Giant Swallowtail

© Dave Spier

With a wingspan of roughly five inches (give or take an inch), the Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes, syn. Heraclides cresphontes) is one of the largest butterflies in eastern and southern North America. Females are larger than males.

This butterfly species ranges from Arizona to the East Coast and from southeastern Canada to Texas and Florida with a population extension into California. In the south the caterpillars are sometimes considered pests in citrus orchards. In the north the larvae eat Prickly-ash (a shrub unrelated to ash trees, although the compound leaves have a similar appearance). Common or Northern Prickly-ash (Zanthoxylum americanum) is in the citrus family (Rutaceae) and sometimes called "toothache tree" because the bark was chewed to relieve tooth-ache. Although I've found prickly-ash locally, its core range is the upper Mid-west.

Giant Swallowtails are dark brown to black with rows of pale yellow spots near the outer edges of all the wings and another row straight across the fore wings. The rear wing "tails" have yellow centers. Small orange and blue spots on the inner wing edges flank the abdomen tip.

Look for these butterflies in open areas and scattered woodlands, a perfect description of our yard where the butterflies check our garden flowers for nectar. The photo, however, was taken beside the Manchester Gateway Trail along Canandaigua Outlet Creek in the Village of Manchester, NY. It was visiting flowers in the open area under the high-voltage power lines. The rest of the trail is mostly wooded floodplain with deciduous trees.

There are several broods per year in the north, but the timing is variable from May to August or September.

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. There's also a community-type page for The Northeast Naturalist. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.

Canada Thistle

Beware of tall, attractive wildflowers with prickly leaves growing in fields. Most have beautiful magenta or lavender-colored heads, but the leaves, and sometimes the stems, are edged with numerous, sharp spines to defend against herbivores looking for an easy meal. These are the thistles. They are composites, related to daisies and goldenrods in spite of the obvious differences. Most are biennials, starting as a ground-hugging rosette of prickly leaves the first year, then growing tall and flowering the second.
 

The Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense), a misnamed alien invasive from Europe, is one of the less-obvious species here [in the northern Finger Lakes region of NY] because its light-purple heads are less than an inch high. The whole plant grows four to five-plus feet high and often forms dense colonies after spreading by underground stems. In Europe and northern Asia, it is known as Creeping Thistle. One plant's roots can spread to a three-foot diameter (or more) in one year and continue growing at this rate for many years, making it a difficult plant to eradicate. A single thistle plant can be considered biennial, but the root system is perennial and continues to put its energy into new clonal [cloned] shoots.
 

Canada Thistles form colonies from a spreading underground
 root system. Less energy goes into producing flowers.

Less energy goes into producing flowers which are usually dioecious (either male or female). Male flowers may be slightly smaller, but otherwise similar. Both are very fragrant, which is energy spent to attract pollinators and NOT humans. Female flowers produce 40 to 80 seeds per head, but the fuzzy pappus is loosely attached and often ineffective in seed dispersal.

Canada Thistle's main stems are smooth, but the deeply-lobed leaves are designed to keep you at a distance. In the spring, wear heavy gloves and protective clothing so you can return to the location and collect the young leaves, young stems and roots for food. One of the plant's nicknames is "lettuce from hell" (and it actually is related to lettuce). After removing the spines, add young leaves to salads or eat them cooked. The pithy, young stems are easier to deal with; just peel and eat raw or cooked. The roots of first year plants, before the tall stems begin, are a survival food, but they also can cause flatulence.


A crab spider is camouflaged against a Canada Thistle flower bud.

Canada Thistle is also food for wildlife, especially goldfinches and other finches that eat the seeds. Some butterfly and moth larvae eat the leaves. Look for Red Admirals, Viceroys and Painted Ladies on this thistle. The larvae of the Orellia ruficauda fruit fly parasitize the fertile seed heads, making them a somewhat-effective biological control.

In the past, a tea made from the leaves was used as a general tonic (stimulant) and diuretic to increase the loss of water from the body. Externally, it was used for skin sores and poison-ivy rash. Native Americans used a root tea as a digestive tract stimulant and dewormer. (I wonder what they used before Europeans introduced this wildflower.) At the other extreme, it was said to cause inflammation and irritation (Jacobs and Burlage). Go figure.
 

Cirsium comes from the Greek word, kirsion, from kirsos, a "swollen vein" remedied by one of the species in that genus. The species name, arvense, is Latin for "in the field." Among its other common names are "field thistle," "perennial thistle" and "cursed thistle." It was originally native to the Mediterranean and southeast Europe and likely arrived in North America during the 1600's.

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com or connect through my Facebook page and photo page. There's also a community-type page for The Northeast Naturalist. Other nature and geology topics can be found on the parallel blogs Adirondack Naturalist and Heading Out.

Teasel

Monarch on teasel -- © Dave Spier

Teasel -- © Dave Spier

For all their prickles, one might imagine that teasels are somehow related to thistles, but are in fact in their own family (Dipsacaceae). They were brought to this country from the Mediterranean and used to tease (comb) wool, giving it the nicknames "clothier’s-brush" and "gypsy-comb." After the lilac-colored flowers are gone, the stalks and egg-shaped, pincushion heads remain stiff and withstand all but the heaviest of storms. They can be collected and used throughout the fall and winter, but now their utility seems limited to decoration. I’ve seen them spray-painted gold and added to flower decorations, but I assume the arranger was wearing gloves.

There are two common teasel species, both growing in fields and road edges. Cut-leaved Teasel, Dipsacus laciniatus, has large, opposite leaves that join and clasp around the stem so much they form a cup that holds rain water. (We should be so lucky as to get enough rain this summer.) The genus name is from the Greek word dipsa, meaning "thirst," and refers to the cup effect. The edges of laciniatus leaves are deeply lobed and fingered, hence "lacerated." The second species, Dipsacus sylvestris, has fairly smooth-edged leaves that sometimes barely clasp the main stalk without forming much of a cup.

Although an imported alien species from Eurasia and Africa, the teasel's lavender, or sometimes white, flowers are attractive to humans and butterflies. In the photo a Monarch is carefully drinking nectar from the tiny florets between the prickles.

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Butterflies on Milkweeds

Butterflies on Milkweeds -- © Dave Spier

As a followup to the previous blog, here is a selection of four butterfly species sipping nectar from Common Milkweed flowers.



Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele)

(Eastern) Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes asterius)

(Eastern) Tiger Swallowtail (Pterourus glaucus glaucus)

(Eastern) Tiger Swallowtail (Pterourus glaucus glaucus)

Monarch (Danaus plexippus plexippus)

As always, corrections, comments and questions welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Milkweed Flowers

Milkweed Flowers -- © Dave Spier

The Common Milkweeds (Asclepias syriaca) are in full blossom now. The slightly drooping clusters of pink flowers form fragrant balls on numerous plants growing in fields and alongside country roads. This beautiful wildflower is native to much of southern Canada and the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. (except Florida).

Milkweeds are worth keeping at the sunny back edge of a yard because of its importance to Monarch butterflies. Eggs are laid under the leaves so the caterpillars have a ready source of food. By ingesting the toxic, white sap (containing cardiac glycosides), they acquire a defense against predators (mainly birds).

The Common Milkweed's clusters of pink flowers are attractive, but long roots make it hard to control in a decorative garden. The perennial plant is best grown in a specialized butterfly garden. A close relative, the Butterflyweed, has gorgeous orange flowers and does well in dry, sunny locations and sandy soil.

The milkweed's flowers are also important in supporting large numbers of native bees, including bumblebees, as well as non-native honeybees. Pollinators need a variety of native plants in order to get all of the nutrients they require. Large mono-culture (single-crop) fields provide only a partial source.

For the autumn perspective on the milkweed plant and more information on its uses, see the blog archives for November 15, 2011.

As always, I'm at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Red Admiral update

Red Admiral update -- © Dave Spier

I had forgotten about the massive spring migration of Red Admirals until June 14 when I noticed a very tattered and faded adult on the trunk of a dead Quaking Aspen. I assumed it was something on the order of a lone survivor.

Two days later I received an email from a birding friend describing spiny, jet-black Red Admiral caterpillars with yellow marks on the flanks. They were feeding on Stinging Nettles and a new life cycle was progressing as "planned." He also described a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak eating the caterpillars! (Remember the concept of a food chain?)

Fast-forward three more days and I find a beautifully-colored, fresh adult Red Admiral in the field behind our house, and I was finally able to get a descent shot of the underwing pattern, slightly marred by several leaves in the way.

Corrections, questions and comments always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Photo notes: both with 70-300 macro zoom at 300mm, 1/200 sec., ISO 400, external 580 flash
tattered adult on aspen - Canon 5D body, f/22, fill flash at -2/3
fresh adult in the shade - XTi body, f/19, flash accidentally set at +1, overexposure corrected by editing RAW capture

White Admiral

White Admiral -- © Dave Spier

Sounds like a naval officer in dress uniform...

From outward appearances alone, it would be hard to guess that the White Admiral butterfly, Limenitis (= Basilarchia) arthemis arthemis, is closely related to the Viceroy (Limenitis archippus), the Monarch imitator (or mimic). The former is nearly black with a prominent pair of arced white stripes on the wings. The latter is orange with black edges and veins. What they do share are reduced front legs with hairs, hence the family name, Brush-footed Butterflies (Nymphalidae), the largest family of true butterflies. Many members are familiar, partly due to medium or large size, and frequently visit flowers. (See my Red Admiral blog.) Butterflies themselves are sometimes nicknamed "flying flowers."

The White Admiral can be regarded as a northern species. It ranges from Canadian forests south into central New England, then down through the mountains to Pennsylvania and westward to Minnesota. Its southern counterpart is the Red-spotted Purple, essentially the same butterfly without white stripes (probably an evolved trait to avoid predators). For this reason, the White Admiral is sometimes called the Banded Purple. Where the two subspecies overlap from southern Maine to Michigan and Iowa, they freely interbreed.

This White Admiral was on my driveway, not its typical habitat.  All photos © Dave Spier

The White Admiral's preferred habitat is open forests and woodland edges where its larvae feed on Black and Yellow Birch (both of which have a wintergreen flavor, if that matters), plus willows and aspens (both in the willow family), and to a lesser extent hawthorns and maybe shadbushes (with these last two in the rose family). Adults drink nectar, running sap and aphid honeydew or feed on fruit, carrion and dung.

I use my Canon 300mm/f4 like a long macro lens when photographing large insects. [body: Canon XT, exp.: 1/500, 5.6, ISO 400] Personal style preferences include "cloudy" as my default white balance, but it easily can be changed because I shoot RAW.

Corrections, comments and questions are always welcome at northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com

Red Admirals

Red Admirals

© Dave Spier

On April 15, I received an email from a birding aquaintance who was more interested in the estimated 500 Red Admiral butterflies migrating through his yard. With that in mind, the following evening I noticed over a dozen Red Admirals racing and chasing each other above my driveway. They were moving so fast, I doubt I could have identified them without that heads-up in my mail. About the same time, I came across Laurie Dirkx' excellent photos of a Red Admiral (lauriedirkx.com). More photos are on her Facebook page and flickr photo-sharing account. Write to me at Northeast Naturalist for more specific links. Laurie lives in the Town of Ontario, Wayne County, NY, and has a photography business.

With the return of milder weather after a brief cold snap, the Red Admirals have resumed activity. Many of them spent the winter as adults, while others remained in the chrysalis (pupa) stage. I’m not sure which history applies to the ones we’re seeing now. There was a short clip on tonight's local evening news about it. It's estimated the number of Red Admirals is about 10x the normal migration, probably due to the mild winter.

Red Admirals are dark above with a reddish-orange band across the middle of each forewing and continuing along the outer edge of each rear wing. The undersides are brown with bits of subdued color giving a camouflaged effect.

These butterflies feed on a variety of wildflowers and lay their eggs singly on nettle plants where the caterpillars eat the leaves. I’m still trying to get the nettles out of my one garden, but persistent roots keep it coming back every year. The nettles are mixed in with some peonies, making it difficult to eradicate them without digging up the whole patch and starting over. Now that I know about the connection to Red Admirals, I’m leaving other nettles in a wild patch at the back of our property. Speaking of nettles, they grow profusely along the dikes surrounding the ponds on the west side of the Montezuma Audubon Center.

Questions and corrections may be sent to northeastnaturalist@yahoo.com