Bugs and Butterflies

[Cedars]

A good bug, mostly. Predator both as lavae and adult. This one is Asilus sericeus. Older writings on the web indicate this is a big butterfly hunter. So far, all the individuals of this specie I have seen on the meadows has been without prey. It is not one of the more common Crex predators, I am lucky to see two or three a year. This one is a male, females have a sharp tip on their abdomen for laying their eggs.

Pictures taken July 11, 2009 and are of the same individual.

[Cedars]

The weather this year hindered some of the butterflying. Prolonged cold and very dry conditions sucked. Learned a lot via the butterfly trek in June. May is a big month in the meadows and hopefully next year I will be able to get there to wander the wetlands a bit more. I have a particular bog in mind north of the meadows, which may hold a couple pretty rare wisconsin species. Got a few people perked up about the butterflies in the area of the meadows. Thinking of expanding my searching to a couple of MN parks, if these others begin to document in the meadows.

Total species (not including moths) documented on Crex so far: 71
Missing this year - Common Buckeye, American Lady, Baltimore checkerspot.
Numbers way down for Silver bordered Fritillary, Northern Crescents, White Admirals.

Likely to exist but not documented fully (some pics but unable to get top and bottom shots for absolute confirmation):

Tawny edged skipper
Hackberry emporer *photos taken in two locations near crex, observed on two occasions in crex but unable to photograph.
Northern Pearly-eye (photo taken by a friend who wasnt 100% sure of location, but at least very near crex border)
Henry's elfin - Seen by a pro on butterfly trek, but was unable to photograph on crex. Now I know where to look for them and will confirm next may.

Probably exist:
Crossline skipper
Little glassy wing skipper
Pepper and Salt Skipper - Seen north of Crex, same county. Early flier.
Gray comma

New for me on Crex this year:
Silver spotted skipper (historic record in Burnett)
Harvester (first record in Burnett)
Dusted Skipper
Milberts Tortoiseshell (saw several times, 3 in one day)
Painted Lady - Late sighting
Indian Skipper
Northern Cloudy wing
Reakirts Blue - migrant, only spotted once
Eyed Brown
Western-tailed Blue
Persuis Duskywing

Specie Explosions (large numbers seen):
Little wood satyr - Phenomenal numbers in June. Everywhere you looked. Literally 100s in a day
Common Wood Nymph - Spectacular numbers in July. Present through early september
Coral Hairstreaks - Highest number of the hairstreaks. Other hairstreak numbers down or same as last year.
Common Ringlet - Last year saw two in a day. This year saw 50 in a day.
Eyed Brown - Large numbers but first year able to ID correctly so no baseline for expected numbers.

Two different orgs asked for permission to use some of my photos for their sites, so that was a big compliment for me. Caught a couple other sites using my photos without permission so I cleared that up (all I wanted was a link back to my site). Still waiting for confirmation on a moth I photographed, which seems to be a new species that is still being described (I didnt discover it). And butterflys are on the down side of their cycle (peaked in 2005) so the best years are still to come (sometime around 2012).