Good Numbers of Monarchs in Iowa

[Paul Cherubini]

40 monarchs sighted in a 9 hour butterfly count July 19 and despite the fact that 75% of Iowa's landscape is covered with herbicide treated BT corn and herbicide treated soybeans.

Subject: [IOWA-INSECTS] Iowa City Butterfly Count
Date: Tues, 21 Jul 2009 20:58:15 -0500
From: Chris Edwards <credwards@AOL.COM>
To: IOWA-INSECTS@LIST.UIOWA.EDU

We held our local Iowa City Butterfly Count on Sunday July 19, visiting Kent Park, Macbride Nature-Recreation Area, and Lake Macbride State Park. In 9 hours we tallied 25 species and 379 individuals. This is well below the 11-year average of 33 species and 800 individuals, probably due to the cool,
cloudy weather. We had a great turnout of 13 enthusiastic counters, including an amazing 6-year-old who ran around chasing and identifying butterflies all day, and who found two species that we might have otherwise missed!

Black Swallowtail 4
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 1
Cabbage White 51
Clouded Sulphur 19
Orange Sulphur 31
Bronze Copper 1
Banded Hairstreak 2 (new count species)
Eastern Tailed-Blue 3
'Summer' Spring Azure 79
Great Spangled Fritillary 25
Pearl Crescent 22 (record high count)
Question Mark 1
Mourning Cloak 2
Painted Lady 2
Red Admiral 1
Common Buckeye 1
Viceroy 15
Common Wood-Nymph 38
Monarch 40
Silver-spotted Skipper 15
Least Skipper 3
Peck's Skipper 1
Little Glassywing 1 (new count species)
Byssus Skipper 19
Black Dash 2

Chris Edwards, Solon, IA