BeUtiful butterfly! Wish I would have them here.

Thanks Iris! You should be able to get them in SC as I occasionally had them in Ohio. They aren't frequent visitors in my yard do she was a pleasant surprise.

This would be a great surprise, but looking at the maps it seems the only sightings in SC were at the coast. Then again I saw my first giant swallowtail this year, so I am happy enough.

I agree that the Giants are so awesome that they make up for others we don't get :)

I am still a little jealous. Especially with managing to get these beautiful pictures.

Awwwww..thanks Iris :) I was practically laying down because she decided that she'd spend more time on the lower leaves. I kept worrying that those dang fire ants would be crawling me.

Congrats, Rhonda, she is beautiful. I don't know why they are so rare in so many places in Florida, but they are. I don't think I have seen any this year. Normally, I only see one or two.

The day after the storm was special. Don't think I've ever seen so many butterflies. They clearly were able to ride out the storm and were very hungry.

Thanks Tom. Yesterday was an amazing butterfly day. I even saw a male hummer yesterday...first one in quite a while. He was feeding at one of the new feeders that you recommended, right in front of my office/sewing room window :)

If you had them in Ohio, you should have mentioned that to Ohio Leps at the time. I believe the only recorded one is from the late '50s.

Hey KC. I was in Dublin, along the Scioto River, just south of the northern Franklin County line. I saw them maybe two or three times in my 50 years in Ohio (all in my Dublin yard), never more than one at a time, never more than one per year, probably 10-12 years ago. I remember the first time I saw one, I had to look it up in my Audubon field guide. I knew they weren't common but didn't realize they were that uncommon in Ohio or I would have reported them. I just searched the Ohio Lepidopterists site and it's dot map for the Queen shows only Franklin county with a sighting dot, but I can't find the date for the sighting. http://ohiolepidopterists.org/bflymonitoring/species/dotmaps/dotmaps.html

Thanks for the info, I'll keep searching.

Rhonda

My date was a tad off. One of the Brothers found it at the Josephinum on US23 in 1960. It is in OSU's insect collection.

You should have gotten yourself a copy of Butterflies and Skippers of Ohio when Ohio Biological Survey put it out in '92. It was an eye opener of what had been recorded and what had not. Juniper hairstreak is the one I always think of because some people knew it was in Ohio but it officially did not exist. Publication of the book got people to share more info.

Rare sightings in Ohio get instantly shared on Facebook. Three or four black witches this year and people running off to view them. Zero queen butterflies in Facebook history AFAIK.

KC,

I've only in the past 10 years or so been really getting into butterfly life cycles, host and nectar plants, migratory patterns, etc., so I had no clue in 1992 that such a book existed :) BTW, I had juniper hairstreaks there too.

The Josephinum (such a beautiful site. I visited there once when my uncle was preparing for the priesthood) isn't that far from Dublin so sightings in my yard aren't out of the question. I wish I had known about the book or the rarity of the Queen in Ohio then because it would have been pretty awesome to have reported the sightings. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.

Many of the online butterfly sites aren't specific enough to say that a certain butterfly hasn't been spotted in Ohio but rather say something such as "rarely seen north of Florida". Now that I know what an opportunity I missed, I will be researching sightings more closely.

Is there a specific group on Facebook for sightings? I haven't been on FB for 5 years. Maybe I should go back on now.

Thanks for the information.

Rhonda

The groups I watch are Ohio specific: moths, butterflies, and arthropods. There are more Ohio groups I don't watch. And then there are Lep groups that are specific to the eastern US or the whole US.

For Florida, a quick check showed groups for butterflies and entomology.

I've never seen a black witch in person but they look amazing. I seem to recall that they were sighted in Ohio about 10 years ago as well. Thanks for all the info.

Rhonda