Flitting By

Viceroy (Limenitis archippus)

When choosing plants for the garden, I try to keep in mind the needs of garden visitors. Not people who may drop by, but a host of birds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators who enliven the garden every day. And when I’m outside, working in the garden or just strolling, I like to keep my camera close at hand for opportune photo moments. Some of the butterflies that I was lucky enough to ‘capture’ with my camera this season are featured here today.

Opening the post is a Viceroy butterfly, a look-alike of the well-known but disappearing Monarch. Viceroys are a bit smaller, and have a distinctive black line across their hind wings. It was thought that Viceroys benefitted from their mimicry of Monarchs as predators avoid the bad-tasting Monarch, but research suggests that the Viceroy has its own disagreeable taste that wards off birds.

In addition to nectar sources, butterflies also need host plants to serve as nurseries for their caterpillars. Pollinators of all types, including butterflies are under severe pressure from the overuse of pesticides and habitat destruction. Any contribution you can make with your garden is a help.

Some butterflies have very specific requirements for host plants, while others are generalists. Monarchs are well-know to use milkweed. Viceroy caterpillars use willows. There are many willow species, and some, such as corkscrew willow or blue arctic willow, can be pleasing additions to a garden.

White Admiral (Limenitis arthemis)

The White Admiral is closely related to the Viceroy, and also uses willows, cottonwoods, poplars and related trees as its larval food source.

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio canadensis)

Here’s a Canadian Tiger Swallowtail visiting catmint. The Canadian is very similar to the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, but ranges farther north. It is a bit smaller than its southern cousin. Its larval foodplants include birch, aspen, black cherry and other trees.

Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)

Here’s a Pearl Crescent on the last of the spring forget-me-nots. Pearl Crescents are small butterflies, but their brilliant orange and black pattern is eye-catching. Their larval foodplants are asters.

Northern Pearly-eye (Enodia anthedon)

Northern Pearly-eyes are rapid flyers. They’re usually found in woods or in meadows near a water souce. Unlike many other butterflies, they don’t visit flowers, but land on tree trunks or trails or low vegetation. Adults feed on dung, fungi, carrion, and sap from willows, poplars, and birch. Grasses are their larval foodplant.

Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele)

Finally, here’s a Great Spangled Fritillary. The adults nectar on many varieties of flowers, but the larval foodplant is specifically violets. A good source of information about butterflies is the Butterflies and Moths of North America website. The page highlighting the Great Spangled Fritillary is linked here.

A very nice book that features beautiful pictures of the life cycle of 23 common butterfly species, from egg to adult, is The Life Cycles of Butterflies by Judy Burris and Wayne Richards. It offers a terrific introduction to these amazing creatures, and is quite highly recommended.

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Royal Butterflies

Of all the butterflies I saw in the meadow, the most eye-catching are surely the Monarchs and Viceroys, so I saved them for their own post. The Monarch (Danaus plexippus) must be one of the most recognised and well-loved of butterflies and it was lovely to see a dozen and more drifting majestically from flower to flower. Along with the Monarchs were an equal number of their look-alikes, the Viceroys (Limenitis archippus). I even found one of each species together on boneset, above.

Viceroy (Limenitis archippus)

Viceroys are a bit smaller than Monarchs but the easiest way to tell them apart is to look for the black line that loops across the Viceroy’s hindwing. This line doesn’t appear on a Monarch’s wing. The line can be spotted whether the wings are open or closed. Viceroys aren’t closely related to Monarchs, but derive some protection from predators by mimicking the colour of the larger butterfly, well-known for its noxious qualities. It is now thought that the Viceroy may be equally distasteful to predators in its own right.

Monarch (Danaus plexippus)

Monarchs are milkweed specialists. The larvae derive chemicals from feeding on the milkweed plants that make even the adult butterflies very distasteful to most predators. In studies, it was found that just one taste was enough to teach birds to avoid Monarchs and their mimics, the Viceroys, as well. The migration of the Monarchs is one of the wonders of the natural world. Each year, millions of monarchs from eastern and central North America migrate to the mountain forests of Mexico for the winter. In spring, they begin to move north, stopping to breed when they find milkweed.

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Butterflies, too.

Butterflies find the hydrangea bush very attractive too. I spotted four species visiting the hydrangea flowers. One was the little crescent butterfly pictured above, who is shown perched on a brick surface near the bush. It is likely a Northern Crescent (Phyciodes cocyta), but could be a Pearl Crescent (P. tharos). The two species are difficult to differentiate. The Northern may be a bit larger and have fewer black markings, leaving orange areas more open. Both are small butterflies, with rounded forewings. Their preferred larval foodplants are asters.

A number of Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis) butterflies were visiting the shrub. On the under surface of the hindwing, you can see the small silvery marking for which this species is named, a curving comma and a white dot. The silhouette of the closed wings also demonstrates the source of a common name for these butterflies: anglewings.

This individual looked a little battered and tattered, but still very pretty. Question Marks fly spring through fall. There are two broods, and the second-brood adults hibernate and mate in the spring. It’s amazing to think of these seemingly delicate creatures surviving the winter.

The Viceroy (Limenitis archippus) is well-known as a mimic of the Monarch butterfly. It was once thought that the Viceroy gained protection by mimicking the noxious Monarch, but it is now believed that the Viceroy may also be distasteful to some predators itself. The Viceroy is smaller than the Monarch, and can be readily distinguished from the larger butterfly by the black band that crosses its mid-hindwing. The Monarch’s larval foodplant is milkweed, while Viceroy larvae dine on willows, and sometimes poplars or other trees.

White Admirals (Limenitis arthemis) are closely related to Viceroys. Like Viceroys, their larval plantfoods include willows, poplars and birches. While Question Marks hibernate as adults, White Admiral caterpillars born late in the summer use silk to roll up a leaf to hibernate in until spring. The white hydrangea flowers make a perfect backdrop for these beauties.

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Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary

We have had a lot of overcast, rainy days this spring, but Wednesday was a beautiful day. I took advantage of the sunny weather to visit the Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary, located east of Morrisburg along the St. Lawrence River. The Sanctuary was established in 1961, on 9,000 hectares acquired by the St. Lawrence Parks Commission following the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway. It features a mix of habitats including mature forest, successional woodlands, old fields and wetlands.

The Sanctuary offers outdoor education programs and includes a campground. The small interpretive centre has a store with a selection of guide books and giftware. It was quiet the day I was there, waiting, no doubt for the busier season to get underway once the kids are finished school in July.

There are four walking trails, with pamphlets available to help visitors enjoy a self-guided hike. I followed this well-groomed trail out through wetlands and open water to the former location of the Lost Village of Aultsville.

While walking in the park, I saw or heard a variety of birds, including a Baltimore Oriole, Wood Thrush, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, and cormorants out by the river.

There were quite a few of these Dot-tailed Whiteface (Leucorrhinia intacta) dragonflies along the walkway. They are members of the Skimmer family of dragonflies, which includes more than a hundred species in North America. They are often seen perched on floating vegetation. Females lay their eggs in flight by tapping the water surface with the tip of their abdomen.

Bluets are common damselflies. You can see the way these damselflies fold their wings over their back while perched, in contrast to the spread-winged posture of dragonflies. There are at least 35 species of bluets in North America, and telling species apart is challenging. This may be a Northern Bluet (Enallagma cyathigerum), which are noted for their large blue eyespots.

There were a number of little blue butterflies flitting about. When they come to rest on a flower, they fold their wings over their back, thus concealing the silvery blue that makes them eye-catching in flight. This is a Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus). Their larval foodplants are lupines, vetches and other legumes.

Common Ringlets (Coenonympha tullia) were also flying along the trail. Ringlets are associated with grasses, which are their larval food. They are attracted to yellow flowers in the composite family, such as ox-eye daisies, for nectaring.

The Viceroy (Limenitis archippus) looks like a small Monarch butterfly. It can be readily differentiated by its smaller size and by the black line that runs across the bottom of the lower, or hind wing, lacking in the Monarch. The larvae of Monarchs feed mostly on milkweeds. Chemicals derived from the milkweed make Monarchs very distasteful to most predators. It was once believed that the Viceroy was a Monarch mimic so that it might take advantage of this predator protection scheme, but it is now thought the Viceroy is equally distasteful to predators. The larval food for the Viceroy is willow species.

Below is a view of the St. Lawrence from the trail.

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