2007 Butterflies and Odonata
Although I had a better year of birding than finding butterflies (they were surprisingly absent for most of the year in NJ), it was still fun to see some new butterflies. Texas provided most of the ‘excitement’, but overall I got my lifelist up to 82, and saw 69 species in 2007 alone (including 24 new ones). I had a better year with Odonata: 32 species of dragonfly (16 new) and 16 damselflies (10 new). My lists for the year:
√ = New species in 2007.
Butterflies and Skippers
- American Lady
- Common Mestra √
- Red Admiral
- Red-Spotted Purple
- Eastern Comma
- Question Mark
- Eastern Tailed Blue
- Spring Azure
- Summer Azure
- Common Buckeye
- Pearl Crescent
- Texan Crescent √
- Empress Leilia √
- Great Spangled Fritillary
- Monarch Butterfly
- Mourning Cloak
- Variegated Fritillary
- Viceroy
- Zebra (Heliconian) √
- Dusky Blue Groundstreak √
- Gray Hairstreak
- ‘Northern’ Southern Hairstreak √
- Red-Banded Hairstreak
- Bordered Patch (Texas) √
- Fatal Metalmark √
- Carolina Satyr √
- Common Wood Nymph √
- Little Wood Satyr √
- American Snout
- Cabbage White Butterfly
- Common Sulphur
- Falcated Orangetip
- Giant Cloudless Sulphur
- Little Yellow
- Orange Sulphur
- Pink-Edged Sulphur √
- Black Swallowtail
- Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (black)
- Giant Swallowtail √
- Palomedes Swallowtail
- Spicebush Swallowtail
Butterflies (41, 14 new)
Skippers (28, 10 new)
- Broken Dash Skipper
- Celia’s Roadside Skipper √
- Clouded Skipper
- Common Mellana √
- Fiery Skipper
- Hobomok Skipper √
- Laviana Skipper √
- Least Skipper
- Little Glassywing
- Long Dash Skipper
- Northern Broken Dash
- Peck’s Skipper
- Sachem
- Salt Marsh Skipper
- Silver-spotted Skipper
- Tawny-Edged Skipper
- Turk’s-cap White Skipper
- Whirlabout √
- Zabulon Skipper
- Brown Longtail Skipper √
- Long-tailed Skipper
- Teleus Longtail Skipper √
- Eufala Skipper √
- Funereal Duskywing √
- Mazans Scallopwing √
- Mimosa Skipper √
- Olive-clouded Skipper √
- Wild Indigo Duskywing
Odonata
- Band-winged Dragonlet √
- Little Blue Dragonlet √
- Seaside Dragonlet
- Blue Dasher
- Eastern Amberwing
- Common Whitetail
- White Corporal √
- Calico Pennant √
- Four-spotted Pennant
- Halloween Pennant
- Autumn Meadowhawk
- Eastern Pondhawk
- Great Meadowhawk √
- Variegated Meadowhawk √
- Great Blue Skimmer
- Needham’s Skimmer √
- Painted Skimmer √
- Roseate Skimmer √
- Slaty Skimmer
- Twelve-spotted Skimmer
- Widow Skimmer √
- Hyacinth Glider √
- Wandering Glider
- Black Saddlebags
- Carolina Saddlebags
- Red Saddlebags √
- Striped Saddlebags √
- Russet-tipped Clubtail
- Clamp-tipped Emerald √
- Common Sanddragon √
- Common Green Darner
- Harlequin Darner √
Dragonflies (32 species, 16 new)
- Atlantic Bluet √
- Blackwater Bluet √
- Blue-tipped Dancer √
- Familiar Bluet
- Orange Bluet √
- Blue-ringed Dancer √
- Variable Dancer
- Citrine Fortail √
- Eastern Forktail
- Fragile Forktail
- Rambur’s Forktail √
- Ebony Jewelwing
- Common Spreadwing √
- Great Spreadwing
- Slender Spreadwing √
- Spotted Spreadwing √
Damselflies (16 species, 10 new)
i saw this skipper on late night TV last night…
You did much better with dragonflies and butterflies than I did this year! Hmm, I should have kept track of my dragonflies this year!
Geez man, that’s a lot of freaking bugs! Just giving you a hard time, it really is amazing how many different species you’ve seen of birds, butterflies, and odonata … whatever those are. These lists make my head spin — I have no idea how you can tell them apart. They all look the same to me (not *exactly* the same, but so very close).
Van: that’s classic.
Tom: Thanks – I’m hoping it’s a better year for sightings this year. And to think: 3 years ago I was making fun of my buddy Joe regarding butterfly watching…
Michael: Odonata are dragonflies and damselflies. They can be really tough to ID, but that’s part of the fun- the challenge of identification.
I’m glad you’re finding the train good for commuting. I used to take the Metro or El in Chicago to some jobs I had there.
Don’t be too sure about those Eskimos. If you think I’m nuts, check out Up In Alaska or MnBicycleCommuter! Both have very cool stories and inspiring rides.