Local Butterflies 2024

 

I began writing about butterflies I’ve seen locally in the Amarillo, Texas area in the fall of 2020, after spending the year observing and photographing them in my garden. It was the first Covid year, and like many of us, we spent a good deal more time at home and in our own gardens. The first of the Garden Notes on Local Butterflies included photos taken at our home garden in the city of Amarillo, Palo Duro Canyon and the Amarillo Botanical Gardens over a period of years up until 2020. Afterwards, each Garden Note on Local Butterflies included only butterflies seen that year.  (Red Admiral on violas at left.)

 

I was pretty impressed with the range of species and number of species. 2020 was a pretty good butterfly year. So, I wondered if this was an outlier year, or normal. In each of the next four years, I spent increasingly more time and effort in accurately observing and recording, especially 2022, 2023 and 2024, keeping a daily record of butterfly species (and sometimes moths) and their numbers in a log book. (Photo of Black Swallowtail at right.)

 

What I discovered, as one might expect, there is variation from year to year in numbers of butterflies of one species or another. Nearly the full range of Local Butterflies I had previously observed (including photos taken prior to 2020), returned in 2024. A Bordered Patch, Giant Swallowtail and Question Mark also returned, to my delight. Exceptions are the Silvery Checkerspot and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, which where not observed by me anywhere in 2024.

 

And there are always surprises that flutter into the garden. The most notable was the White Peacock, appearing only one morning in August (photo at left on lantana). The White Peacock is a sub-tropical brushfoot butterfly, whose typical range is south Texas and Florida. Other new butterflies to our garden were the Large Orange Sulphurs, in both the orange and white forms, a Mexican Yellow and a Hackberry Emperor. Did some weather event cause more butterflies to come into the city, to my green and flowery oasis for a visit, or was I a better observer? Being a more practiced observer is definitely at least part of the answer. Watching for the stray, new, or different species, makes the daily life of a butterfly observer fun!

 

In all, I was able to identify thirty two species of butterflies, and three or four species of grass skippers, “little brown jobs”, not identified, but most probably Sachem and Delaware skippers, and including the always present cabbage white. I still find the grass skippers hard to identify. So let’s say, 35 species in all – a very good butterfly year for me. (Photo of Painted Lady at right.)

 

The United States is home to about 750 butterfly species, and the state of Texas, roughly 400. So 32 - 35 species may not seem like much. To put it into perspective, I recently read an article about Phil Sterling, an ecologist working in Dorset, Great Britain, who was restoring a a wildflower bank along one of their main roads, increasing plant diversity in hopes of increasing wildlife. He was pleased to say they “have over 30 species of butterflies – half the total number of species in Britain!” Witnessing over thirty five species of butterflies in our own garden, one average size residential lot in Amarillo, suddenly sounded a lot better!
 

This year, 2024, though good, is also a shortened year for observations, and is the last year for me to observe and write about the butterflies observed in our Amarillo home garden. At the middle of September, my husband and I moved out of state to be closer to our two sons. So I could not complete the butterfly year in Amarillo. Although this year’s butterfly observations ended early, I believe the data garnered is still relevant.

 

Butterfly Observations

 

March and April

The first butterfly observation I recorded was a Painted Lady on March first. Typically, I observe few butterflies in March, and this year was no exception. April brought a few more, mainly Red Admirals and Orange Sulphurs, a few Painted Ladies, Gray Hairstreaks and one Gulf Fritillary. It takes awhile during spring for any butterfly larvae that have wintered over to emerge, or butterflies to migrate up from the south, as many do. (Photos of Orange Sulphur nectaring on a petuna at left, and Gray Hairstreak at right.)

 

Red Admirals, Black Swallowtails, Painted Ladies and Orange Sulphurs appeared sporadically through the third week of May. By the fourth week, more species started to appear. Marine and Reakirt’s Blues, Common Buckeye, Common Checkered Skippers, and grass skippers regularly appeared and Black Swallowtails tapered off. I did not see a Monarch in their spring flight north, as was customary in the past.

 

 This pattern of appearance and disappearance is entirely normal. Different species have different flight seasons (late spring, early summer, mid-summer, etc), different length of flight seasons, and different number of broods. Many butterflies only have one brood, depending on their climate, that is, butterflies who live in warmer climates with longer warm seasons can have two, or even three broods per year. Added to that, most adult temperate butterflies have short life spans – from a few days to a week or two at most (Monarchs excepted). Butterflies called “arctic” or “graylings” that live in arctic, subarctic and high altitude alpine regions of the Rocky Mountains (and other similar regions), require two warm seasons (years) to complete the cycle.

 

The adult winged stage we so enjoy observing is entirely about mating and laying eggs. Usually the male butterflies of a species emerge first, several days to a week before the females. In temperate climates, females then emerge with their full complement of eggs. Males, either through patrolling, perching and pheromones, are on the watch for females to mate with. Generally, after mating, females look for their host plants to lay eggs and avoid mating again. (Photos of Common Buckeye at left and Variegated Fritillaries at right.)

 

June and July
 

June and July were very the busiest butterfly months this year. Black Swallowtails appearances were very strong. Again, I had planted the host plants fennel and parsley for them. I witnessed many, many black swallowtail caterpillars.  All the Red Admirals visited in the spring this year, with the first on Eclipse Day on April 8^th and none after June 1^st. Red Admirals are usually around for the entire season spring through to fall in most of the United States. They were replaced, in effect, by Variegated Fritillaries. Checkered Whites, Dainty Sulphurs, Pearl Crescents, Horace’s and Funereal Duskywings joined in with the end of May butterflies. Mid-June, when the stone fruit of neighboring trees ripen, the Question Mark came by. Question Marks feed on ripe and rotting fruit. I tried leaving little dishes of fruit out to attract them, but it desiccated in the heat and sun, and the possums licked the plate clean at night without a butterfly once observed coming near the dish.

 

Queens only appeared on three days in June and four in July. A Gulf Fritillary for two days, a single appearance of a Bordered Patch livened the observations. Where do these butterflies go after dropping by – most likely in  search of a mate in some other garden. I grew sunflowers, which are known to attract Bordered Patch, but have not observed even one there. (Photos of Bordered Patch on Catmint at left, and Horace's Duskeywing at right.)

 

One major difference I noticed this year was a decline in the number of smaller butterflies, and especially grass skippers. This coincided with a general garden cleanup at the end of June in my xeric borders to make the garden more appealing. That is, more appealing with the aim of selling home and garden. Native wildflowers and grasses can give a city garden a bit of an untidy appearance to humans. It was at this exact time when grasses and some plants were cut back that populations of the smaller butterflies declined – a clear example of habitat loss causing butterfly decline. I did not see another Reakirt’s Blue the rest of the year, hard as I looked.

 

Florissant Butterflies, Ancient History
 

American Snout, Libytheana carinenta, made a return to our garden in mid-July, only seen in 2021. It made a strong showing, coming in at 6^th in number of appearances for the year (see table below). There was a small population of 3 snouts one day, hopefully mating. Snouts are a group of brushfoot butterflies that include one species that makes its home in North America. Once you’ve seen a snout, it’s easy to identify by its moniker, the long nose or snout (technically, a “greatly developed labial palp).

 

The American Snout is small to medium sized, has a wingspan from 1 ½ to 1 7/8 inches wide. The forewings are squared off at the end, the upperside orange and black with wide black borders and white spots. The underside has been described as looking like a dried leaf. When perched on a twig, the snout looks like a leaf petiole. Their host plants are hackberry trees (and other members of the Celtis genus). American Snouts are abundant throughout America. (Photos of athe American Snout at left and right.)

 

Snouts are thought “to be a very ancient branch of the Nymphalid family: there are fossils from the Florissant Fossil Bed National Monument (~34 million years old), and each continent (except Antarctica) has at least one species (but rarely more).” (Butterflies of New Mexico.)

 

Speaking of butterfly fossils, over time, fossil hunters have discovered very few butterfly fossils. However, some of the oldest butterfly fossils were found in Colorado, in the Green River Shale of Rio Blanco County, Colorado, dating back to 48 million years ago. The richest butterfly fossils find was at the Florissant Shales, 35 miles west of Colorado Springs, Colorado at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.

 

 Twenty butterfly specimens were discovered (along with many, many other fossils), from 12 species and three families. Two of the Florissant butterfly fossils are in the Libytheidae Family (snout family), one called the Vagabond Snout, Prolibythea vagabunda (fossil photo at left), and Florissant Snout, Barbarothea florissanti (fossil photo at right). These snout butterflies resemble today’s snout species found in southeastern Asia, and an African species.

 

The discovery of ancient butterfly fossils was important because it “suggests (with representatives of the butterfly families Pieridae [Whites and Sulphurs], Libytheidae [Snout subfamily], and Nymphalidae [Brushfoot Family] being present in relatively modern-looking species) that all the basic families of butterflies had already evolved millions of years earlier, probably by the end of the Cretatceous Period about 66 million years ago, when some of the continents were in much closer geologic proximity.” (Florissant Butterflies). Today, however, scientists have concluded that butterflies existed as early as 100 million years ago and lived alongside dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. This more current fossil evidence clearly shows that butterflies survived the great K-T extinction at the end of of the Cretaceous, 66 million years ago. This is encouraging, given the state of nature and diminishing insect numbers. They may be down, but not out.
 

Other ancient butterfly fossils fill out the other butterfly families: two Papilionidae (swallowtails) and one from the Riodinidae family or metalmark, and a fourth specimen thought to be a satyrine nymphalid (brushfoot-satyr), currently undescribed, dating back 48 million years ago in the Green River Shale of Colorado. A lycaenid larva (gossamer-wing) and two papilionids (swallowtails) were found in Baltic amber dating to 37 million years ago. By the end of the Oligocene and the beginning of the Miocene Epoch (about 24 million years ago), “all the modern families appear in rocks worldwide.” (Florissant Butterflies.)

 

The area around Florissant was a lake environment that existed for about 2,500 – 5000 years with redwood, maples, oaks, elms, sycamores and poplar trees. Also among the fossil plants are leaves and flowers of Celtis maccoshi, a hackberry, possibly a host source for the snouts. The climate at the time of the Florissant butterfly fossils during the Oligocene Period (about 34-36 million years ago) was warm-temperate, moist and nearly subtropical (according to plant fossils found), compared to it’s cooler and drier climate today, thus the butterfly fossils are different from the butterflies currently living in the Florissant area. A similar climate to Florissant 34 million years ago can be found today in the northern Sierra Madre in northeastern Mexico.

 

Any fossil find of a butterfly is a major find, due to the difficulties in preserving their thin, fragile wings and body parts. For the delicate butterflies to be preserved, specific events need to happen. Around 36 million years ago, an ancient stream flowed through the Florissant Basin. About 35 million years ago, “substantial volcanic eruptions” in the Thirtynine Mile volcanic field caused lava to flow eastward and blocked off the stream, forming ancient Lake Florissant.

 

The volcanos continued to erupt from 35 to 34 million years ago, “sending clouds of fine ash and dust over Lake Florissant.” Killed by the hot ash, butterflies and other insects died in the air and fell into the lake, settling on the bottom of the lake bed. These precious specimens, a unique look into the past, were preserved by thin layers of fine ash, hardening into sediment over time. “There, the Florissant shales began to form, preserving these delicate fossils. By about 34 million years ago, volcanic mudflows called lahars had covered the lake as the Thirtynine Mile Volcanos continued to erupt. These mudflows hardened and protected the shale beds from erosive forces.” (Florissant Butterflies.) Overtime, these shales were uplifted to it’s present elevation, with gradual erosion bringing the shales close to the surface for discovery.
 

Besides the well preserved snout butterfly fossil, two of the Florissant butterfly fossils are assigned to a living genera. One is Chlorippe wilmattae, or Cockerell’s Nymphalid, a genus of the American tropics. The second would be more familiar to us, Vanessa amerindica, called the Amerindian Lady, as it is “close to the living Old World Indian Lady, Vanessa indica,” which is similar in pattern to our own Painted Lady butterfly, Vanessa cardui. Other butterfly fossils may yet turn up, in contemporary excavations or from fossil collectors prior to the establishment of the national monument at Florissant.

 

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is probably most known for the quantity and size of fossilized trees and tree trunks (photos at left and right), which were quite abundant when first discovered by settlers in the early 20^th century. Not protected, many people removed much of the fossilized redwoods and fossils of plants, animals and insects over the decades. Even with all that plunder, over 40,000 fossils of well preserved insects (including spiders, beetles, ants, dragonflies, flies), plants including ferns and many other leaves, as well as extensive redwood stumps, mammals, fish, birds, and these butterflies were saved. To preserve this important geologic site, President Richard Nixon signed a bill creating the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument on August 20, 1969.

 

Today, this area near Florissant, Colorado, has a much different ecology with an elevation between 8400’ – 9200’, composed of coniferous forest, hilltops and ravine bottoms, and wet and dry meadow habitats. It boasts a robust population of nearly100 butterfly species, different from those excavated. For the avid butterfly observer, hiking some of the 14 miles of trails through the different habitats at the monument would make a fun eco-vacation that I hope to make again one day.

 

 

August

August was excessively hot, I noted in my journal, and mostly dry, as is to be expected. Overall butterfly numbers declined, especially compared to 2023 when August was the busiest month. Black Swallowtails showed up 10 days, the American Snout 8 days, Queens and Marine Blue’s only five days. A new large yellow butterfly flew into our garden August 3^rd for the very first time. Really, Large Orange Sulphurs are quite impressive with over a three inch wingspan -- they're noticeable -- and their apricot orange color is extremely beautiful in flight. Large Orange Sulphurs always holds their wings upright at rest, usually hanging downward. They are easily identified by their large size and a dark “straight, diagonal, postmedian line of brownish striations.” There are also female Large Orange Sulphurs ranging in color from orange to white, and pinkish when worn, one of which came to our garden a few times as well, hopefully mating with the male. This butterfly strayed outside it's usual territory of south Texas and south Florida. (Photos of Queen on Verbena bonarensis at left and a Large Orange Sulphur on Anisacanthus at right.)
 

A Mexican Yellow visisted our garden two days in August. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a photo of it. I did get a photo of both the dorsal (upperside with wings outstretched) and ventral side (wings held upright) of the White Peacock, straying into our garden for my first observation. I was so excited by this exotic butterfly, I could hardly focus!

 

The White Peacock (photo at left) is a medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan of 2- 2 1/2 inches, white with light brown markings and a double row of light crescents at the margins. The forewing has one round black spot, the hindwing has two. They are sub-tropical butterflies, not at all cold-tolerant, found mostly in south Texas, Central and South America, and in Florida. It is known to stray far outside its territory, even into Nebraska, New Mexico and North Carolina. Most likely it hitched a ride on a shipment of plants from Florida, only to be found stranded in the Texas Panhandle. It left me wondering if it found a mate before dying.

 

Near the end of August, I was surprised to see a Hackberry Emperor in our garden. We had seen them in Palo Duro Canyon earlier this spring (click here for Palo Duro Canyon butterflies), but this was the first time we saw one in our own garden. Hackberry Emperors are a medium-large sized butterfly with a wingspan to nearly 3 inches. The uppersides are mainly brown, white and black with usually one eyespot on the lower forewing, and the hindwing with a row of large black spots. The underside is gray with eyespots on the forewing and hindwing and many dark lines. It’s a handsome butterfly that can be found flying around the trees, usually feeding on sap, fruit, occasionally carrion and dung. Females are larger than males, usually staying near their host plant, and lay their eggs on netleaf hackberry trees. I took this photo, left, of the Hackberry Emperor on our New Mexican Privet.

 

September

September, my last month observing, was bittersweet. The temperatures did cool, and some rain came, perhaps setting the scene for a good fall rebound. Butterflies amounted to one or two a day. Painted Ladies, American Snout, Gray Hairstreaks, another Variegated and Gulf Fritillary, Orange and Large Orange Sulphurs, Marine Blues and a single early appearance of the Western Pgymy Blue. In the past, I observed Western Pgymy Blues first appearing not before Sept. 19^th. This year, knowing we would be moving, I watched specifically for them beginning about Labor Day, and only spotted one WPB on September 12th. They prefer flowers of autumn flowering sedums in our garden, so on the very first day of the very first tiny sedum flower opening, there it appeared, North America’s tiniest butterfly. It’s rather miraculous. (Photo of Question Mark at left and the Western Pymy Blue after the chart on the right.)

 

And finally, on the last few days of observation in September, two male Queens flew in, along with an Orange Sulphur, Variegated Fritillary and Painted Lady. These two Queens (photo below at the end) perching together on a flower, I’ll take as my last observation in our butterfly garden.

 

 

 

	Butterflies Observed Through September 15, 2024
Rank by Days Observed	Species	Number of Days Observed	Total Number Observed
1	Black Swallowtail	42	53
2	Marine Blue	39	73
3	Painted Lady	32	39
4	Orange Sulphur	29	33
5	Reakirt’s Blue	24	54
6	American Snout	21	26
7	Gray Hairstreak	21	25
8	Dainty Sulphur	19	26
9	Red Admiral	18	21
10	Funereal Duskywing	18	18
11	Queen	18	18
12	Large Orange Sulphur	16	18
13	Common Checkered Skipper	15	18
14	Variegated Fritillary	10	15
15	Common Buckeye	10	10
16	Pearl Crescent	6	8
17	Question Mark	6	6
18	Gulf Fritillary	5	5
19	Checkered White	5	5
20	Clouded Sulphur	4	5
21	American Lady	3	3
22	Common Sootywing	2	2
23	Horace’s Duskywing	2	2
24	Giant Swallowtail	2	2
25	Mexican Yellow	2	2
26	Monarch	2	2
27	Bordered Patch	1	1
28	Texas Crescent	1	1
29	White Peacock	1	1
30	Hackberry Emperor	1	1
31	Western Pgymy Blue	1	1
32	Cabbage Whites	Nearly every day	1-4 per day
	Grass Skippers, 3-4 Species	67	1-4 per day

 

Year to Year Comparisons 

 

Over the past several years, scientists have been writing about the global decline in insect populations, including butterfly declines. Most of the attention has been focused on honey bees, native bees and especially the Monarch butterfly. I think we’ve all noticed, in our own gardens, less beneficial insects, and probably pest insects too, although we tend to notice these more. I wondered, have butterflies numbers decreased in our garden? (Photos of American Lady on Salvia Blue Marvel at left, and Western Pygmy Blue at right on an autumn flowering sedum.)

 

Any substantial analysis should be taken over decades. Here, I include only the three years when I made more detailed observations. I’ve included twelve species that gives a well-rounded overview of the butterfly populations that visited our home garden.

 

Monarch Butterflies

The most frightening change in numbers was the low Monarch count in our garden – only two Monarchs all year were observed in 2024, one each of two days. In fact, both times, the lone Monarch flew around so briefly, I could not even get a photograph. They must have been males patrolling for a mate, flying back and forth in sweeping arcs across the whole of the front garden, never settling down to nectar, nor posing for a photo. The Eastern Monarch population was down an alarming 59% of an already declined population for the 2023-2024 count. In 2023, I observed 19 Monarchs on 18 different days, and in 2022, 76 monarchs on 47 different days throughout the year.

 

The Western Monarch 2024-2025 population count was announced on February 3, 2025. “The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has been counting western overwinter populations along the California coast, northern Baja California and inland sites in California and Arizona for the last 28 years. The highest number recorded was 1.2 million in 1997. The organization announced Friday that it counted just 9,119 monarchs in 2024, a decrease of 96% from 233,394 in 2023. The total was the second-lowest since the survey began in 1997. The record-low was 1,901 monarchs in 2020,” according to the Associated Press.

The Eastern Monarch count in Mexico for 2024-2025 will be released soon, and I’ll include the data here as soon as it’s available.  

Queen butterflies also took a deep dive, with 18 Queens on 16 days. This compares with 59 Queens on 39 days in 2023 (no Queen observed after Sept. 29^th) and in 2022, a whopping 515 Queens observed on 81 days. Painted Ladies varied a good bit, as they often do. (Four Blues on drumstick allium at left.)
 

 

The increase in the Black Swallowtail population was due to planting specific host plants of dill, parsley and fennel for Black Swallowtail catarpillars. Variegated Fritillaries dropped both of the last two years. I think this had more to do with the Texas’ spring drought in 2023, as the Variegated Fritillaries fly up from the south. (Female Black Swallowtail ovipositing at right on fennel.)

 

Part of the variation in the “Blues” populations is due to better observations, and recognizing three different blues for the past few years: Reakirt’s Blue, Marine Blue and Western Pgymy Blues, rather than thinking all the little blues were Reakirt’ blues. Also better recording habits on the Dainty Sulphurs and Gray Hairstreaks. And for several years, no American Snouts were observed, then they became a frequent visitor in July and August this year.

 

Butterfly Comparisons 2022-2024

	2022	2023	2024*
Species	Days/Number	Days/Number	Days/Number
Queen	81/515	39/59	16/18
Painted Lady	54/93	89/332	32/39
Monarch	47/76	18/19	2/2
Black Swallowtail	6/6	54/67	42/53
Variegated Fritillary	29/46	8/8	10/15
Reakirt’s Blue	35/many	31/51	24/54
Gray Hairstreak	32/many	48/80	21/25
Dainty Sulphur	16/several	31/44	19/26
Common Buckeye	2/2	10/12	10/10
Red Admiral	0	8/8	18/21
Marine Blue	0	11/12	39/73
American Snout	0	0	21/26

*Observations through September 15^th.

 

Butterfly Gardening

The plants in our butterfly garden in 2024 were much the same from 2023, as mentioned in Local Butterflies 2023. The only change was planting even more summer blooming alliums or ornamental onions, specifically, ‘Millenium’ allium, by dividing and spreading them throughout the front garden. The two best plants for butterflies are still purple vervain, Verbena bonariensis and Gregg’s Blue Mist Flower, Conoclinium greggii. Although it’s native to Brazil, purple vervain was the most visited plant by many different butterfly species in my garden – a butterfly magnet. Many of the butterflies observed visited and were photographed on this plant. (Photos of Giant Swallowtail at left, and Gorgonne Checkerspot on prairie zinnia at right.)

 

In springtime, the few butterflies that came through could be found on nearly any blooming plant over the course of the spring, prairie zinnia, larkspur, even lilac and pansies! I had few spring blooming natives that attracted different species to them in Palo Duro Canyon. Heucheras and Centhranthus rubra were popular with Black Swallowtails for nectar, and dill and fennel as catarpillar host plants. Along with purple vervain, summer blooming alliums, salvias, catmint, and boltonia provide nectar. In late summer and fall, Anisacanthus, blue mist spirea, iceplants, lantanas, blazing starts and the autumn blooming sedums are popular. These are easy care perennials and annuals, once established.

 

Identifying butterflies in one’s garden is not as hard as one might imagine. A good reference book, such as Butterflies of Oklahoma, Kansas and North Texas by Dole, Gerald and Nelson is extremely helpful. A good photo or two is also important; I have found my memory of exact details tend to fade, especially when pondering over checkerspots and crescents. If you’re stumped by a stray from another area, do an Internet search with a description of the butterfly, and check regional or state butterfly websites from Butterflies and Moths of North America website. One website that has been a particular help to me is PEEC – Pajarito Environmental Education Center that includes a detailed list of New Mexican butterflies. Many butterflies that can be found on the eastern side of New Mexico are similar to Texas Panhandle butterflies. Many butterflies inhabit large regions, several states list similar butterflies to those that might cross our path. A good national butterfly book can also come in handy. I recently purchased the Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of North American. This will be a handy companion when traveling and for identifying strays. Kaufman's guide includes brief information on individual species posture and flight style, as well as preferred habitat.

Butterflies in the Texas Panhandle fall into several groups, with these most commonly seen species per group: swallowtails (Black Swallowtail, Giant and Eastern Tiger), whites (cabbage and checkered); sulphurs (clouded, cloudless, orange, and dainty), blues (Reakirt’s, Marine, Western Pygmy), heliconians and fritillaries (Gulf and Variegated), brushfoots (Gorgone and Silvery Checkerspots, Pearl and Texas Crescents, Common Buckeye, Red Admiral, American and Painted Lady, and Question Marks), emperors (Hackberry), snouts (American Snout), milkweed butterflies (Monarchs and Queen), spread-wing skippers (Funereal, Horaces's Duskywings, Common Checkered Skippers, and Black Sootywings) and grass skippers. I haven't yet observed any metalmark butterflies. Once you can identify them by group, it is easier to narrow identification down to the species. Try to get photos of both the dorsal and ventral side, as they are usually very different. Sometimes it easier to identify by the upperside, sometimes you only see the underside. And every once in a while you’ll be surprised by a butterfly who hitched a ride on the wind or a delivery truck to surprise and delight your day! (Photo of Gulf Fritillary at left and Queens duo at right, the last butterflies to be observed before we moved.)

Observing butterflies is really about caring. Once one cares, one will plant for them and perhaps alter one's practices to promote the natural life around us. There's still alot of it there to enjoy while we can.

 

Resources

 

Butterflies and Moths of North America website, and regional checklist.

Butterflies of America website with many photos and other information related to butterflies.

Butterflies of Oklahoma, Kansas and North Texas, by Dole, Gerard and Nelson; University of Oklahoma Press, 2004.

Florissant Butterflies, A Guide to the Fossil and Present Day Species of Central Colorado, by Emmel, Minno and Drummond; Stanford University Press, 1992.

Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America, by Brock and Kaufman, Mariner Books, 2006.

PEEC – Pajarito Environmental Education Center, includes a detailed list of New Mexican butterflies.

 

Angie Hanna, February 13, 2025