The 6th annual Salado/Stillhouse Hollow 4th of July Butterfly
Count was held on 7/10/2010. The count area includes the
city of Salado as well as various parks, wildlife management areas,
and private lands surrounding Stillhouse Hollow Lake. The
entire count area is in Bell County. Counting started approximately
at 0930 with parties in the field until about 1630 or so.
Temperatures ranged from 80-95F, not including heat index.
Humidity was high, but not quite as bad as it has been recently.
The day started out partly cloudy, but became mostly sunny.
Due to a great recruiting effort, we had 19 field observers!
By far the best participation that we have had over the 6
years we have conducted this count. Thanks everyone for
your participation! The extra eyes and coverage paid off.
Additionally, recent rains did seem to rejuvenate vegetation,
and there did seem to be a butterfly response to the improved
habitat conditions. We tallied 48 species, which beat our previous
high tally of 42 species in 2007. We recorded a very respectable
595 individuals, our 2nd highest tally
(1122 individuals were recorded during 2007, the wettest year
the count has been run in so far). The species list
and numbers are provided below.
Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) 3 Black Swallowtail
(Papilio polyxenes) 3 Giant Swallowtail (P. cresphontes) 3 Eastern
Tiger Swallowtail (P. glaucus) 6
swallowtail sp. 1
Checkered White (Pontia protodice) 5
Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) 1
white sp. 3
Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) 1
Orange-barred Sulphur (P. philea) 1
Large Orange Sulphur (P. agarithe) 2
Little Yellow (Eurema lisa) 33
Dainty Sulphur (Nathalis iole) 4
sulphur sp. 10
'Olive' Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus gryneus) 3 Gray
Hairstreak (Strymon melinus) 15 Red-banded Hairstreak (Calycopis
cecrops) 1 Dusky-blue Groundstreak (C. isobeon) 3 Reakirt's Blue
(Hemiargus isola) 1 Fatal Metalmark (Calephelis nemesis) 20 American
Snout (Libytheana carinenta (=bachmanii)) 1 Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis
vanillae) 10 Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) 2 Bordered
Patch (Chlosyne lacinia) 10 Texan Crescent (Phyciodes texana)
4 Vesta Crescent (P. vesta) 4 Phaon Crescent (P. phaon) 58 Pearl
Crescent (P. tharos) 29 Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis)
7 Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) 1 Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia)
17 Viceroy (Limenitis archippus) 19 Goatweed Leafwing (Anaea andria)
19 Hackberry Emperor (Asterocampa celtis) 13 Tawny Emperor (A.
clyton) 12
Asterocampa sp. 61
Monarch (Danaus plexippus) 6
Queen (D. gilippus) 74
butterfly sp. 20
Northern Cloudywing (Thorybes pylades) 7 Horace's Duskywing (Erynnis
horatius) 12 Funereal Duskywing (E. funeralis) 2 Common/White
Checkered-skipper (Pyrgus sp.) 27 Clouded Skipper (Lerema accius)
4 Least Skipper (Ancyloxypha numitor) 1 Orange Skipperling (Copaeodes
aurantiacus) 1 Southern Skipperling (C. minimus) 1 Fiery Skipper
(Hylephila phyleus) 16 Southern Broken-dash (Wallengrenia otho)
1 Sachem (Atalopedes campestris) 6 Delaware Skipper (Anatrytone
logan (=delaware)) 1 Dun Skipper (Euphyes vestris (=ruricola))
8 Eufala Skipper (Lerodea eufala) 16, skipper sp. 6
