aurantiaca) 12
50 Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) 13
Grass Skipper sp. 2
Duskywing sp? (Erynnis sp?) 2
50 Species Total
602 Total Individuals