Why So Blue When You Can Be White, Yellow, or Pink?

Back on 21-23 May 2012, I was in northwest Indiana to conduct Karner Blue Butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis, aka Plebejus melissa samuelis) monitoring.  My coworkers may think I'm being a fairweather fieldworker on days that I do these surveys, as they have to be conducted between 8 AM and 6 PM, it can't be raining, it can't be too cloudy or windy, and it has to be above 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but I assure them I'm doing it for the butterflies.  It is no lie that I look forward to spending perfect field days searching for a Federally Endangered butterfly.  Does fieldwork get any better than this?

Male Karner Blue Butterfly on Bracken Fern (Pteridium aquilinum var. latiusculum)

With the strange weather this spring, picking the best week for my surveys was like me throwing a dart at an accelerating Ferrari.  As I pointed out in a previous post that discussed the life cycle of the Karner Blue Butterfly, each individual lives just one week, and it is best to conduct surveys during the peak flight of the population.  Luckily, I had some help from some friends at The Nature Conservancy and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in deciding when to conduct my first brood surveys .

Female Karner Blue Butterfly on Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis var. occidentalis)

The Blues (Lycaenidae) are an interesting group of small blue butterflies.  There are several similar species or subspecies with very small geographical ranges scattered throughout North America, such as the Palos Verde Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus palosverdesensis) in the Palos Verde Peninsula of California, the El Segundo Blue (Euphilotes battoides allyni) in southern California, the Miami Blue (Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri) in southern Florida, the Fender's Blue (Icaricia icarioides fenderi) in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, and most famously the Xerces Blue (Glaucopsyche xerces), an extinct species previously known from San Francisco whose demise was said to be a result of habitat loss due to urban development.  Luckily for me as a botanist who does butterfly surveys, there aren't too many species around here that look similar to the Karner Blue, and those species that do look somewhat similar can be easily distinguished with a bit of patience.

Male Eastern Tailed Blue

Take a close look at the butterfly in the photograph above.  This is an Eastern Tailed Blue (Cupido comyntas), a species that can be confused with the Karner Blue, that lives in the same habitat (but a broader range of habitats), and that also feeds on legumes.  Looking at the hind wing, you can see a small "tail" that easily allows you to tell that this is not a Karner Blue.  In addition, Eastern Tailed Blues may have a couple of orange spots on the hind wing, but there isn't as much orange as on a female Karner Blue, and the male Karner blue has no orange spots on the upper surface of the wings.  Eastern Tailed Blues are generally slightly smaller than Karner Blues, and with some experience you can begin to see differences in the flight patterns of the two species.

Male Spring Azure

Yet another small blue butterfly that inhabits savannas and prairies (as well as other habitats) is the Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon), which is nearly impossible to tell from the Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta) aside from time of year that they are flying.  The azures can easily be distinguised from Karner Blues, as they lack orange entirely on their wings.  Still, when doing surveys for Karner Blues, it's worth checking every small blue butterfly that you see.

Of course, while doing butterfly surveys, I have to photograph a few plants that grow in the same plant communties where Karner Blue Butterflies occur.

Wild Lupine

It is impossible to discuss Karner Blue Butterflies without discussing Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis var. occidentalis).  Wild Lupine is considered the "host plant" for the Karner Blue Butterfly, meaning that the larvae feed on the foliage of Wild Lupine.  The problem is that Wild Lupine is the only host plant for the Karner Blue Butterfly, and habitat for Wild Lupine is declining.  This variety of Wild Lupine is known from the Great Lakes and many Atlantic Coast states, where it grows in sandy soils of prairies, oak savannas, woodlands, pine barrens, and dunes.

Wild Lupine

On occasion while searching through Wild Lupine populations you come across an oddball, such as the plant pictured above.  Wild Lupine plants with white flowers are known as Lupinus perennis var. occidentalis forma leucanthus.  You can see that one of the flowers in the inflorescence above is close to the normal color, so this plant seems almost intermediate between the typical form and forma leucanthus.

Hairy Puccoon

It is nearly impossible to talk about Wild Lupine without mentioning Hairy Puccoon (Lithospermum croceum), as the two are almost always found growing together, they flower at the same time, and their flower colors compliment each other so well.  In addition, Hairy Puccoon is one of the Karner Blue Butterfly's nectar species, meaning that the adults feed on its flowers.  Hairy Puccoon can be confused with Hoary Puccoon (Lithospermum canescens), with which it sometimes grows.  The leaves of Hairy Puccoon have a rougher pubescence and the leaves are more pointed at the tips, whereas those of Hoary Puccoon are soft gray pubescent and more blunt at the tips.  Hairy Puccoon is known from much of the central part of North America, where it grows in sandy soils of prairies, savannas, barrens, dunes open woodlands, and beach ridges.

Sand Coreopsis

Sand Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata) is another showy early-blooming species of sandy prairies, savannas, barrens, and open woodlands.  It, too, is a Karner Blue Butterfly nectar species.  Although the North American range of this widely distributed composite includes two Canadian provinces and the entire lower 48 minus the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona (it is even introduced in Hawaii), its range in Indiana is much smaller than one might think, being found naturally primarily only in the northwest corner of the state.  Sand Coreopsis is widely planted and seeded in prairie "restorations" as well as in native landscaping outside of its true range.

Pasture Rose

Also in the sand prairies and savannas of northwest Indiana that Karner Blue Butterflies call their home grows a low-profile thorny species with large pink five-petaled flowers that have a wonderful fragrance.  This is Pasture Rose (Rosa carolina var. carolina), a shrub of the eastern half of North America.  Carolina Rose, as it is also known, grows in sandy or rocky soils of prairies, savannas, open woodlands, and glades.  Karner Blue Butterflies also feed on the nectar of this species.

Clasping Milkweed

I've posted about the ecological functionality of the milkweeds (Asclepias) in the past, so I won't go into detail here.  If you look at the left side of the inflorescence in the photogrpah above, you will see a caterpillar of a Monarch (Danaus plexippus), a butterly species that uses milkweeds as its host plant.  You can also see the broadly clasping and wavy-margined leaves characteristic of this species in the photograph... this is Clasping Milkweed (Asclepias amplexicaulis), a species of prairies, savannas, sand blowouts, glades, open woodlands, and dunes throughout the eastern half of the United States.  Although this species is apparently not a known Karner Blue Butterfly nectar species, several other members of the genus Asclepias are, and I wouldn't be surprised to find a Karner Blue feeding on Clasping Milkweed flowers.

Woolly Beachheather

When you think of Indiana, you probably don't have a mental picture that looks like the photograph above, with sparse vegetation in pure sand.  The minimal amount of this habitat in the state is why the shrub in the photograph is considered threateneed in the Indiana.  This is Woolly Beachheather (Hudsonia tomentosa), a plant known from an area northeast of a line from the Northwest Territories to North Carolina.  Sand Heather, as it is also called, is a species of conservation concern in six additional states.  It grows in sand blowouts, savannas, dunes, and pine barrens in areas with little competition from other plants.

I must be a botanist... this post started out about butterflies and ended with photographs of more plant species than butterfly species!

A Plug For Bugguide.net

This past June, I was in the field with a coworker at a mitigation site in Lake County, Indiana, and we came across this odd larva moving across a gravel drive between weedy field and emergent marsh.


It may be a bit difficult to get an idea of scale from this photo, but this larva was approximatley 1.5 inches long. I searched online and through all of my references, but I couldn't figure it out, so I put the image aside, stored as an unknown beetle larva. Fast forward to yesterday, when I was going through photos in the project file while working on the report. I decided to try out http://www.bugguide.net/. I have visited the site on numerous occasions, but I had never sent them an unknown photo. After signing up for the webpage, I sent the photograph above, and within the next couple of hours the mystery was solved. This is the larva of a water scavenger beetle in the genus Hydrophilus. Adults are shiny black, shaped a bit like an elongated football, and are approximately 1.5 to 3 inches long. Being that large, they are pretty conspicuous, and can often be found at night near lights.

I was quite impressed with how quickly my unknown was identified. The folks at http://www.bugguide.net/ have a good thing going. Be sure to check out their site when you have a chance, and if you have any photos of unknown insects, submit them and there is a good chance that they won't be unknowns for very long.

Mimicking Moths

We have definitely moved into the slow time of the year. It is dark when I drive to work in the morning, and once I get home from work I barely have time to get Bootypants through our trails before they are too dark to see. As a result, I have only taken photos on three days in November and three days in December. Because of this, I was clicking through photos from earlier in the year and came across this one that I thought was worthy of a post...


These are sphinx moths in the genus Hemaris. The best that this botanist can tell, these are Snowberry Clearwing Moths (Hemaris diffinis). I took this photograph in Lake County, Indiana on August 7, 2010. Snowberry Clearwing Moths, which are found throughout almost all of North America, are said to mimic bumblebees, and it is pretty easy to see why someone unfamiliar with these lepidopterans might get confused.

In looking through my old photos, I found the two below of moths in the genus Hemaris.


I feel pretty good about calling the moth in the photograph above another Snowberry Clearwing Moth. This individual seems to fit the description well, with black legs and a very clean margin between the thicker black portion and the clear portion of the forewings. I took this photograph back in May of 2005 in St. Joseph County, Indana.


Here is another old photograph, taken in July of 2006 in St. Joseph County, Indiana. From the descriptions I have seen, I would call this a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe). This species has lighter-colored legs and a thicker, more ragged-edged reddish-brown forewing margin. As the name implies, Hummingbird Clearwing Moths are often mistaken for hummingbirds, as they hover over flowers while probing for nectar. They are found in North America but seem to be absent from the southwestern part of the continent.

Hocus Pocus

For the past several years, Lindsay and I would join Brian Miller of South Bend-Elkhart Audubon Society for a fall camping trip to Indiana Dunes on the first weekend of October. This year, Brian wanted to try something different. Instead of a camping trip, the three of us joined Pat Underwood and the Berrien Birding Club on 2 October 2010 for a field trip to Chicago to, among a few other places, a birding hotspot known as the Magic Hedge. More formally, this location is known as Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary.


After getting out of our vehicles, our view of a stormy Lake Michigan with the metropolis of Chicago as a backdrop didn't seem like such a great place to spend a blustery October morning looking for birds, but the Magic Hedge never fails to produce. A short walk from this location yielded the Magic Hedge itself, which consists mostly of non-native honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) shrubs planted decades ago to block the view of the army barracks that previously were present. The Magic Hedge is named both for these shrubs and the fact that an abnormally high number of migrant birds find shelter here each year during migration. Although warblers and sparrows usually provide the most excitement, our highlight bird at the Magic Hedge was initially seen with a flock of gulls flying over land. As our highlight bird emerged from the flock, I noticed that it was dark in color, had narrower wings than the gulls with which it had been flying, and its wings were sharply bent at the "elbow." My first thought was Black Tern (Chlidonius niger), but I quickly realized that the bird had an extension on the tail characteristic of jaegers. Our bird turned out to be a Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus), a seabird rare in the Chicago Region that is normally seen far out over Lake Michigan! With a Parasitic Jaeger and a plethora of Yellow-rumped Warblers (Dendroica coronata), Golden-crowned Kinglets (Regulus satrapa), Ruby-crowned Kinglets (Regulus calendula), and other passerines, I was so busy looking at birds that I failed to take a single photo of "the hedge" itself!


Another part of Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary consists of the beach community pictured above. Normally this is a good place to find LeConte's Sparrows (Ammodramus leconteii), Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis), and Horned Larks (Eremophila alpestris), but on this windy Chicago day any bird that we saw was blown out of view almost as quickly as it arrived.


Ring-billed Gulls (Larus delawarensis) don't normally grab my attention, but I couldn't resist a couple of photos of this one walking into the wind on a breakwall.

Our next stop was at Wooded Island, aka Paul Douglas Nature Sanctuary at Jackson Park. Our target was Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus), an escaped species that has become established at a few locations in northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana. We were able to find a nest and we saw one of the characteristic neon green feathers on an opening in the nest, but no birds were seen.


This was certainly the strangest thing we saw all day. The best we could tell, this Raccoon (Procyon lotor) had climbed 25-30 feet into this tree, into the hollowed out portion of the trunk, and couldn't get out. We were pretty sure that it was no longer alive.


Lindsay couldn't resist a couple of shots of this statuesque Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias).


At Wooded Island, we saw our first-of-season Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) having a snack in an ornamental pine tree (Pinus sp.) in the Osaka Japanese Garden.


We saw this odd couple from a distance. You can get a better look by clicking on the photo. On the left is arguably the cutest of all of the ducks, a Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis); on the right is a snake bird, a Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus).


The Parasitic Jaeger was the highlight of the day, but a close second was the insect shown above. For as long as I have known of their existence, I have wanted to see a mantidfly. Lindsay and I were behind the group birding when we noticed many in our group beginning to congregate. Wanting to know the cause of the commotion, we caught up to the group and saw the insect that had landed on a member of our field trip. As others were trying to figure out what kind of insect would have the forelegs of a mantis and the body of a fly, I blurted out "mantidfly!" This mantidfly is Dicromantispa sayi. Thanks to Ted MacRae of Beetles in the Bush for verifying my identification.


The final stop on our Saturday excursion was at the Migrant Trap, aka Hammond Lakefront Park and Bird Sanctuary in Hammond, Indiana. Like its counterpart the Magic Hedge in Chicago, the Migrant Trap is a small wooded area within highly urbanized surroundings that is a haven for migrating birds that are exhausted from their flight across Lake Michigan on their trip south for the winter. Also like the Magic Hedge proper, there aren't many botanical wonders at the Migrant Trap, but the birds don't care.


We didn't spend much time at the Migrant Trap, and most of the birds were hunkered down to stay out of the relentless winds. This Brown Creeper (Certhia americana) was out in the open but blended in quite well with the River Birch (Betula nigra) on which it was "creeping."

For the day, our group tallied 49 species:

• Double-crested Cormorant
• Great Blue Heron
• Canada Goose
• Mallard
• Ruddy Duck - one at Wooded Island
• Cooper's Hawk - at the Magic Hedge; more than we've ever seen in one place, unless the same bird flew by us 10+ times
• Red-tailed Hawk
• American Kestrel
• Peregrine Falcon - one in Illinois (at the Magic Hedge) and one in Indiana (at the Migrant Trap)
• American Coot
• Ring-billed Gull
• Parasitic Jaeger - (!) one at the Magic Hedge
• Rock Dove
• Mourning Dove
• Chimney Swift
• Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - several at the Migrant Trap
• Northern Flicker
• Eastern Phoebe
• American Crow
• Black-capped Chickadee
• Red-breasted Nuthatch - our first of the season
• White-breasted Nuthatch
• Brown Creeper
• Winter Wren - at the Migrant Trap; we didn't see it, but the group did
• Golden-crowned Kinglet - lots
• Ruby-crowned Kinglet - lots
• Hermit Thrush
• American Robin
• Gray Catbird
• European Starling
• Cedar Waxwing
• Nashville Warbler - at the Migrant Trap
• Cape May Warbler - one of the first birds seen by our group at the Magic Hedge, but Lindsay and I missed it
• Yellow-rumped Warbler - everywhere, couldn't miss 'em
• Black-throated Green Warbler - at the Migrant Trap
• Pine Warbler - one at Wooded Island
• Palm Warbler - here and there
• Blackpoll Warbler - one at the Magic Hedge, with characteristic yellow feet
• Northern Waterthrush - one at the Magic Hedge
• Eastern Towhee
• Song Sparrow
• Lincoln's Sparrow - at the Migrant Trap; the group saw it, but Lindsay and I missed it
• White-throated Sparrow - I love their songs, which are filling the air right now
• White-crowned Sparrow
• Dark-eyed Junco - many; our first of the season
• Northern Cardinal
• Rusty Blackbird
• American Goldfinch
• House Sparrow

Hocus pocus! A magical day, indeed!

A Fen-tastic Saturday Morning, Part III

In my previous two posts, I discussed the plant communities and some of the plants present in three of northeastern Indiana's highest quality fens. While botanizing these preserves, Nate Simons and I noticed a few common butterflies and moths that certainly deserve a place on this blog.


In the photograph above, a Monarch (Danaus plexippus) is feeding on nectar from Spotted Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatoriadelphus maculatus). Monarchs are protected by chemicals they obtain as caterpillars that are toxic and taste bad to potential predators. These heart toxins come from milkweeds (Asclepias spp.), and are often many times stronger in the Monarch caterpillar than they are in a milkweed plant.

While most people are familiar with the phenomenon of bird migration, relatively few are aware that millions of Monarchs depart on similar journeys each fall and spring. Many of our butterfly species overwinter as adults, caterpillars, or pupae; however, our winters are just too cold for Monarchs, so they annually travel south (some up to 3000 miles!) at the end of our warm season. Monarchs who have summer homes in eastern North America all travel to the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico, whereas those in western North America make their way to California. To stay warm during their migration and during the winter, congregations of up to tens of thousands of Monarchs cluster together on a single tree. I hope to someday visit the Sierra Madre Mountains in February to see this amazing sight. As seen on the Journey North webpage, this year's Monarch migration is already underway!

The most amazing part about this migration phenomenon is that the butterflies that migrate this year are several generations removed from those that migrated last year. Once Monarchs return back to North America in the spring, they lay eggs in March and April and then die soon after. Those eggs eventually develop into caterpillars, then into adults that lay eggs and then die. The next generation hatches in May or June, and the next generation after that is born in July or August. Finally, after all of these adults have lived their short lives, another generation is born in September or October. It is this generation that migrates, hibernates, mates, then migrates back to North America to lay eggs and die. One of the great mysteries of our natural world is how the migrating generation of Monarchs knows where to go each fall, as it was their great-great-grandparents, who died several months earlier, that last made the long journey to Mexico or California.


After reviewing the fritillaries in several of my resources, I came to the conclusion that the butterfly above is an Aphrodite Fritillary (Speyeria aphrodite). On another of my photos, the silver spots on the hindwing undersides of this butterfly are conspicuous. Aphrodite Fritillaries have only a single brood each year, with adults typically present from June to September. Eggs are laid in the late summer and caterpillars hatch in the late summer or early fall. The caterpillars then overwinter and begin feeding on violets (Viola spp.) the following spring.


Question marks and commas aren't just forms of punctuation, you know. In fact, they are both species of butterflies. The butterflies going by these names are also quite similar in appearance. When looking at the upper surface, the two species can be distinguished by looking for an extra dark spot on the forewing present in Question Marks (Polygonia interrogationis) but not in Eastern Commas (Polygonia comma). This extra spot is the horizontal rectangle near the top and outside edge of the forewing on the Question Mark shown above.


Another way to tell a Question Mark from an Eastern Comma is to look at the underside of the hindwing, where each species bears the tiny silvery punctuation symbol for which it is named. As seen above, this butterfly is therefore a Question Mark; an Eastern Comma would lack the dot underneath the comma on the underside of the hindwing. Another way to tell the two similar species apart is that Question Marks have longer hindwing tails than do Eastern Commas.

In addition to feeding on nectar from flowers, Question Marks also feed on tree sap, decaying fruit, animal droppings, and carrion. They often overwinter as adults.


The first three species highlighted in this post are butterflies, but the caterpillar above is that of a moth. Specifically, this grayish-green larva is the caterpillar of the Hitched Arches Moth (Melanchra adjuncta), feeding on leaves of Ohio Goldenrod (Solidago ohioensis, or Oligoneuron ohioense). Thanks to Ben Hess of Ben and Joy, who let me know that Janet Creamer of Indy Parks Nature Blog and Midwest Native Plants, Gardens, and Wildlife had identified this caterpillar for him just a few weeks ago. And thanks, Janet!

That wraps up my account of my visit to some of the fens of northeastern Indiana this September. As you can see, these unique communities are home to a nice variety of unique plants and animals, but my reports barely scratch the surface.

Garden "Pests"

I had hoped to be able to post about the St. Joseph County Parks - Spicer Lake BioBlitz that took place this past Saturday, but because the rain never let up from the time we began until about 6 PM, I never even took my camera out of its case.

Instead, here are a couple of "pests" that I found in our garden when picking vegetables this past Friday. Personally, I enjoy having these "pests" around, and considering how tired Lindsay is of trying to come up with new ways to prepare and preserve tomatoes and peppers, she is probably pretty happy to have them as well.


This is the caterpillar of a Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) butterfly, feeding on the leaves of our carrot (Daucus carota) plants. Black Swallowtails not only thrive in areas of agriculture, but they are even said to be declining in the northeastern United States, where former agricultural areas are being converted to forests. In addition to carrots, Black Swallowtail larvae can be found feeding on other members of the carrot family (Apiaceae), as well as members of the citrus family (Rutaceae).


I have only ever seen these caterpillars with this coloration of lime green with black bands, each with six yellow spots, but apparently the green coloration can be replaced by white on some specimens.


Another "pest" that I found was munching on our jalapeno pepper (Capsicum sp.) plants. This is the larval stage of the Carolina Sphinx (Manduca sexta) moth, also known as a Tobacco Hornworm. This is one enormous caterpillar, reaching a length of 9 cm! As the common name implies, Tobacco Hornworms are often found devastating tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) crops, but just as commonly they are found on tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicon), peppers (Capsicum spp.), and other members of the nighshade family (Solanaceae). Because of their attraction to tomato plants, they are often referred to as Tomato Hornworms, but this common name is said to refer to a different species, the caterpillar of the Five-spotted Hawk Moth (Manduca quinquemaculata).

Before I found this caterpillar, which in spite of its size blends in very well, I noticed that the fence around our garden had been broken in one spot, coincidentally near our pepper plants. Considering that Tobacco Hornworms are voracious eaters, I can't help but wonder now if it didn't eat through our fence to get to the peppers!

Roesel's Katydid, And Why The World Needs More Scientists

In February 2009, Lindsay and I attended the Wild Things conference in Chicago. One of the presentations that we attended was given by Carl Strang of Mayslake Forest Preserve and Nature Inquiries. Carl discussed the singing insects, a group of species to which Lindsay and I were nearly oblivious. Carl's talk opened our eyes and ears, and we've been watching and listening for singing insects since.


Fast forward to 12 June 2010. I had just finished mowing our trails and was taking Bootypants for her daily walk when I heard a singing insect on our property for the first time this year. The song was a soft electric buzz that lasted for 10 to 15 seconds or more, sometimes broken into a series of shorter calls, sometimes continuous. I thought it sounded a bit like a meadow katydid, but I thought it seemed a bit early for them to be calling. I couldn't resist getting a look at the insect that was singing. Shortly after my search began, I saw what looked like a short-horned grasshopper, but then I noticed that this was in fact the insect that was rubbing his wings together to make the electrical buzzing sound I was hearing. Then I noticed the long antennae... clearly not a short-horned grasshopper.


I came inside the house to look through my references and to check online to determine the identity of this Orthopteran. My references quickly pointed to the group known as shieldback katydids (named for the shieldlike plate covering the thorax). I clearly recalled seeing a yellow to yellowish-green crescent behind the head at the base of the lateral portions of the shield, and after comparing the songs that I had heard to the sonagrams of shieldback katydids, I realized that I was seeing a Roesel's Katydid (Metrioptera roeselii).


This was a new insect species to our yard list, but more importantly, the range maps in my references did not include Indiana! Roesel's Katydids are native to Europe and were accidentally introduced in Montreal in the 1950s. Since that time, they have spread into the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, with a supposedly isolated population in northeastern Illinois. I then did an online search for records of the species in Indiana. The results were shocking... the only records I was able to find for Indiana were recorded by none other than Carl Strang just under one year ago.


All of this leads me to my rant on why the world needs more scientists. How long has this non-native shieldback katydid been in northern Indiana? How extensive is its true distribution? How has it been overlooked? Is there anyone studying the distributions of singing insects, particularly rare or introduced species? As Carl states in his post, he looked for this species at three locations in three different northern Indiana counties, and he found it in all three; St. Joseph County represents a fourth northern Indiana county. I would have to believe that the ease with which Carl found this species, and the fact that it is fairly abundant at his locations and on our property, suggests that this species is much more well distributed than anyone knows. If a singing insect, one that can be located and identified not just by site but also by sound, can go unnoticed as it spreads rampantly across the country, what about the unseen species that make no sound?


When I looked back at my notes from the Wild Things conference at which I first heard Carl Strang speak on the singing insects, I also reviewed my notes on the keynote address given by Doug Ladd to open the conference. Doug's first point on what we need to do to keep our natural areas natural was that we need to understand how little we know about our natural environment. Doug also pointed out how important it is to know the threats to our biological systems (which include non-native species), including both current and future threats. In discussing Roesel's Katydid in a paper entitled The Beautiful Katydids, Piotr Naskrecki states:

This aggressive, predaceous species came from Central Europe, probably sometime at the beginning of the last century, and has been spreading like wildfire along the East Coast and steadily moving west. Although nobody has yet looked at the actual impact of this species on local katydids, the fact that it hatches and matures earlier in the season than local species do - and then feeds on nymphs of other species - is bound to have serious implications for the native fauna.

If there aren't people out there looking at the spread of invasive species such as the Roesel's Katydid, it is possible that we could lose our native species before we even realize what is happening.

One Week

I think I accomplished a lot in the past week... I mowed the lawn, washed clothes, worked on plant collections, slept about 42 hours, walked Bootypants, worked over 50 hours, and worked on the blog post you are currently reading, among other things. Not bad for one week. I'll wake up and do it all again next week, and for many more weeks, months, and years.


Do you know what this guy did in the last week? He emerged from a chrysalis, drank nectar, and mated (hopefully!), and he will die in the next couple of days. This is the story of the entire one week life span of an adult Karner Blue Butterfly (Plebejus melissa samuelis; Lycaeides melissa samuelis).

The Karner Blue Butterfly is a federally endangered species with a wingspan of only approximately one inch. There are two generations, or broods, per year. Caterpillars of the first brood hatch in April and feed on leaves of wild lupine (Lupinus perennis var. occidentalis), shown below. In early- to mid-May, the caterpillars pupate and spend the next week or two in a chrysalis. Adult butterflies then emerge, mate, and sip nectar from flowers of a variety of plant species. Females then lay eggs on or near wild lupine plants, completing the life cycle of the first brood. The eggs from the first brood hatch about a week later, and caterpillars feed on wild lupine leaves for the next several weeks. These caterpillars then pupate, and adult butterflies of the second brood appear in July. The second brood adults eat, mate, and die; the eggs of the second brood overwinger and hatch the following spring. Because wild lupine is their only host plant, Karner Blue Butterflies are negatively affected as we continue to degrade and destroy habitat for wild lupine.


Wild lupine is not an uncommon plant in the right habitat. Often, it is the dominant groundcover species in black oak savannas and barrens. In the absence of some form of disturbance, however, an open savanna or barren will transition into a woodland and eventually into a forest with too much shade for wild lupine to survive. Fire and macrofauna were historically the main cause of this disturbance, and in some places human-induced fire is still the main mechanism by which savannas escape succession. In our anthropogenic landscape, however, mowing and clearing also serve as disturbances beneficial to wild lupine. In fact, all photographs in this blog post were taken within powerline rights-of-way maintained by mowing/brush-hogging and herbicide application outside of the growing season.


Male and female Karner Blue Butterflies look nearly identical on the ventral side (underside) of the wings. The wings are grayish or grayish-brown with several dark spots with light borders and with a continuous band of blue-green, orange, and black spots along the edges of the hind and forewings. The orange spots distinguish Karner Blue Butterflies from the similar looking Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon), Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta), and Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus). Eastern-Tailed Blues (Cupido comyntas; Everes comyntas) can also look similar, but have two orange spots and a small tail on the hind wing.


The sex of a Karner Blue Butterfly can best be determined by looking at the dorsal side (upper side) of the wings. The wings of males are an irredescent blue surrounded by a black margin and a white outer band (below).

The dorsal side of female Karner Blue Butterfly wings are dark blue to brown or even charcoal with orange crescents near the outer edges inside the black band; they also have a white outer band (below).


Karner Blue Butterflies are currently known from only eight states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire (reintroduced), New York, Ohio (reintroduced), and Wisconsin; they are considered extirpated from Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Ontario, and may have occurred in Iowa but are no longer present there.

I hope you enjoy this short video, which is equivalent to about half of a day in the average human life.

Which End is Which?

Take a look at the caterpillar in the photograph below and see which end you think is the head, and which end you think is the rear.


Many caterpillars have developed defense mechanisms to ward off predators. Some of those mechanisms include camouflage, mimicking other animals in appearance (e.g. snakes), chemical defense, mimicking poisonous caterpillars in appearance, intense and sudden movement, pretending to bite, regurgitating, and hissing; yet another defense mechanism is possessing a "false head" (Wagner 2005). In some caterpillars, like the Spicebush Swallowtail, the false head is located over the thorax. More commonly, the false head is located at the opposite end of the body.

In the Turbulent Phosphila (Phosphila turbulenta) shown in these photographs, the head appears to be at the end facing my camera in the photograph above. However, the shiny, black, true head of this caterpillar is at the end facing my camera in the photograph below, hidden under the black and white prothoracic shield (the shield over the first segment of the thorax).

Predators often attack the head end of a caterpillar (Purser 2003), so possessing a false head is a way to potentially survive an attack. When the false head is attacked, caterpillars that possess them regurgitate, bite, or emit a poisonous substance (Wagner 2005).

Lindsay and I found this caterpillar at Starved Rock State Park near Utica, Illinois a few weeks ago. It was on a handrail along a trail, with a leaf that had fallen off of a Roundleaf Greenbrier (Smilax rotundifolia) plant. As it turns out, the Turbulent Phosphila feeds on... you guessed it, greenbrier; they often feed in groups, and have been known to defoliate plants (Wagner 2005). You can find this boldly patterned caterpillar in open woods throughout much of the eastern United States (Wagner 2005).

Purser, Bruce. Jungle Bugs: Masters of Camouflage and Mimicry. Buffalo, New York: Firefly Books, 2003.

Wagner, David L. Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005.

A Late Season Caterpillar

Last week at a site in Lake County, Indiana, Tony Troche and I observed a very interesting caterpillar climbing on a stem of Flat-topped Aster (Aster umbellatus). I actually thought that the caterpillar was moving up the stem, but in fact, it is moving down. The humped eighth abdominal segment is one of the identifying characters for this colorful caterpillar.


This is the larval stage of a Brown-hooded Owlet (Cucullia convexipennis), also known as the Brown-bordered Owlet and the Brown-bordered Cucullia. An excellent description of this caterpillar can be found in Caterpillars of Eastern North America: "Each individual appears as if it were hand-painted and then glazed." Brown-hooded Owlets are found from Nova Scotia south to Georgia, and west to Minnesota and Missouri. Host plants for this species include asters (Aster spp.) and goldenrods (Solidago spp.).

A photo and description of the Brown-hooded Owlet moth can be found at nearctica.com.