Glad to hear you are getting some rain! Glorious rain! We have been getting a lot of that lately here in the northeast US, but I still don't take it for granted. Just have to deal with weeds, mold, malfunctioning gutters, etc.

Hope you see lots of leps and other wonders of nature...

I'd gladly join you along side the bank, with a pole and bobber, a cuppa joe too. It's gotten quite hot up here in SD. I'm bakin' my rump off today. :/ No rain for days here. LoL All I ever see is the little cabbage whites! I gotta get more variety planted to draw things to me. Maybe next year...

Hope you get to enjoy some beauties Larry! Snap some photos too! Haha! Sure would be a sight to see you roaming back and forth in the rain though. First thing that came to mind was a time Oh, I'd say abou 19 yrs ago in a down pour of rain gully washer type... Ditches were absolutely full! When it finally slowed down where it wasn't pounding rain I went out to dance in the rain, then puddle stomp, then play in the ditches filled nearly armpit high with water! Hehe! Great times! Enjoy the water Larry!

~Tina

You have used words to paint another picture for us. Had me chuckling to see you out there hobbling around in the rain, and sitting by Lake Ladobe with a fishing pole in hand. Is that worms in the can beside you? You have an old hat with lures on it? And is that a bottle of your favorite brew?

It reminds me of one of my favorite songs. Bet you see more leps in the coming days. The rains here bring them out of hiding.

Here is a link that might be useful: I love the rainy night

Hehehe!!

You could call it 'virtual fishing' Larry!

Congrats on the rain - I hope it brings you many leps!

Sherry

Almost unbelievably its still raining here both day and night. We are still geting fairly heavy constant rain or sprinkles separated by dark overcast and some long periods of bright sunshine. The winds have come back so by my standards its not all that warm either, in fact at night when I go out its very noticeably quite cold with just a golf shirt and tennis shorts.

So it hasn't cleared up long enough to spur any new lep activity except for all the larva off my Lantana taking refuge and wandering on my patio. I haven't even bothered to determine the adults that visit from dusk on for a couple of hours every night, but probably Noctuidae.

Surprisingly the 6 days of wonderful rain didn't really spark any new lep activity so far despite over a week of relatively hot (90 degree) bright sunny days since. The nectaring plants that lost all of their flowers during a couple of the heaviest down pours are not coming back either other than a few small flower heads on my Lantana. So all I've seen the past week was a few Hesperiidae in pursuit of rubbing belt buckles, two more D. plexippus passing through (numbers 3 & 4 for the entire season), two Vanessa cardui and one V. carye which I guess was our all there was for the fall migration, and today a single Brephidium exilis found my Lantana. Even more surprising to me is no strays or even migrating birds at all have been seen. Easily the worst lep season I've seen on the Mojave in the 20+ years I've lived on it. Since last year was almost as bad, I guess if I want to see leps next year I'm going to have to travel to find some. And so it goes...

Larry

Larry,

I don't understand why there aren't more leps around your place. I am seeing quite a few here. Yesterday, I got out and drove two and a half hours to a WMA I had never visited before. I was in search of the Hesperidae leonardus. The area reflects the drought we have had this summer. All the small pine trees have died. The WMA is on a hill with two fingers of water on each side. You can't see the water when on top, you have to stop at an overlook. There was lots of sneezeweed in bloom. And whereas the leps around here don't find it particularly attractive, there were lots of bugs nectaring all over it. One bug that I have only seen once before, was the Brephidium exilis. So when I read your post above, I knew what you were talking about! In fact, I didn't have to look up any of the names. The Brephidium exilis were mixed in with Echinargus isola yesterday. Interesting ... exile and isolate. The E isola were more heavily marked than any I had ever seen, so I know they are probably a subspecies. My Kaufman's doesn't give subspecies very often.

Now, as to the Hesperidae leonardus, I'm pretty sure I got some photos of the "pawnee" subspecies, but not the "montane pawnee". I am waiting on definite verification before I post the photos.

There are so many places to explore here in Oklahoma. I still want to see the Megisto rubricata. Hopefully, I'll accomplish that one next spring.

Funny thing happened yesterday. While I was driving around the WMA, I ran into another Lep friend from here in Tulsa! I had not found the H leonardus yet, and he had. So he told me where they were. Found out he's a personal friend of Kenn Kaufman.

Sandy

Sandy,

Normal for B. exilis in the west-southwest after the rains is great abundance to the point of blanketing nectar plants with dozens to hundreds of individuals. A swing of the net catches dozens at a time IOW. So only one is unusual when considering the hours a day I am outside now that it is starting to cool off.

Only E. isola alce occurs in our area, so that would be what you saw. Their heavy markings are a dominate trait, but there could be variable clines maybe. Their "squared" wings and dark markings make them pretty easy to not confuse at first glance with other "blues".

As you know I'm not a Hesperiidae expert by any means, but based on the work of two old friends (I do currently have in hand and not in storage) that do agree with pawnee/montana being subspecies of leonardus, they suggest doubt that you got a picture of a Hesperia l. montana in that WMA even if 2.5 hours west of you. Per them that sspp is very restricted to the South Platt River around Pikes Peak in CO. They do go into some detail on the differences between the three subspecies and why, why another is not accepted, but also suggest there is a huge problem with interblends in this species over vast areas in NA. Anyway, FWIW.

Larry

Larry,

The Leonardus I found have the markings of the montana pawnee. I'm aware that these are not in any way connected to the small population around Pikes Peak. However, it is interesting that I couldn't locate any photos that matched the Leonardus I found. The picture of the Pawnee in Kaufman matches to a "T". But, when I went on line to try to find a photo, I couldn't. I end up back at the montana pawnee. So, I may submit my photo to Bugguide, as their photo base for Leonardus is limited, as is NABA, BAMONA, and any other database on the web. And, yes, I read about the interblending of the species. Quite interesting. I can't pretend to understand the limiting of the species, except that DNA has been checked. I've read quite a bit lately about the small amount of difference in DNA it takes to establish a new species/subspecies. Currently, Mark Dreiling from Bartlesville (who does a lot of blacklighting), has a moth that may be a new species. He has a pbase gallery.

I have only seen the one Brephidium exilis here locally. It was in my yard with a large population E isola alce. The one I saw was a county record, and the first seen this far east in Oklahoma.

I was south and west of Tulsa, not too far from the Texas border when I went on my outing. It's within the range for the B exilis. I also found out that the elusive Ambliscirtes linda have been spotted there. So, I'm sure I'll go back--most likely in the spring.

This is my week to travel to Ohio. I head out on Thursday, and will travel through St. Louis, Chicago, and then to Cleveland. There are some butterfly houses along the way, so I'll stop off and enjoy some tropical B-flies. And, hopefully, visit Elisabeth on the way home. No computer. I always leave home without it!

Sandy

Sandy,

They do talk quite a bit about sspp montana and some "blends" in the central mid to eastern range of this species do show signs of it, some are very similar in markings and color. But they also still stand that the true to form montana are only found in a very limited area. A key might be size as montana are smaller, although with normal species variations the difference may not be conclusive. They say mid north central to east is another blend zone for this species where almost all individuals have leonardus and pawnee traits. The overall gist of it is that this is a very variable species that would take someone with a lot more experience studying Hesperiidae than me. Andy, are you out there? LOL

Brephidium exilis has been recorded as far north as Nebraska in your area, but it is more a S-SW species here. It could be wider spread, but it's mall size probably means it often goes unnoticed. Conrats on the E. isola alce county record.

That WMA sounds like it is in the wrong and opposite direction for Amblyscirtes linda, but then my trusted resource book I checked is 30 years old and probably out of date.

You know how I feel about most B'Houses, so I'll leave it at that. Hope you do get to see Elizabeth though. Have a safe trip.

Larry

Larry,

Got the news back from Andy. Definitely, H leonardus leonardus, known as the "midwest blend". My friend Jim got a photo of a Hesperidae meskei meskei, which is a state record! Makes me want to go back tomorrow.

Sandy

Sandy,
You contacted Andy and I was just joking about him. He is the man when it comes to Hesperiidae worldwide. I'll have to remember to sent you the names of some more experts.
Larry

I didn't contact Andy, John did. And Andy got right back to him!

Andy and Nick Grishin are the guys we usually turn to for help with skippers.

Sandy