Today, as we were out for a walk to down to the Ohlone Greenway at Lincoln Ave. (El Cerrito, CA) to collect Gulf Fritillaries (Augraulis vanillae), we observed a different set of butterfly faces than the time we went down last month in June. Most butterflies and moths (and most all insects, at that!) follow some kind of breeding pattern throughout the year. If you have ever observed a species in your area, you will quickly notice that there are months when the species does not breed or fly and other times when they are "in season" and are at their peek abundancy. In general, seasonality of a specific Lepidopterans is strongly correlated with the seasonality of their resources (food) as well as climate. That's why so many of them diapause through the winter and emerge in spring when it begins to warm up and the new growth is just setting in. A big exception to this can be found in many brush-footed butterflies (family Nymphalidae), many of which more or less follow some sort of migratory schedule or dispersal of the adults to different regions (they don't diapause). Today as we were going down to the Ohlone Greenway at Lincoln Ave. to find some male Gulf Fritillaries (Augraulis vanillae) for hand-pairing purposes, we noticed some common brush-foots that we hadn't really seen in the same numbers in June. June is usually a fairly big month for the traditional spring flight butterflies (those that diapause in the winter and have their largest flight in the spring) like our swallowtails -- the Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon), Pipevine Swallowtails (Battus philenor), and Western Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio rutulus) -- which we saw a lot of back then but not as much now. What we didn't see a whole lot of were Gulf Fritillaries (relatively) and Monarchs (this year is an enormous year for Monarchs, the biggest in over decade, but we noticed a decline when summer started; following their migratory schedule, this is usually the one month that they are not here). Now that it's July, we are seeing an influx in both species. Yesterday, we noticed two Gulf Fritillaries flying around our yard in the morning, something we had not witnessed this entire year. This morning we saw two more, which is actually why we decided to go down to the Ohlone Greenway in the first place this afternoon (there is a big passionflower vine there where they breed). Over there we saw at least five more and even managed to catch three of them (though we still are not successful with hand-pairing them). As for Monarchs, we saw maybe five or six of them on throughout the trip and even had the chance to witness a pair of them mating on the grass. In over a decade of watching for Monarchs, we have never seen them mating in the wild. At this point we're beginning to wonder if they have actually taken up residency for good this year since they are breeding during the summer and not just colonizing the area as temporary migrants. But now let's back-track. When we were just half a block away from our house, just as we were talking about how there were no West Coast Ladies (Vanessa annabella) this entire summer (or their caterpillars and eggs on the mallow host plants [Malvaceae]) so far and were worrying about not finding them at all this year, we saw one land someone's lawn. We had actually brought a butterfly net with us that we were going to catch the Gulf Fritillaries with, so we tried to catch the West Coast Lady but it was just too fast! Soon after, we also saw a Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) flying with the West Coast Lady on the same lawn. We hadn't seen either species in the city in months and we spend hours outside everyday. - Brian
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Timeline 2012–2017
Albany, California This timeline is a series of daily posts recording our observations on and experiences with various insects in Albany California and surrounding areas, from 2012-2017. Since we did not publish this site until 2016, posts before that were constructed retroactively. Starting in August 2017, we moved to Ithaca, New York; posts from there on can be viewed at Timeline 2017-present: Ithaca, New York. Archives (1,011)
August 2017 (49) July 2017 (121) June 2017 (79) May 2017 (77) April 2017 (91) March 2017 (35) February 2017 (12) January 2017 (10) December 2016 (12) November 2016 (26) October 2016 (49) September 2016 (84) August 2016 (94) July 2016 (99) June 2016 (53) May 2016 (21) April 2016 (4) January 2016 (1) August 2015 (3) July 2015 (3) June 2015 (2) June 2014 (3) May 2014 (1) April 2014 (3) March 2014 (3) December 2013 (2) November 2013 (2) October 2013 (5) September 2013 (11) August 2013 (15) July 2013 (9) June 2013 (5) May 2013 (4) April 2013 (3) March 2013 (2) February 2013 (3) January 2013 (2) December 2012 (2) November 2012 (1) October 2012 (2) September 2012 (2) August 2012 (5) July 2012 (1) June 2012 (1) Authors
![]() ![]() Full Species List (Alphabetical by scientific name) Note: - Not every species we encounter is necessarily presented on this site, rather a selection of those that were of particular interest to us and that we felt were worth documenting. - We can't guarantee that all species have been identified accurately, particularly taxa we are not as familiar with. Lepidoptera Actias luna Adelpha californica Agraulis vanillae Allancastria cerisyi Antheraea mylitta Antheraea polyphemus Anthocharis sara Argema mimosae Attacus atlas Battus philenor hirsuta Bombyx mori Caligo atreus Callosamia promethea Coenonympha tullia california Citheronia regalis Cricula trifenestrata Danaus plexippus Eacles imperialis Erynnis tristis Estigmene acrea Eumorpha achemon Eupackardia calleta Furcula cinereoides Heliconius erato Heliconius hecale Heliconius sapho Heliconius sara Hyalophora cecropia Hyalophora columbia Hyalophora euryalus Hylephila phyleus Hyles lineata Junonia coenia Langia zenzeroides formosana Lophocampa maculata Manduca sexta Morpho peleides Nymphalis antiopa Orgyia vetusta Orthosia hibisci quenquefasciata Pachysphinx modesta Papilio cresphontes Papilio eurymedon Papilio glaucus Papilio machaon oregonius Papilio multicaudata Papilio polyxenes asterius Papilio rumiko Papilio rutulus Papilio zelicaon Phyciodes mylitta Phyciodes pulchella Pieris rapae Plejebus acmon Poanes melane Polites sabuleti Polygonia satyrus Pyrgus communis Rothschildia jacobaeae Samia cynthia advena Samia ricini Smerinthus cerisyi Smerinthus ophthalmica Strymon melinus Trichoplusia ni Uresephita reversalis Vanessa annabella Vanessa atalanta Vanessa cardui Unidentified Lepidoptera Hybrids Papilio glaucus × Papilio rutulus Papilio polyxenes asterius × Papilio zelicaon Orthoptera Melanoplus devastator Phaneroptera nana Pristoceuthophilus pacificus Scudderia mexicana Trimerotropis pallidipennis Phasmatodea Carausius morosus Phyllium giganteum Mantodea Mantis religiosa Phyllocrania paradoxa Hymenoptera Apis mellifera Bombus vosnesenskii Brachymeria ovata Linepithema humile Pediobius sp. Polistes dominula Xylocopa varipuncta Unidentified Diptera Lucilia sericata Unidentified Hemiptera Brochymena sp. Leptoglossus sp. Nezara viridula Odonata Argia vivida Libellula croceipennis Coleoptera Coccinella septempunctata Cycloneda polita Diabrotica undecimpunctata Hippodamia convergens Araneae (Class: Arachnida) Araneus diadematus Phidippus johnsoni |