No, it is not a new species of butterfly but it does bring together three pretty cool field trips we had this spring and summer. These being:

Satus = Satus Pass on June 25, Snow = Snow Mountain ranch on May 21, and Blues = the mountains we visited for this year‘s wonderful study weekend, July 15-17.

Snow Mountain Ranch: WDFW area

The first WBA field trip of the year visiting the vast, largely, unexplored shrub-steppe lands adjacent to Snow Mountain Ranch, west of Yakima, was postponed from May 7 to May 21 because of our record wet and cold spring in eastern Washington. And even on the 21st we barely had a couple of hours of sunshine before the heavens opened up and we had to beat a hasty retreat.

Happily, our group of 10 did see 12 species of spring butter- flies, including Anise Swallowtails, Beckers Whites, Mourning Cloaks, Silvery Blues, Juba Skippers and Clouded Sulfurs. We also found a mystery checkerspot, flying alongside Desert Checkerspots (Chlosyne acastus). The mystery checkerspots looked very different (see photos) from the Desert Checkerspots. Instead (as Jon Pelham later informed me) they resembled the Columbia Gorge segregate of the Northern Checkerspot (Chlosyne palla). However, Chlosyne palla is ‘never‘ found in the shrub steppe! Jon and I will be working to solve this mystery!

Satus Pass and Simcoe Butte

Fast forward one month and our second field trip was on June 25 and took in Satus Pass and Simcoe Butte. The weather this time was perfect and we saw 33 species! Our target species was the Nevada Skipper (Hesperia nevada) which wasn‘t pre- sent in the numbers I was hoping for, but we did see a couple of individuals at a hilltopping spot on Simcoe Butte. Other notable species on the day included a Northern White Skipper

(Heliopetes ericetorum), Western Sulfurs (Colias occidentalis), Great Arctics (Oeneis nevadensis) and the three Duskywings, Propertius, Pacuvius and Persius. A highlight of the day was the unique situation of seeing spring and summer flowering native plants together on the one day! The spring Buckwheats, Lupines and Penstemons normally way past flowering in late June were in full glory this year

Blue Mountains

Finally, in mid-July, many of us gathered in Dayton for our study weekend, again with perfect weather. The Blue Mountains did not disappoint and we ended up seeing 48 species over two days! We visited 7 habitats ranging from riparian sites in the Tucannon River Valley to high elevation sites on the Kendall Skyline Drive and at Mt Misery. The Pale Tiger Swallowtail (Pterourus eurymedon) was the most commonly-seen butterfly, closely followed by the Western White (Pontia occidentalis). One of the most interesting butterflies we saw was a grass skipper almost entirely lacking any ventral markings. After briefly wondering whether we had found a new colony of Yuma skippers, we received word from Jon Pelham that our butterfly was the Columbia Basin form or segregate of the Western Branded Skipper (Hesperia colorado). This form occurs within populations of normally-marked individuals of H. colorado and it was the first time seeing it for many of us.

On the Sunday we tried hard to reach the ‘magic‘ 50 species mark and we did come close with 48. Jim and Regina did see extra species on their different ways home, but not in the Blues. However, a possible extra species was seen by Dave and Jo Nunnallee up at Mt Misery after some of us had left. It was a Dotted Blue (Euphilotes spp.) that both Dave and Jon Pelham think may have been the Rocky Mountain Dotted Blue (Euphilotes ancilla)! Not only would this have been our 49th species of the weekend, but much more importantly a new species for Washington!

Book your places now for a July 2023 WBA field trip to Mt Misery!

All photos by David James.

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