Butterfly Time (Part 2)

This post takes up where Part 1, on my sister blog ”Bug Eric” leaves off. The seventh annual “Butterfly Magic” kicked off with the suave and swanky “Butterfly Affaire” fundraiser on Sunday night, October 10. Music, fine food and beverages were the order of the evening, but at least a few folks ventured into the hot and humid greenhouse in their gowns and suits (though most were dressed a little above “business casual”).

The butterflies had mostly settled down to roost for the night, making them difficult to spot. The lights were on in the tropical greenhouse, but insects are not easily fooled by the artificial extension of natural day length. Consequently, the hit of the night was a group of recently-emerged African Moon Moths, Argema mimosa.

These large, showy insects are very cooperative, sitting idly in the places we had put them earlier in the day. The moths live only two or three days, even in the wild. They do not feed, or even have functional mouthparts, living instead off the stored fat reserves they built up in the caterpillar stage. Females wait patiently for males to fly to them, attracting the opposite gender with a pheromone (like a perfume) that the males can follow from a mile or more away.

The males use their feathery antennae like satellite dishes, picking up the fragrant signals of a female and homing in on her. She may not even venture off of her cocoon, at least not in our captive setting where we usually take cocoon and moth out to the greenhouse and pin the cocoon perch to a tree trunk.

Longwing butterflies in the genus Heliconius are at the other end of the longevity spectrum. While most butterflies can last two or three weeks, maybe a month on flower nectar, longwings can go up to six months because they can also eat pollen. There is no end to the variability in color and pattern, even within one species of Heliconius. Some mimic milkweed butterflies that are toxic to some predators. All are neotropical in their distribution (that means they are native to Mexico, Central and South America). Colorful and seemingly fragile, they fly slowly, perching frequently. This Heliconius erato displays a typical pattern for its species.

Come evening, or during overcast days, the longwings seldom take flight, instead hanging from the underside of foliage, or perching on leaves like this Heliconius doris.

As diminutive as the longwings are, the swallowtails are large and powerful. This Magnificent Swallowtail, Papilio garamus, is the only specimen to emerge so far from the multiple chrysalids we have received in shipments. It ranges from central Mexico to Costa Rica.

A real success from the shipments were sulphur butterflies in the genus Catopsilia. They are commonly known as “immigrants,” which of course has been the source of many bad jokes among the staff and volunteers in the exhibit. Ironically, the “Orange Immigrant,” Catopsilia scylla, hails from northern Australia and neighboring islands of Indonesia, not from south of the U.S. border.

Wherever you call home, you might want to plan a trip to meet these wonderful insects while they are here in Tucson. Butterfly Magic runs through April 30, 2011, so reserve those tickets now.

Brandi Fenton Memorial Park

Brandi Fenton Memorial Park is a multi-use holding of the Pima County Natural Resources, Parks & Recreation agency. I paid a visit there on June 15, 2010 and found it to be much more than I had anticipated. At a little shy of 57 acres, it is also far larger in size than I imagined.

The park’s namesake was a bright and cheerful 13-year old who died tragically in a car accident in 2003. The centerpiece of the park reflects in its landscape and architecture the joys of this vibrant teenager: butterflies, art, and a caring . A butterfly garden, fountain, several sculptures, and inlaid artwork make for a very colorful and inspirational community resource.

There is an equal abundance of active recreation opportunities to complement the passive, relaxing, and introspective areas. A dog park, basketball courts, fitness stations, playground, and walking paths afford exercise for people and pooches; and there are even equestrian facilities.

Additionally, there are many interpretive signs explaining the historical Binghampton district where this park is located. Original buildings remain on the property and serve a variety of public functions, including a visitor center. A farming community dating back to 1875, Binghampton is on the National Historic Register as well. Demonstration gardens of crops grown in that era are planned for the park in the future.

Located at the intersection of Alvernon Way, Dodge Boulevard, and River Road just blocks north of the city of Tucson, Brandi Fenton Memorial Park is a great place to explore and exercise your “inner child” (or your real son or daughter if you have a family). I look forward to seeing how the park matures (it opened in 2005) in the coming years.

Mother's Day in Madera Canyon

I am enjoying the field trips of the Southeast Arizona Butterfly Association (SEABA) this year. SEABA is a local chapter of the North American Butterfly Association. The monthly field trips, usually on Saturdays, are led by a butterfly expert or someone knowledgeable of the fauna and flora of the destination. Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains, a popular place for both Arizonans and tourists, was the site of May’s field trip on May 9. The leader was Gary Jue of Greg’s Camera Shop (where I bought my own camera), who works on Saturdays.

Hiking the trails takes you through several habitats, from mesquite grasslands at the entrance to oak and juniper forests at mid-elevation, and finally pine and oak at the top. It is a very visitor-friendly place. Just ask this rock squirrel that greeted us early on.

What is Mother’s Day without flowers? The bloom below is a type of milkweed known as “Antelope horns,” Asclepias asperula to botanists. Ordinarily, milkweeds are highly attractive to insects including butterflies, bees, wasps, and flies, but nary an insect was on this one, save for what might be a “seed weevil” in the Chrysomelidae leaf beetle family. I only noticed it when I cropped this image. See if you can find the tiny gray insect in one of the blossoms.

Among the birds we took note of was the ever-present Acorn Woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus. You will hear them often, even if you don’t see them, but the ones here in Madera Canyon have become habituated to people and frequently land quite close to picnickers.

I have noted some of the butterflies we saw over at “Bug Eric,” but wanted to conclude this entry with the most exciting, yet unfortunate aspect of our group’s visit last Sunday. As we were preparing to leave the canyon, we caught sight of something that nobody wants to see when they are in a forested area: a plume of smoke.

Word quickly made it to those of us at the top of the canyon that a car had burst into flames about half way up the road.

Traffic in and out of the canyon was halted while it was extinguished. Fortunately, the family in the car exited without injury. Miraculously, the fire didn’t touch off a wildfire, despite red flag warnings on this windy day. The flames did jump to either side of the road, but were quickly put out. The whole incident happened close to a creek, so the initial response was a volunteer bucket brigade. Also close by was a bed-and-breakfast, and the folks there strung together garden hoses to stop the roadside fire. Emergency vehicles arrived shortly thereafter, but the car was clearly toast.

Kudos to all who not only prevented what could have become a catastrophe, but who had traffic flowing again in a remarkably short period of time. I hope the afflicted family is going to be ok.

Springtime in Pima Canyon

The Southeast Arizona Butterfly Association had a field trip to Pima Canyon last Saturday, April 3, and I was privileged to be invited to go along. I wish to thank Fred Heath for furnishing transportation. Our small group was looking mostly for butterflies, of course, and we collectively saw twenty-one species, but it was the incredible variety of wildflowers that got our attention most of the time.

Fred is very knowledgeable regarding the flora of the Santa Catalina Mountains, where Pima Canyon is located, and he was able to name most of the flowers, and find cryptic ones. I passed right by this larkspur (Delphinium), for example, assuming it was “just another lupine.”

Most of the time, this canyon runs dry, but the winter rains and snowmelt this year have the water cascading down the stream in abundance. The extra moisture meant that we saw flowering plants typical of more moist riparian zones. Take this common monkeyflower, Mimulus guttatus, for example.

The flowers, in turn, did offer nectar for many of the butterflies we observed.

This Texan crescent, Phyciodes texana, was flitting from blossom to blossom on the common fiddleneck (Amsinckia menziesii) that is so abundant right now.

Pima Canyon is just a short drive outside of Tucson, and a very popular spot for hikers, so it can be a bit crowded on weekends. Just the same, I encourage visitors to southern Arizona to consider this scenic canyon as a potential day trip. It takes a bit of time to get into the heart of the canyon, but once there the shade afforded by the cliffs, cottonwoods and other trees is a welcome relief from the heat. You can always cool your heals in the creek, too, provided it is running, of course.

(Living) Gem Show

This weekend is probably the peak of the annual Tucson Gem & Mineral Show, easily the largest, most economically important tourist event of the year in southern Arizona. There are so many rocks, minerals, fossils, meteorites, sculptures, and other merchandise here that I’m surprised it doesn’t tip the Earth’s axis. The scale of the exhibition defies easy comparisons and quantification. It is difficult to find any other display that rivals the gem show for color and spectacle, but perhaps the Tucson Botanical Gardens has it in the form of its annual “Butterfly Magic” exhibit of live Lepidoptera.

There are stones and tourists here at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show from all over the globe, but there are also live butterflies and moths from all over the world at the TBG. Rocks may glitter and gleam, but they don’t fly, or land delicately on you like the insects in the live butterfly exhibit.

Among the wonders of the butterfly show are metallic blue Morpho butterflies from the Latin American tropics.

Like a living geode, they usually conceal their beauty while perched with wings closed. The underside of their wings are colored in earthtones with spots and stripes.

Sharing its name with a stone of similar color, the Malachite, Siproeta stelenes, also hails from Mexico and Central America, but can also be seen in extreme southern Florida and south Texas.

Glasswing butterflies in the family Nymphalidae, subfamily Ithomiinae, have wings as transparent as the windows of any building. No silica here, just an absence of the scales that normally give butterflies their vibrant color patterns. Only the veins and edges are pigmented here, creating artistic panes.

Not to be outdone by their day-active counterparts, some moths have a subtle beauty all their own. By any standards the African moon moth, Argema mimosae, is a glamorous animal, with tails that stream like a comet or shooting star.

No meteorite fall at the end, but an equally ephemeral life. With no mouthparts to feed, these giant moths live for no more than a few days, just long enough to reproduce.

My friends in the meteorite-hunting world have given me a new appreciation for both extra-terrestrial and earth-borne geology, but it is still difficult not to choose the living over the inanimate. Whatever your own predilection, be sure to share that passion with others. It is a great way to make new friends and expand each other’s horizons.