Watching Washington Butterflies with Bob Pyle: Number 17

All of us, when we go afield, unavoidably bear in mind the remote but real possibility of making some great new discovery in Washington butterfly studies: a county, or maybe even state, record or range extension; a new hostplant association; or any such novelty. The possibility of uncovering fresh knowledge adds spice and excitement to our forays. Any one of us, with our eyes open and binoculars, cameras, or nets at the ready, stands a chance of adding measurably to what we know about our state’s butterfly fauna, and thus, to its conservation.

From time to time I like to think back on some of the finds from earlier times that made a difference. I find this exercise both fascinating and inspiring. And so, in the spirit of future exploration, I offer my list of the top twelve butterfly discoveries in the history of Washington entomology. (I purposefully omit the interception of strays, accidentals, and recent colonists, covered in a recent column, in favor of resident species.) Of course this list is subjective and not at all complete, and you may add your own favorite highlights from our butterfly history to augment it. My choices are given chronologically, not in order of importance, for who could say?

ca. 1891. Orson Bennett Johnson and Charles Vancouver Piper discover Johnson’s Hairstreak (Callophrys johnsoni) in Seattle. The story goes that Johnson (first professor of Zoology at the U.W.), dispatched Piper, a graduate student, to bring back foliage from old growth hemlocks, then available not far from the university. Piper found larvae on dwarf mistletoe on this foliage, which when reared became the new Johnson’s Hairstreak-named in 1904 by Skinner for the professor, not the graduate student, of course!

1930s. John Hopfinger and Andy Anderson find Bean’s Arctic, the Astarte Fritillary, and others. These two pioneer collectors (Hopfinger from Brewster, Anderson from Pateros) hiked into the Sawtooths above Lake Chelan, and to other high redoubts, long before REI days. They returned from Cooney Lake with the butterfly described in 1930 as Oeneis melissa beani. This was fol- lowed in 1936 by Boloria astarte, also at Cooney Lake, both first records in the Lower 48.

1930s-1950s. William N. Burdick explores the high Olympics, comes back with several endemic subspecies which he subsequently describes, with interesting spellings for the names. These include the Olympic Parnassian (Parnassius smitheus olympianna), the Valerata Arctic (Oeneis chryxus valerata), and the Spangled Blue (Plebejus lupini spangelatus).

1960s. E. J. Newcomer, long-time Yakima lepidopterist, makes many extraordinary butterfly finds on and around the Yakama Nation, including the first Nevada Skippers in the state. His find of Mardon Skippers atop Signal Peak on the Reservation marks the first sure record outside the Tenino Prairies, and launches fifty years of surveys and conservation efforts for Polites mardon in both the Washington and Oregon Cascades, as well as in northern California.

1961. Jon Shepard spends a summer as a fire lookout on Bunker Hill, in the future Pasayten Wilderness Area, and adds the Labrador Sulphur (Colias nastes) to the Lower 48

U. S. list. This denizen of the Far North has still been found nowhere south of the Canadian border but a few localities around the highest of the Okanogan Highlands.

1975. Sally Hughes comes back from a pre-breakfast walk on Ahlstroms’s Prairie, Clallam County, with a small brown butterfly that turns out to be the first Makah Copper known to science. The writer is presently revising the species Lycaena mariposa with a view toward describing this bog-dependent subspecies, which has strong conservation implications for Olympic National Park and other coastal and Coast Range habitats in Washington and Oregon.

1980. John Hinchliff, Sally Hughes, and the writer, having finally located chinquapin in Washington (thanks to Art Kruckeberg), visit the stand at the bottom of the Big Lava Bed in Skamania County. Immediately upon arrival at the trees, they find the Golden Hairstreak (Habrodais grunus). Formerly considered a weed tree, chinquapin becomes a subject of protective management for Gifford Pinchot National Forest, on behalf of the butterfly.

1984. Jonathan Pelham, exploring the reed-beds of Sun Lakes below Dry Falls in Grant County, discovers Yuma Skippers hundreds of miles from their previously known northernmost occurrence in Nevada. This population of Ochlodes yuma drives management choices in Sun Lakes State Park, and adds a key element to debates over native and introduced Phragmites.

Island Marble (USFWS)

1996-97. The writer’s “Chasing Monarchs” exercise shows that inland Northwest monarchs may migrate to Mexico as well as to California; and the first Washington tagged monarch ever recovered (collected by David Branch, tagged by the writer) fetches up in Santa Cruz. David James’s current Northwest Monarch studies will doubtless take this knowledge much farther.

1998. John Fleckenstein, of the Washington Natural Heritage Program, conducting grassland butterfly surveys, brings some whites back from San Juan Island National Historic Park. These turn out to be the Island Marble (Euchloe ausonides insulanus, thought to be extinct since 1908. This dramatic discovery introduces tough management challenges for the National Park Service.

2005: Ann Potter, of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, also conducting grassland butterfly surveys, comes upon blues frequenting strand communities along the Straits. Thus come to light these remarkable high-tide colonies of Acmon Blues, a complete surprise to everyone. Whether or not they represent a new subspecies of Plebejus acmon, the highly disjunct Fuca Blue (as I call it) poses fascinating riddles in the distribution and evolution of this species.

2000-present. Dave Nunnallee (working with fellow Blues Brothers D. James, J. Pelham, A. Warren, P. A. Opler, and the writer) discloses a suite of buckwheat blues (genus Euphilotes) co-evolved with particular G’nums, including the Columbian, Cascade, “on heracleoides,” and Enoptes Blues (the latter taxon first collected in the state by Thea. L. Pyle). This work, still very much in progress along with studies of P. acmon/lupini, greatly expands the “dotted blues” section of the state checklist, and illuminates a complex case of plant-insect co-evolution.

What will number 13 be? Maybe you’ll be the one to find out!                                              

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