Category: Lep Topics & News
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WBA on the Radio!
Where on the dial: KPTZ, 91.9 FM, podcast #760 “Butterflies of Washington, Part 1”When: Recorded 9 February 2026; first aired 11 February 2026Who from WBA: Dan Dunphy, Regina Johnson Representatives from your butterfly association were invited to the KPTZ studios in Port Townsend this past February to sit down with Nature Now host Debaran Kelso…
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Butterflies at Olympia’s Procession of the Species
Photos by Regina Johnson Butterflies are popular creations at Olympia’s annual Procession of the Species. A preschooler as a Monarch, and an infant sibling as the chrysalis. And check out the wood duck and peacock in the background. This is what you get when you’re the headquarters for the state wildlife agency – a lot…
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Who Calls Who?
By Melanie Weiss A friend recently asked me, “Who calls who? I think flowers seduce butterflies.” It’s a good question. Yes, flowers seduce butterflies, but their relationship is a two-way dance of attraction and exchange. It’s all about reproduction and survival of the species. Flowers create patterns, colors and fragrances that are attractive to butterflies…
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Sleuthing a Checkerspot Mystery
Almost seventy species of butterflies have been recorded at Snow Mountain Ranch (SMR), a 2000-acre slab of shrubsteppe with an elevational range of 1000 feet, just west of Yakima in central Washington. Until recently, the Desert Checkerspot, Chlosyne acastus, was not on the list of butterflies recorded at SMR, but since 2020, it has been…
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Don Rolfs May 28, 1941 – October 13, 2023
I was saddened to learn this weekend that Don Rolfs passed away two weeks ago. He was a large part of the Washington butterfly community for many years, until switching his focus over to native bees between 2007 and 2010. His obituary can be read here: https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/tributes/in_memoriam/donald-a-rolfs/ article_49d28246-7098-50e1-aa75-b031abb0879f.html He was an integral part of my…
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Storms Batter California: How did the Overwintering Monarchs Fare?
The Second Western Monarch Summit organized and hosted by Western Monarch Advocates (WMA) was held in San Luis Obispo during January 20-22. I was privileged to be a keynote speaker at this meeting which was attended by a true cross-section of Monarch advocates. This is what makes the Summit so unique. It is not a…
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The Pygmy Blue October Surprise
On September 4, Chris Lindsey photographed a very small brown-blue butterfly near Highway 12 in Walla Walla County. Excitingly, it turned out to be an individual of the smallest butterfly species in North America, the Western Pygmy Blue! The Western Pygmy Blue (Brephidium exilis) was added to the list of Washington butterflies back in 2004,…
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Spring Weather Vagaries And The Butterfly Outlook For 2022
Early Promise The 2022 butterfly year in eastern Washington started with much promise. There were some warm days in February and I saw my first butterfly on the 11th, an overwintered Milbert’s Tortoiseshell sunning itself at Waterworks Canyon west of Yakima. However, it was another month before I saw the first newly-eclosed Cabbage White and…
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Introducing a New Butterfly Species: Asher’s Blue (Celastrina asheri)
For the last few decades, lepidopterists in the west have been uncertain how to classify a variably-marked group of Celastrina (azure butterflies) in the Columbia River watershed. Until now, only two species were known in this area: Celastrina echo and Celastrina lucia. Individuals from east of the Cascades were often lumped with echo but some…
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A Search for the Gold-hunter’s Hairstreak in my Own Backyard
It started as an inquiry from Bob Pyle about whether I had found the new butterfly to the Pacific Northwest; the Gold-hunter’s Hairstreak. Satyrium auretorum had been photographed by a gentleman from Tigard, Oregon at Swale Creek Canyon in my own backyard. What?? Of course not! He must have mistaken a California Hairstreak (Satyrium californica)…
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Did You Ever Wonder: The Amazing Butterfly Proboscis
The proboscis is sometimes referred to as a butterfly’s tongue, but it is not a tongue. A better term may be the butterfly’s mouth parts. As butterfliers know, this long curled up tube is how food is taken into the butterfly’s body. Butterflies are easily observed using this extension to probe flowers in meadows. A…
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The Adaptable Monarch is Making Big Moves in California
On January 19, the official announcement of the number of monarchs seen during the annual Thanksgiving counts at California overwintering (OW) sites in 2020 was made. The news was not good. After our routine family visit to selected overwintering sites at Thanksgiving, I made the prediction that there would be less than 2000 total butterflies…
