Listing Through Life

papilio glaucus

Friday, August 6, 1999 — 8:45 am

Moraine Hills State Park, Illinois

I was walking in the wrong direction around the Leatherleaf Bog trail on the section it shares with the Lake Defiance trail. Just before the junction (or just after it if you’re walking in the correct direction), the trail passes a marsh on one side and a brushy thicket on the other. The swallowtail was flitting around the bushes at the edge of the thicket. It landed twice and perched with its wings partly spread. It took off and flew over the marsh across the trail and disappeared.

It was large, predominantly yellow, with black stripes cutting into the leading edge of its forewing and a black terminal band on the hindwings. It had long dark tails.

zapus hudsonius

Friday, August 6, 1999 — 8:15 am

Moraine Hills State Park, Illinois

I was walking the trail around the marsh at McHenry Dam. As I was entering the grassy area by the half-way point, I saw a miniature kangaroo. That’s just what it looked like. It was a very small, pale buff-colored rodent with a long tail. It hopped on its hind legs across the path, only touching the ground every 12 inches or so. When it reached the edge of the path, it gave a final leap and disappeared into the grass.

battus philenor

Monday, July 26, 1999 — 10:00 am

Pope County, Arkansas — Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge

This butterfly competes with the Giant Swallowtail as my favorite so far.

I had been seeing them all morning, wherever there were trees and bushes, but I hadn’t gotten a good-enough look. I was looking at a Giant Swallowtail in the woods along the old channel when I saw several of these in and about the same thicket.

They were smaller than the Giant Swallowtail. They were dark. On some, the upper side of the hind wing had a faint teal iridescence. On others, the entire hind wing was brilliant teal. The underside of the hind wing was also teal with a row of seven large orange circles, rimmed in black arcing sub-marginally around the edge of the wing.

Later I saw twenty or so sitting on the mud next to the boat landing on Lodge Lake in the refuge. There was a Giant Swallowtail and what was probably a Black Swallowtail with them. They sat tight when I bent over to take pictures and some of them stayed even when I waved my foot inches above them.

A smaller butterfly, perhaps a Painted Lady kept hovering in the area and often tried to land on the teal area of the upper wing when a Pipevine Swallowtail would open its wings. On two occasions, this smaller butterfly actually landed and perched for several seconds on a larger butterfly.

papilio cresphontes

Monday, July 26, 1999 — 10:00 am

Pope County, Arkansas — Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge

This is my favorite butterfly so far. It was huge.

I was driving the road through the woods along the old channel, north of the observation tower. I saw this very large butterfly flit across the road in front of the car. I stopped and watched for the next 10 minutes as it flitting around a thicket of bushes, hovering frequently at green flower clusters. It never stopped fluttering its wings, even when it perched.

I knew right away what it was because of the bold yellow stripe that runs horizontally across the upperside of the forewings. Another bold yellow stripe arcs from wing tip to wing tip submarginally across the entire upperparts. There was a yellow spot in the center of the black tails. The underside of the wings were patterned with yellow and gray.

phoebis sennae

Monday, July 26, 1999 — 9:10 am

Pope County, Arkansas — Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge

I visited the refuge, but did the vast majority of my wildlife watching from inside the car because it was very hot. I drove slowly down the road to the old channel following a Greater Roadrunner. On the way back, I concentrated on butterflies.

Everywhere I looked, I saw yellow ones, quite a bit larger than the sulphurs I see in Northern Illinois. They were fluttering over the road and around the trees and bushes on both sides of the road, usually pretty low. I kept watching until I saw one land on the underside of a leaf in a tree at the edge of the woods. It perched there motionlessly and was still there five minutes later when I left.

I could see a shadow of an irregular black border on the forewing. The pattern was similar to the perforation on a stamp. It had two silver spots on the underside of the hindwing. Otherwise, it was mostly pale yellow.