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CHRYSALIS
The Occasional Newsletter of the Vermont Butterfly Survey
April 2006
Vol. 5 No. 1
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Here's another issue of CHRYSALIS, an irregular e-mail newsletter about
the Vermont Butterfly Survey. You're getting this because you have signed
on as a VBS volunteer. If you'd rather not receive this newsletter,
please reply to this e-mail and asked to be removed from the mailing
list. Thanks for joining the survey.
Kent McFarland and Bryan Pfeiffer
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Contents:
1. Our Fifth and Final Season
2. Help Wanted on Data
3. Have You Left VBS?
4. More VBS Training-Blockbusting Sessions
5. Tracking VBS Volunteer Time Helps with Funding
6. Spring Azure complex in Vermont
7. Web Page Picks
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1. OUR FIFTH AND FINAL SEASON!
The Vermont Butterfly Survey needs you now more than ever. Our survey
work these past four years has produced a tremendous amount of critical
information about the distribution of butterflies across Vermont.
Residing in the VBS database are nearly 30,000 records of your encounters
of butterflies. It’s the most comprehensive assessment of an insect taxon
in Vermont. But we’re not done yet.
Before this field season gets into full swing (pun intended) we'll be
presenting you with a complete update on our work to date – and the work
that remains to be done. We'll show you the VBS priority blocks that
still need more survey work. We'll suggest the best dates for additional
survey work. And we'll be searching specifically for a few species that
remain undiscovered in Vermont. Many of you will be asked to shift your
survey work to another block.
So please begin to gather your energy and enthusiasm for another season.
Once we finish, the final product will be impressive. We’ll have a strong
baseline knowledge of butterfly distribution across the state. We’ll
publish it for the world to see and use. And you’ll have the satisfaction
of knowing that you were part of the most innovative insect mapping
project Vermont has ever known.
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2. HELP WANTED ON DATA
There can be no better way to learn butterflies than to study them in
front of your nose in the good company of other volunteers and experts.
We’re finalizing our scrutiny of the 2005 data. That means we still need
volunteers to review specimens and photos and their data. YOU DON'T NEED
TO BE AN EXPERT TO DO THIS. And you will certainly learn a lot. Plus,
some folks actually believe it’s fun to hang out with Kent and Bryan. We
need folks to help in Woodstock most any day in the next two or three
weeks. Contact Kent ([log in to unmask]).
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3. HAVE YOU LEFT VBS?
If you don't think you'll be able to do any more survey work (we hope
not) PLEASE take a few minutes to gather and return any of your unused
voucher cards and glassine envelopes. Drop us a quick email so we don't
send you materials for this season. We need them back. You can mail them
to:
Kent McFarland
Vermont Institute of Natural Science
27023 Church Hill Road
Woodstock, VT 05091
[log in to unmask]
Thanks.
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4. MORE VBS TRAINING-BLOCKBUSTING SESSIONS
In our continuing effort to make you a better butterflyer and get a
block done fast, we’re planning some group training and survey work this
spring. When they won't be chasing birds, Bryan and Kent will organize
group blockbusting sessions in under-surveyed areas of the state. We'd
like to begin these in late May, so that those of you who join us can
continue to learn some new skills and apply them during the rest of the
field season. We'll also be doing some butterfly walks for various
organizations. You'll be welcome to join those as well. So stay tuned for
the dates. We'll post them at the VBS web site soon. And sometime put
something up at the last minute too. We will of course inform everyone
via the VTLEP email list serve too, so sign up at
http://list.uvm.edu/archives/vtleps.html.
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5. TRACKING YOUR VBS VOLUNTEER TIME HELPS FUNDING!
A major portion of VBS funding is through a program known as State
Wildlife Grants (SWG). This is federal funding annually appropriated to
each state for non-game wildlife research and conservation. The SWG
program provides federal dollars to every state to support conservation
aimed at preventing fish and wildlife populations from declining and
avoiding potential listing under state or federal Endangered Species
Acts
This grant is a 3:1 matching grant. In other words, we have to provide
one dollar for every three federal dollars. The matching portion can be
private grants and donations or in-kind donations such as the volunteer
work that you do for this project.
For this upcoming field season we'll provide a form for each person to
track volunteer time to help us meet our match. You'll receive this in
your participant packet in April. PLEASE send in this form with
your data so we can meet our match. And, if you haven't done so, please
send in last year’s form.
In order to make the best use of the State Wildlife Grants program,
Congress charged each state and territory with developing a statewide
Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy (CWCS). These strategies
will provide an essential foundation for the future of wildlife
conservation and a stimulus to engage the states, federal agencies and
other conservation partners to strategically think about their individual
and coordinated roles in prioritizing conservation efforts in each state
and territory.
VBS has contributed key butterfly information to this plan to help
determine which species are of concern. The plan is finished and can be
read at
http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/swg_cwcs_report.cfm
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6. AZURE COMPLEX IN VERMONT
Harry Pavulaan has been kind enough to help us identify the Spring Azure
complex in Vermont. We recently got an update from Harry and here
is what he had to say (not for the Azure-taxonomy faint of heart):
David Wright and I have been in extensive discussion regarding a
perplexing situation with Vermont Azures but I think we have a
solution. There appear to be five distinct flights or species in
Vermont. The first flight, Celastrina lucia, appears to be less
common than I originally thought. I'll explain. The second
flight to emerge is the Cherry Gall Azure (CGA), but the 2003-2004 series
has very few of these. There was previous confusion with a THIRD
spring flight and I believe that many of the previous "lucia"
and "Cherry Gall Azure" specimens I identified from the 2002
series may be yet ANOTHER entity.
Dave and I just published our Cherry Gall Azure paper. It is now
called "Celastrina serotina". In Vermont, lucia and
serotina (CGA) are easily distinguished. However, there are many
specimens which I could not assign to either. These have the
undersides of lucia, yet the uppersides of serotina (CGA). This
baffled me. Pursuant to other research we are engaged in, it dawned
on us that most of northern New England is dominated by a spring flight
of yet another Azure! It replaces serotina (CGA) in many areas, yet
flies with it in some, but mainly it comes on the heels of
serotina. Research on similarly puzzling populations from New
Brunswick to Maryland leads us to conclude that this is yet another
Azure. Now, going back through my collection, the pieces suddenly
fall into place and things make more sense. This Azure is
identified in my annotations to the Vermont Azures as "?under
study?". Wherever that designation is encountered, it pertains
to this interesting taxon. The ironic thing is that it MAY actually
have been named in older days, but we need to do a considerable amount of
research to determine if an older name is available. Similarly, in
my annotations, "CGA" refers to what is now called Celastrina
serotina. Did you ever receive a copy of that paper?
Unfortunately, my evaluation of the Vermont Azures was underway when the
paper was published, so we are missing a considerable number of Vermont
records in the paper. A follow-up paper in the coming year or two,
will update the paper from the Vermont survey and other field
research.
Back to flights. The fourth flight: the "early summer
entity" is the most curious. It is distinct from the fifth
(August) flight of C. neglecta. It emerges just prior to the time
that neglecta emerges in southeastern New England (in early July), which
is odd. So it is not neglecta, in the true sense. Vermont's
August flight is true neglecta. Boy, we're going to give these
flights a good look at.
Which brings me to: Norbert Kondla and Joe Belicek (both in Canada)
are working on the DNA barcode project. They are analyzing
Celastrina for us, though results will be forthcoming and we don't know
if any of the Celastrina flights will show DNA differences. I've
been sending them specimens from many locations. In the Vermont
specimen series, a handful of voucher envelopes contained duplicate
specimens and have been sent to them for DNA analysis. We're not
sure how the "early summer entity" relates to August
neglecta. Neglecta was described from the Catskill Mountains in
"summer" (where both the "early summer entity" flies
at the end of June into July, and neglecta flies in late July into
August), so could refer to either entity.
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7. WEB PAGE PICK (ok so it is a PDF report…)
A BASELINE ATLAS AND CONSERVATION ASSESSMENT OF THE BUTTERFLIES OF
MAINE
This report summarizes the current state of knowledge for the
butterfly species of Maine and highlights species of conservation
concern. Information on the occurrence of butterflies in Maine was
reviewed from a variety of sources, including Brower (1974) and numerous
other publications, specimens contained in most major northeastern
museums, numerous private collections, data complied during Maine
Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s (MDIFW) ecoregional survey
project, and MDIFW’s rare species tracking database. A database (Excel)
of nearly 9000 records contained in 42 fields was constructed from all
records obtained from the above sources. These include both locality and
date records (records with different dates from same locality) and 3904
township records. At the completion of the Maine Butterfly Survey Project
this data will be shared with conservation partners and other interested
parties. Brower (1974) listed 103 species of butterflies and skippers for
Maine. Following a review of the sources listed above, an additional 11
species have been added bringing the state’s total list to 114 species. A
few of the additions are the result of taxonomic changes that split
formerly one species into two, but most result from new species
discoveries. Of special note is the relatively high proportion (13%)
of Maine butterflies and skippers that are extirpated (5 species) or
state-listed as endangered or special concern (10 spp.), a result
consistent with global trends elsewhere for the group (Stein et al. 2000,
Thomas et al. 2004). Much has been learned regarding butterfly species
rarity and threat in Maine since the previous state-listing process in
1997 (McCollough et al. 2003), and several revisions, mainly additions to
the endangered and special concern list, are recommended based on the
data summarized in this study. On average, 63 species of butterflies were
found in each county in Maine. This represents about 55% of the 114
species of butterflies reported for the state. Highest species richness
was recorded in Oxford Co. with 91 species (80% of all species known from
Maine). Relatively high species richness was also recorded from
Washington Co. (87 species) and Penobscot Co. (81 species). The least
number of species was recorded from Sagadahoc Co. (37 species), Knox Co.
(38), Lincoln Co. (43), and Androscoggin Co. (42). Only eight species
were recorded from all counties in the state. However, collecting effort
in Maine has not been uniform and the data compiled in this assessment
should help to focus future sampling effort toward under-surveyed species
and locales. Color fact sheets are provided (Appendix 1) for 35 breeding
resident species in Maine that are considered endangered, special
concern, extirpated, or rare. The fact sheets include information on
identification, distribution, status, ecology, and threats and are
intended to stimulate further protection and study of Maine’s rarest
butterflies. Finally, township-scale distribution maps are provided for
each of Maine’s 114 butterfly species, (Appendix 2), all of which require
further distributional study.
Visit
http://mainegov-images.informe.org/ifw/pdf/mainebutterflyatlasreport.pdf
to read the report.
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Vermont Butterfly Survey
Conservation Biology Department
Vermont Institute of Natural Science
27023 Church Hill Rd.
Woodstock, VT 05091
802-457-1053 x124
http://www.vinsweb.org/vbs
Visit the CBD Blog:
http://www.vinsweb.org/cbd/news.html