Washington Butterfly Association

Wings Over the Blue Mountains – 2008 Study Weekend Report

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DAYTON — What makes a grown man or woman stalk through the local mountain meadows in near 100-degree weather, carrying net, jar and binoculars?

The elusive Persius duskywing. Or a fluttering western branded skipper. Perhaps a gray hairstreak. Or a hoary comma, painted lady or great spangled fritillary. In short, they came to our mountains for butterflies.

“The Blue Mountains, they are a different habitat than our Cascades, with the higher elevation, and as summer goes on, the lowland butterflies are more common here,” said the founder of the Washington Butterfly Association, Idie Ulsh of Seattle.

Early Saturday morning behind the Weinhart Hotel, the first field-trip for the three-day conference set off in a dozen vehicles — most of them Subaru Outbacks — and drove through the local hills carrying about 40 butterfly hunters, but no pith helmets.

This was the second time in five years that the group has met in Dayton for its annual conference, which was organized by Joyce Bergen, master of the butterfly net.

“There are two ways to use the net,” Bergen explained during Sunday’s field trip, while standing near a marshy, muddy spring that was swarming with flies, bees and butterflies.

“If you see the butterfly flying toward you, you can take the side technique and swoop,” she said as she demonstrated the action. In a fraction of a second, Bergen swung her net in an arch of about five feet, then back and forth she repeated the swift movements. “Be prepared for that butterfly to take a diversionary maneuver. So a lot of time you swoop back and forth a few times.” There was no butterfly to catch for this demonstration. Had there been, Bergen surely would have netted it, and then let it go. That’s because this club is strictly catch-and-release.

“Hey Collin, you want to stick this on your finger,” said Paul Doan of Bellevue, Wash., only minutes after netting a female Sara orangetip and placing it in a jar. After passing the jar around to a few members to share a closer look, he then handed it the middle-school-age boy, who took off the lid and let the orangetip climb on his index finger. Then after 30 seconds she fluttered away.

“There are people who like to collect them, but in this group we are strictly catch and release. And by holding it in the jar, you can bring it closer to yourself and understand the complexity of the butterfly by looking at it,” Doan said.

The national association has even tougher standards, allowing observation only with binoculars, which means no nets. But Washington’s only butterfly association isn’t so strict. The reason, Ulsh explained, is to allow people, especially children, to have a closer experience with nature, which is why many members join in the first place.

According to Ulsh, most of the 110 members of the group already had experience studying animals prior to joining. Typically, as in Ulsh’s case, they were bird watchers looking for a change. But what they got was a chance to get extremely close to nature.

“When you see a new member with a butterfly sitting on their finger, they are usually hooked for life,” Ulsh said; then she remembered her first encounter. “It was indescribable. Here is something wild trusting you. Of course, sometimes you rub a little perspiration on your finger, that is what attracts the butterflies.”

In addition to the field trips, members also attended lectures, including one led by David James, an entomologist and associate professor at Washington State University’s Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser.

“Butterflies are what got me into entomology in the first place, I was fascinated by insects at an early age, seeing caterpillars in the garden and collecting them and watching them change into butterflies,” James said.

On Saturday, James lectured on the environmental issues surrounding Washington’s butterflies, especially the loss of habitat. And again on Sunday he had the chance to talk about one of our rarer butterflies, the monarch, which wasn’t always so rare in these parts.

“The breeding grounds in California are becoming less and less,” he explained. “We know the populations are just shrinking, so therefore there is less of a population that is able to move to the Pacific Northwest for the summer.

“The bottom line is, the less diversity we have on the planet, whether it is butterflies or plants or whatever, the more likely we are to get into trouble ecologically,” he said.

by Alfred Diaz of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

Photos by Robin Lewis, Al Wagar, and David Nunnallee

2008 Study Weekend Butterfly List

Parnassians & Swallowtails

  • Clodius Parnassian (Parnassius clodius)
  • Mountain Parnassian (Parnassius smintheus)
  • Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon)
  • Indra Swallowtail (Papilio indra)
  • Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus)
  • Pale Swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon)
  • Two-tailed Swallowtail (Papilio multicaudata)

Whites and Sulphurs

  • Western White (Pontia occidentalis)
  • Cabbage White (Pieris rapae)
  • Margined White (Pieris marginalis)
  • Large Marble (Euchloe ausonides)
  • Stella Orangetip (Anthocharis stella
  • Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme)

Gossamer-wings

  • Edith’s Copper (Lycaena editha)
  • Purplish Copper (Lycaena helloides)
  • Lilac-bordered Copper (Lycaena nivalis)
  • Western Green Hairstreak (Callophrys affinis)
  • Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus)
  • Western Tailed-Blue (Cupido amyntula)
  • Echo Blue (Celastrina echo)
  • Arrowhead Blue (Glaucopsyche piasus)
  • Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus)
  • Cascadia Blue (Euphilotes cascadia)
  • Columbia Blue (Eupholotes Columbia)
  • Lupine Blue (Plebejus lupini)
  • Greenish Blue (Plebejus saepiolus)
  • Boisduval’s Blue (Plebejus icarioides)

Brush-footed Butterflies

  • Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele)
  • Hydaspe Fritillary (Speyeria hydaspe)
  • Western Meadow Fritillary (Boloria epithore)
  • Northern Checkerspot (Chlosyne palla)
  • Sagebrush Checkerspot (Closyne acastus)
  • Mylitta Crescent (Phyciodes mylitta)
  • Northern Crescent (Phyciodes cocyta
  • Field Crescent (Phyciodes pulchella)
  • Chalcedon Checkerspot (Euphydryas chalcedona)
  • Hoary Comma (Polygonia gracilis)
  • Milbert’s Tortoiseshell (Aglais milberti)
  • Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)
  • California Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis californica)
  • Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)
  • Lorquin’s Admiral (Limenitis lorquini)
  • Common Ringlet (Coenonympha tullia)
  • Common Wood Nymph (Cercyonis pegala)

Skippers

  • Dreamy Duskywing (Erynnis icelus)
  • Persius Duskywing (Erynnis persius)
  • Two-banded Checkered-Skipper (Pyrgus ruralis)
  • Common Checkered-Skipper (Pyrgus communis)
  • Western Branded Skipper (Hesperia colorado)

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