Hello Green Mountain birders,
Sorry to talk about butterflies on a bird list serve, but I am hoping you
can help us as many of you have probably seen Vermont's newest butterfly
species recently and we'd love your records. With the end of the Vermont
Butterfly Survey we are lucky to have virtually an army of butterfly crazed
folks around the state now. Just in time for an invasion of a southern
species. We have been able to document in unprecedented detail, at least
for these parts, the invasion of the Giant Swallowtail into Vermont. We
have the very first two records in the fall of 2010, a massive invasion in
the summer and fall of 2011 and many reports of mating, egg laying and
larvae. Then, a mild winter of 2011-12 allowed them to overwinter in
chrysalis, at least in the western half of the state. In the spring there
were huge numbers in some areas. They mated and laid eggs. Now their young
are flying and dispersing all over the state. We'll have to wait and see if
they can once again make it through a Vermont winter, but for now, this
butterfly is a resident. With an unprecedented number of butterfly watchers
now in the state, we really have documented this amazingly well so far, but
like all good biologists, we're always data hungry!

Here's were we'd love more help from you. If you have a sight record of
this large swallowtail, please send me the date and exact location to my
email. If you
have seen mating or egg laying, we'd love the details. If you have any
photo documentation, please consider enter your photo on the Butterflies
and Moths of North American database at http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/.
Many of us put a lot of our butterfly photo records on that site now that
the atlas is over. In fact, all of the Vermont Butterfly Survey data are on
that site, http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/project/VBS ! Check out the
map for Giant Swallowtail and see some great photos on the site at
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Papilio-cresphontes

If butterflies are getting your attention more and more, consider some of
these Vermont resources too:

VTLEPS email list group: http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=VTLEPS
VT Butterfly Survey report pdf: http://www.vtecostudies.org/VBS/news.html

Thanks so much for your time, interest and help!

Kent McFarland
Vermont Center for Ecostudies