Wings Over Yakima
10th Annual Conference – July 17-19, 2009
Join us as we explore the rocky and rugged wilderness west of Yakima, a first-time location for the WBA Annual Conference. Depending on weather and blooming season, we may be in dry shrub-steppe, moist meadows, or cool sub-alpine habitats. Target locations might include Bear Canyon, the Rimrock area, and/or Bear Creek Mountain.
Possible highlights of butterfly species we may see include the Halfmoon Hairstreak (Satyrium semiluna), Artic Blue (Agriades glandon) Arrowhead Blue (Glaucopsyche piasus), Blue Copper (Lycaena heteronea), Mariposa Copper (Lycaena mariposa), Sonoran Skipper (Polites sonora), Clodius Parnassian (Parnassius clodius), and Two-banded Checkered Skipper (Pyrgus ruralis).
The area also has the “true” Dotted Blue (Euphilotes enoptes) found nowhere else in the state, and small colonies of the endangered Mardon Skipper (Polites mardon); with good timing and some luck we could see these.
If the weather is right, we could see several of the Greater and Lesser Fritillaries – zerene, coronis, callippe, hydaspe, mormonia, chariclea, and epithore. We may even look for a “mystery Pontia” – that could be a new species – related to the Western White (Pontia occidentalis) and Becker’s White (Pontia beckerii).
Conference program
Friday Evening
Butterflies of the Yakima Region presented by Dr. David James. David is Associate Professor, Department of Entomology at Washington State University. He will review butterfly species we are likely to see on Saturday and Sunday field trips, and will go over the type of habitat we will explore. David is an excellent photographer and is collaborating with Dave Nunnallee to research and photograph immature stages of butterflies of Cascadia for their upcoming book.
Saturday evening keynote speaker
Conserving the Rainbow Resource by Dr. Robert Michael Pyle
Butterfly conservation has a rich history, an energetic present, and a challenging future. Bob Pyle has been deeply involved in this effort for more than forty years, and in this talk he shares some of its most intriguing and important stories. Through striking and historic color slides converted to Powerpoint images, he will take us from the field’s beginnings with the Black Hairstreak and the Large Blue in England to the Xerces, Karner, Fender’s, and Miami Blues in this country, and consider the future effects of climate change, among other low and high points in the protection of a rich butterfly heritage. Of course there will be examples from our own state of Washington, including what may have been the country’s first butterfly preserve.
G’num2009Vol10No2
Identification characteristics for 96 butterfly species found in vicinity of Leavenworth WA. Video used as looping stand-alone exhibit at joint conference of Lepidopterist Society and Washington Butterfly Association headquartered at Leavenworth