With three August trips in a row all cancelled due to weather, one carload made a final effort and hiked the Naches Loop Trail on August 31, suggested by Melanie Weiss who’d been doing butterfly surveys there for the Park Service. The weather and scenery were glorious and lots of flowers were still in bloom. The 5-mile loop goes through Mount Rainier National Park and then crosses into the William O. Douglas Wilderness on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.

Overall, we saw 14 species of butterflies, and in good number, especially frits and blues, plus a group of young dusky grouse chasing grasshoppers. They were nearly grown but this year’s chicks.

Still not giving up, David Droppers organized a trip to the Vantage area in search of the day-flying moth Hemileuca nevadensis, the Nevada buckmoth, which flies very

late. Merrill Peterson found its larvae in the area 15 years ago. This group also hit great weather and had a fine trip. The moth wasn’t found, but 6 species of butterflies were still out, including both clouded and orange sulphurs. For an extra thrill, a band of 13 bighorn sheep posed nearby.

There were no late season field trips on the Far East side of the state. Several lepidop- tera lovers have continued to keep up some contact with John Baumann and have reported that we enjoyed a good seven month long butterfly season, spanning roughly from late March to October 22nd, when Jeanne Dammarell sighted several late flyers at Coffeepot Lake in Lincoln County. She found fresh Purplish Coppers, Mylitta Crescents and others, a full week later than I had ever seen any butterflies out in this area before!

On the down side, the intense heat and dry weather in July appeared to reduce numbers of higher elevation butterflies at locations like Mt Spokane, where Painted and West Coast Ladies are usually common, but this year were not be found there. On the other hand, other migrants, like the Red Admiral and the Monarch, usually very uncommon, were both located at several places. New locales were located for the Cor- al Hairstreak, at Twin Lakes, Lincoln Co., and the Dun Skipper, at the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge during its 2nd annual Fourth of July Butterfly Count, the Two Banded Checkered Skipper and the Pacuvius Duskywing, both at Horseshoe Lake, Pend Oreille County. Stay tuned for next season’s field trips! I will be interested in having our group explore the scablands more closely for the 1st trip, and then scout out Liberty Creek Trail, along the Idaho border.

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