Observation of the Week: July 29 – August 4, 2023
Have you ever heard of the Three Witches? They’re a group of three butterfly species that are all flying around now and can be very hard to tell apart from each other: the Little Glassywing, Northern Broken Dash, and Dun Skipper. I always think of them as the Three Whiches, like “Which one of those species is it?!”. 😊
Anyhow, it’s fitting that our lucky 13th OOTW is one of the witches. Vi (@vcbull) saw this Northern Broken Dash in the MacEwan Terrace Gardens at Riverwood. Vi notes that “the gardens are in full bloom and are an excellent location for butterfly, and hummingbird, sightings”.
Although she wasn’t sure at first which witch it was, Vi followed the iNaturalist suggestion and identified it as a Little Glassywing. Once it was posted, Rick Cavasin identified it as a Northern Broken Dash instead, adding some helpful notes to the observation on how to tell the species apart.
Take a good look at the photos below. Can you see the difference between the three witches?
Images: Little Glassywing on the left, by @line2; Dun Skipper in the middle, by @uofgtwitcher; Northern Broken Dash on the right, by @vcbull;
The key in these photos is the number, size, and colour of the pale spots on the upper side of the wings. Little Glassywing has the most spots; some of the spots are large and squarish, and they are all very light in colour, almost clear or glassy. Dun Skipper has the fewest and smallest spots; they are also whitish instead of clear. Northern Broken Dash is in between the two; personally, I also think the spots on NBD are longer and thinner.
Note that these photos are all female butterflies; males can be a bit easier to tell apart. It’s also easier to tell the Three Witches apart if you can get a view of the under side of their wings in addition to the upper side.
If all of this has you feeling confused, don’t feel bad! I still often get these species mixed up, for example with this butterfly last week. And in the field guide Butterflies through Binoculars, author Jeffrey Glassberg notes that the Three Witches occasionally all feed together on the same flowers in large numbers, “creating an unparalleled opportunity to misidentify thousands of butterflies in a single day”. 😊
Programming note: We’ve recently finalized the plan for our 2023 Butterfly Blitz wrap-up event, and I’m excited to share it with you! This year we’re doing something completely different – we’re hosting the event in the evening and will end it by watching a movie together under the stars.
On September 16th at Terra Cotta Conservation Area, we’ll provide an overview of what we’ve achieved over five years of Butterfly Blitz, hand out awards for this year’s participants, and eat some tasty snacks and share butterfly stories. Finally, we’ll watch the short film Flight of the Butterflies in the Terra Cotta CA outdoor theatre. The movie is an entertaining and beautiful telling of the story of the Ontario scientist who made it his life’s work to discover the secrets of the Monarch’s migration. Details on how to register will be posted here soon.
Happy butterflying,
Laura and the Butterfly Blitz team
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