Long Point Butterfly Count

Report by: Adam Timpf

This year’s Long Point butterfly count was held on July 5th, 2014. We had an uptick in participation this year with 31 observers and had all parts of the circle well covered. Despite this, and nearly ideal weather conditions on the day, most groups commented on the lack of butterflies.

With everyone’s hard work we still managed to find 3731 individuals of 52 species. If it wasn’t for the 2108 Edward’s Hairstreaks, our individuals total would be far under the long term average of 2622 individuals. 52 species is slightly above the long term average of ~49.

Notable sightings:

• 2108 Edward’s Hairstreak. This will likely be a new North American high count surpassing the 1004 record set by our count last year.
• 71 Banded hairstreak. New count high. Previous high was 57 in 2006.
• 1 Meadow Fritillary. 5th time recorded on count.
• 4 Gray Comma. New count high. Previous high was last year with 2.
• 1 Milbert’s Tortoiseshell. 4th time recorded on count.
• While below our long term average of 50, our 36 Monarch’s is well up from our low count last year of 4.

Thanks for helping out this year, and I hope you can make it out next year when the count will be held on Saturday July 4th.

Results of 2014 long point butterfly count