Butterfly Walk at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
Sunday, May 20, 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Photo of a Pink-spot Sulphur at Fairchild, courtesy of Hank Poor.
Meet at the Visitor's Center and join Linda Evans, Vice-President of Miami Blue Chapter-NABA, for a guided Butterfly and Plant Walk through beautiful Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Learn about the butterflies of South Florida and the plants on which they depend. Get to know the one acre Lisa D Anness Butterfly Garden for your personal butterfly garden inspiration. The Garden is located at: 10901 Old Cutler Road, Coral Gables Florida, 305 667-1651; www.fairchildgarden.org.
Schaus' Swallowtail Surveys in North Key Largo
Start May 15, continue to June 30
The Schaus' Swallowtail on the left is Linda Cooper's photo; Lisa Blackwelder found the Giant Swallowtail, on the right, in her Coconut Grove garden. Note the differences between the two swallowtails, which share habitat on Key Largo.
Left: Remnants of old military installations, being taken over by hammock on North Key Largo, provide easy walking in good habitat.
Right: The Florida Purplewing, photographed by Mickey Wheeler, is sometimes seen in these areas.
This year, MBC is coordinating surveys in the hammocks of North Key Largo for the federally endangered Schaus' Swallowtail (Papilio aristodemus ponceanus). The survey is scheduled to coincide with the short season during which the butterfly flies, feeds, courts and lays eggs on the fresh new growth of its hosts, Torchwood (Amyris elemifera) and Wild Lime (Zanthoxylum fagara). NABA members are encouraged to take part.
Surveys are done primarily during the week from 9:00 am to around 5:00 pm and will take you into several off-limits areas of state lands and Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Some weekend surveys are also likely, depending upon volunteer availability. Most trails are easy walking and usually shady, although mosquitos are often a nuisance and having a head net is wise.
Because the Schaus' Swallowtail shares habitat with other imperiled South Florida species, such as the Florida Purplewing and Florida White, we also try to locate those species, as well as selected others. For more information about conditions, schedules, meeting times/ places, NABA members should email miamiblue@bellsouth.net.
To read more aboout the Schaus' Swallowtail, see our Conservation page: http://www.miamiblue.org/schaussw.php. Beginners are always welcome -- you learn your butterflies by coming out.
Field Trip to Fern Forest Nature Center, Coconut Creek, Broward County Saturday, May 26, 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
This is a joint Miami Blue Chapter/Dade Chapter-Florida Native Plant Society trip to Fern Forest Nature Center. The site is located on a 247-acre wilderness acquired by Broward County in 1979. Once part of the Snapper Creek Watershed, its 10 plant communities include wet hardwood hammock with rare ferns (>30 species) and open prairie, as well as eroded limestone formations. We will try to visit a variety of habitats. Recent rains should make for new plant growth and consequent butterfly activity. See http://broward.org/Parks/FernForestNatureCenter for more information. For all field trip particulars (directions, what to bring, who to call etc.) see our calendar.
"Butterflies of Subtropical South Florida," our interpretive photographic exhibit, continues at Long Key Nature Center, Davie FL. All the details are on our calendar; check March 25, 2012, directions to the nature center.
Photos courtesy of Ron Nuehring & Michelle Wisniewski
Click the Miami Blue's Calendar button for details on all events ... except the following (NABA members, email us to take part in Imperiled butterfly Surveys: miamiblue@bellsouth.net.
Ongoing May-June Schaus' Swallowtail Surveys & Other Surveys of Imperiled South Florida Butterfly Species
Photo by Ron Nuehring: Silver-banded Hairstreak is an imperiled species.
Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI) Survey of Imperiled South Florida Butterfly Species is our biggest in-the-field citizen science endeavor in the protected pinelands, hammocks and wetlands of Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties -- as well as parks and gardens -- in search of two dozen species of concern. Our volunteer efforts and field skills make this three-year state funded effort possible. Our traditional NABA all-species counts add yet more to the butterfly population picture. More details are on our Conservation Page.
NABA counts are open to all and are posted on our web calendar. FNAI surveys are NOT posted on our public calendar due to restricted access to many of the areas being surveyed. If you are a NABA member, you love to go butterflying, you like learning about new places and rare butterfly species, and you want to learn more about FNAI surveys, please email miamiblue@bellsouth.net.
What's New at Miami Blue:
the Pink-spot Sulphur Is All Over Town
When first observed flying this year in South Florida, the Pink-spot Sulphur (Aphrissa neleis) was expected to be a rare butterfly. Now, however, it is apparent that, at least for this moment, the Pink-spot Sulphur is present and breeding wherever its host plant is found. A Caribbean species akin to our Statira, it actually is more easily confused in apearance with our common Cloudless Sulphur. The Pink-spot Sulphur fancies a popular landscape and "street" tree (Lysiloma sabicu) commonly called "Shaggy Bark" Lysiloma or Tamarind, "Cuban" Lysiloma or Tamarind, "Weeping" Lysiloma or Tamarind, and "Horseflesh Mahogany." Lysiloma sabicu is also a host plant for the Pink-spot where it is found in the Caribbean. To date, no other host plant is known to be used in our area, and L. sabicu doesn't appear to attract other sulphurs (although Cassius Blues are found in it).
In recent weeks, the Pink-spot has been located in several sites in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, where L. sabicu occurs, including Coral Reef Park in Miami-Dade County, Modello Park in Homestead, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, street plantings, in private yards, in parking lots of businesses.
It will now be important to monitor this butterfly in an effort to understand its prevalence, distribution, and persistence. The question remains, is this an ephemeral species that makes an occasional appearance in South Florida, or a species that has continuously been in our midst, but unrecognized?
The Pink-spot was first noted in the collections of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, by Collections Manager, Dr. Andy Warren, who noted that they had been collected in the 1980's and mistakenly placed with the Statira Sulphur specimens. It was his alert that prompted us to start looking v-e-r-y carefully at both the similar Statira and Cloudless Sulphurs and particularly scrutinizing L. sabicu. To read Warren and Calhoun's initial 2012 article and view comparison photos with similar species, see http://butterfliesofamerica.com/aphrissa_neleis.htm.
Photos of the Pink-spot Sulphur, egg and caterpillar, and bark, foliage, flowers and structure of Lysiloma sabicu, are courtesy of Hank Poor, from various sites, Miami-Dade County 2012.
The Miami Blue Officially Listed Endangered
On April 6, the Miami Blue was officially designated an endangered species, bringing South Florida the dubious distinction of having two federally endangered butterflies (the Schaus' Swallowtail was listed in 1984; read its story on our Conservation page). We now await news from the US Fish &U Wildlife Service about steps that will be taken in the management plan for the Miami Blue.
Thanks to Mickey Wheeler for images of the Miami Blue when it could still be found in the Lower Keys.
Atala Relocation Project
Atala photos courtesy of Ron Nuehring.
Once thought extinct, and often ephemeral, Atalas can be menaces to rare cycads. A NABA project has designated point persons who receive Atala caterpillars and pupae on a routine schedule and arrange transfer to interested gardeners, as well as parks and natural areas, with viable habitat for the butterfly. The project has been mounted by Miami Blue and Broward Chapters, in collaboration with NABA member, Sandy Koi, who is studying the Atala at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Interested? Read more on our Conservation Page.
Conservation
Several of North America's most critically imperiled butterflies occur in our own backyards. Habitat loss, natural disasters, exotic predators, and anti-mosquito spraying have taken their toll over recent decades. Our current focus includes supporting the protection of the remaining populations of the newly federally protected Miami Blue, Hemiargus thomasi bethune-bakeri, elevating awareness of the declining Schaus' Swallowtail, Papilio aristodemus ponceanus, and assisting the Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI) to locate and track other on-the-brink imperiled South Florida butterflies such as those relying upon the few remaining intact pine rocklands, such as the Florida Duskywing, Bartram's Scrub-Hairstreak, and Florida Leafwing, among several others in South Florida considered declining and in jepardy. A list of Southeast Florida's species of concern, Rare or Endangered Butterflies of Southeast Florida, is on our Conservation page.
Thanks to Linda Cooper for her photo of the Florida Leafwing, and to M ichelle Wisniewski for images of Bartram's Scrub Hairstreak and the Florida Duskywing.
The Miami Blue Chapter of the North American Butterfly Association is located in southeast Florida and named after one of our rarest butterflies. Our chapter is working hard to meet the challenges of the 21st century as they apply to butterfly interests. The photos at the top of the page are of our rare namesake, the Miami Blue butterfly, and the only easy-to-reach location where they could be found until 2010, Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys.
Help support the Miami Blue Chapter by ordering your on-line purchases through Amazon.com. It's easy! When you make an on-line purchase, go to Amazon.com by first clicking on the amazon.com logo below. The Miami Blue Chapter will receive a small monetary rebate.
