CVC Butterfly Blitz 2023's Journal

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

What do you call a butterfly with no wings? A caterpillar! 😊

For our 14th OOTW, we have a butterfly with fewer wings than normal. The intriguing observation made by Ashley (@ladyluckunexposed) caught our attention - a Monarch butterfly with most of its left forewing missing. This butterfly serves as a living example of the resilience and adaptability of these remarkable insects.

It is not uncommon for butterflies to encounter challenges that result in damaged or missing wings. This can include predation, injuries, or deformities that occur during development. Some amount of wing damage occurs over the life span of all butterflies – you can tell that a worn and faded butterfly has probably been around for a while.

Scientists have studied the location and effects of wing damage on butterflies with eyespots to test the false head hypothesis. This is the idea that some butterflies use wing spots to trick predators into thinking that their wings are actually their heads. Because losing a piece of your wing is much less serious than losing your head!

This Monarch butterfly will be likely be able to lead a normal life even with so much of its wing missing. Butterflies use their wings for flying but rely on other adaptations such as their antennae and legs for survival. With its remaining wings intact, this butterfly will still be able to navigate, visit flowers to feed, and even reproduce.

This encounter of a Monarch with a missing patch reminds me to appreciate the resilience of these delicate creatures that grace our lives and inspire my admiration for butterflies!

Have you ever encountered a butterfly that is missing a part of its wing? Let us know in the comments.

Contest Alert!

Don’t miss the Butterfly Blitz Bingo Challenge! If you’ve ever played Bingo, you already know what to do. Use your iNaturalist observations to complete one row on the Bingo card below. You may already have all the observations you need for a row, or maybe you just need one more … check it out!

The challenge will run from July 1 to September 13! Here is how to participate:

1. Enroll in the 2023 Butterfly Blitz.
2. Join the 2023 Butterfly Blitz project on iNaturalist.
3. Complete a Butterfly Blitz Bingo row, column, or diagonal line and fill out this form (https://www.cvc.ca/ButterflyBingoForm) to be entered into a draw to win an Individual Credit Valley Annual Parks Pass. Complete Contest Rules.

Happy butterflying,
Brittany and the Butterfly Blitz team

This week’s OOTW was written by Brittany Stoneman (@b_stoneman), Program Assistant, Community Outreach at Credit Valley Conservation.

For the 15th OOTW, we have chosen this Peck’s Skipper as our OOTW!

Here’s what Kevin (@solartempest), the observer, commented about this observation:
“I found the Peck's Skipper at the Riverwood Conservancy, which is a lovely set of gardens and woodlands in Mississauga. Very cute butterfly.
I really love photography and combining that with my love for butterflies and insects has become a favourite pastime! It's been a real adventure on iNaturalist in being able to keep track of the diversity of local creatures that I am now finding throughout the year. Capturing them beautifully in natural habitats is my overall goal.”

We can certainly tell that Kevin has a keen eye for photography. I love when a photo is crisp like this one, so much detail, you can see the hairs on the butterfly’s legs.

We’re likely to see the Peck’s Skipper move up in our most observed list soon, as this is one of the best months of the year to spot them. These skippers are not only the most abundant native skippers we see in Ontario, but they also have two generations in this part of Ontario, one in April and the other in August.
The reason Peck’s Skippers are so abundant is also due in part to their habitats. They mainly live in urban areas with open grassy spaces like meadows, lawns, gardens, marshes, woodland edges and less traditionally beautiful habitats like landfills, roadsides, vacant lots and power line right of ways.

This skipper isn’t too similar in appearance to many other skippers seen in the watershed, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to distinguish. The Tawny-edged Skipper is similar from above but lacks a band of spots on the hindwing. Earlier in the season, you may also confuse the Peck’s Skipper with the Hobomok Skipper due to the yellow patch on the back of the butterfly’s body – the Peck’s extends further than the one on the Hobomoks.

Photos: Peck’s Skipper with band on hindwing (left) and Tawny-edged Skipper missing the band on hindwing (right).

Contest Alert!
Don’t forget to submit your Butterfly Blitz Bingo Challenge entry!
If you’ve ever played Bingo, you already know what to do. Use your iNaturalist observations to complete one of the rows on the Bingo card below. You may already have all the observations you need for a row, or maybe you just need one more … check it out! This Peck’s Skipper observation would go well on squares B1 or N4 of the August BINGO sheet, what do you think?
The challenge will run from July 1 to September 13! Here is how to participate:

1. Enroll in the 2023 Butterfly Blitz.
2. Join the 2023 Butterfly Blitz project on iNaturalist.
3. Complete a Butterfly Blitz Bingo row, column, or diagonal line and fill out this form (https://www.cvc.ca/ButterflyBingoForm) to be entered into a draw to win an Individual Credit Valley Annual Parks Pass. Complete Contest Rules.

Happy butterflying,
Kristen and the Butterfly Blitz team

Our 16th OOTW comes from Dave (@dmreid) with this observation of a Red-spotted Purple! This particular specimen was found during our Butterfly ID walk at Riverwood on August 19. After admiring and photographing its beautiful orange and blue patterns, the butterfly was quickly released.

Often found in woodland areas, particularly near waterways, the Red-spotted Purple was initially thought to be its own species entirely. However, it has since been recognized as a more southern subspecies of the White Admiral butterfly.

This is an incredible example of butterfly evolution, as these subspecies look quite different. The White admiral has prominent white bands along its wings, and the Red-spotted Purple lacks those bands. The Red-spotted Purple has a drastically different pattern because of an evolutionary adaptation that allows it to mimic the far less palatable Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly. Predators have learned that the Pipevine Swallowtail is distasteful at best, and poisonous at worst. The Red-spotted Purple benefits by mimicking the look of this swallowtail, giving it a scary reputation that it hasn’t really earned.

That being said, we’re lucky enough to live in an area where both subspecies exist together, so while looking for butterflies in the Credit River watershed, you’ll definitely have the potential to find both Red-spotted Purples, AND White Admirals.

And to make matters slightly more confusing, these species are known to hybridize in this range! Their (very beautiful) offspring could definitely end up in your net, as one recently did for Christine (@birds-blooms-butterflies) in the picture below, showing the hybridized White Admiral x Red-spotted Purple (or Limenitis arthemis arthemis x astyanax).

All this to say that the Red-spotted Purple has evolved over time to fake it in order to make it. And make it they have, as a beautiful addition to the 2023 Butterfly Blitz!

Contest Alert!
Don’t miss the Butterfly Blitz Bingo Challenge!
If you’ve ever played Bingo, you already know what to do. Use your iNaturalist observations to complete one of the rows on the Bingo card below. You may already have all the observations you need for a row, or maybe you just need one more … check it out! This red-spotted purple observation would go well on squares O2 or O3 of the August BINGO sheet, what do you think?

The challenge will run from July 1 to September 13! Here is how to participate:

1. Enroll in the 2023 Butterfly Blitz.
2. Join the 2023 Butterfly Blitz project on iNaturalist.
3. Complete a Butterfly Blitz Bingo row, column, or diagonal line and fill out this form (https://www.cvc.ca/ButterflyBingoForm) to be entered into a draw to win an Individual Credit Valley Annual Parks Pass. Complete Contest Rules.

Happy butterflying,
Derek and the Butterfly Blitz team
This week’s OOTW was written by Derek Stone, Program Director at The Riverwood Conservancy.