The weather was hot and so was the bug hunting!  It was pretty windy, which made picture taking a challenge, but the heat and the wind didn't keep the bugs hunkered down as we feared it might.  In total we identified 35 species of butterflies and 16 species of dragonflies!  Highlights included beautiful, freshly emerged Delaware skippers, lots of spicebush and pipevine swallowtails, many cloudless sulphurs, and several blue-faced meadowhawk dragonflies.  A big thanks to Richard and Susan for allowing us to tramp around in their beautiful gardens and trails and for their wonderful hospitality!

Our butterfly species list was:  pipevine swallowtail, black swallowtail, giant swallowtail, eastern tiger swallowtail, spicebush swallowtail, cabbage white, clouded sulphur, orange sulphur, cloudless sulphur, eastern tailed-blue, summer azure, American snout, great spangled fritillary, silvery checkerspot, pearl crescent, question mark, American lady, red admiral, common buckeye, red-spotted purple, viceroy, hackberry emperor, northern pearly-eye, little wood-satyr, common wood-nymph, monarch, silver-spotted skipper, common sootywing, least skipper, fiery skipper, tawny-edged skipper, little glassywing, Delaware skipper, zabulon skipper, and dun skipper.

Our dragonfly list was: common green darner, prince baskettail, mocha emerald, flag-tailed spinyleg, halloween pennant, eastern pondhawk, slaty skimmer, widow skimmer, common whitetail, twelve-spotted skimmer, great blue skimmer, blue dasher, wandering glider, eastern amberwing, blue-faced meadowhawk, and black saddlebags.

To see detailed captions on the photos, click on any photo and scroll through them. To see a slide show with partial captions (i.e. some are clipped), click on the slideshow button, which will open up a new window.  If you have comments or corrections on any of the identifications, please send us an e-mail.

All pictures are copyright Paul V. Switzer.  Please do not use without permission.