Thursday, July 25, 2019

The Archbold Biological Station Collection of Butterflies


The Archbold Biological Station located in Highlands County, Florida has one of the best natural history reference collections representing south central Florida’s flora and fauna.  The collection is estimated to contain more than 250,000 pinned insect specimens.

On December 29, 2018 I inventoried the Archbold Biological Station’s butterfly specimens.  A summary of my findings was published in the Southern Lepidopterists' News, volume 41, number 2, pages 162-168 (see linked pdf here).  The Archbold collection contains 571 pinned adult butterfly specimens representing 103 taxa. The collection includes imperiled species such as Cyclargus thomasi, Eunica tatila, Anthanassa frisia, Siproeta stelenes, Heraclides aristodemus, Glutophrissa drusilla and many others that are declining and disappearing in Florida.  Many Archbold butterfly specimens have additional information on the labels such as flowers visited, larval host plant, and other data (see linked Excel file here). 

The Station recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Collections in Support of Biological Research program to digitize the natural history collections. Archbold staff have been photographing specimens and entering label information into the searchable online databases iDigBio and Symbiota Collection of Arthropods Network (SCAN). 

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Butterflies found at BB Brown's Gardens on July 16, 2016




Following is the list of butterflies that we found at BB Brown's Gardens on July 16, 2016.  It was very hot that day and we found a lot of butterflies such as a Great Purple Hairstreak, White M Hairstreaks, Red-banded Hairstreaks, Viceroys, and Carolina Satyrs on the woodland trail hanging out in the shade under the oak trees.  We had a total of 25 species.

GROUP
SCIENTIFIC NAME
COMMON NAME
NUMBER OF ADULTS
Broad-winged Skippers
Urbanus proteus
Long-tailed Skipper
1
Broad-winged Skippers
Urbanus dorantes
Dorantes Skipper
1
Spread-winged Skippers
Erynnis horatius
Horace's Duskywing
3
Grass Skippers
Cymaenes tripunctus
Three-spotted Skipper
1
Grass Skippers
Lerema accius
Clouded Skipper
1
Grass Skippers
Hylephila phyleus
Fiery Skipper
1
Grass Skippers
Panoquina ocola
Ocola Skipper
2
Swallowtails
Battus philenor philenor
Pipevine Swallowtail
1
Swallowtails
Battus polydamas lucayus
Polydamas Swallowtail
3
Swallowtails
Heraclides cresphontes
Giant Swallowtail
6
Swallowtails
Pterourus glaucus australis
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
2
Swallowtails
Pterourus troilus troilus
Spicebush Swallowtail
4
Swallowtails
Pterourus palamedes
Palamedes Swallowtail
1
Whites
Ascia monuste phileta
Great Southern White
3
Sulphurs
Phoebis sennae eubule
Cloudless Sulphur
6
Sulphurs
Phoebis philea
Orange-barred Sulphur
1
Hairstreaks
Atlides halesus
Great Purple Hairstreak
1
Hairstreaks
Calycopis cecrops
Red-banded Hairstreak
4
Hairstreaks
Parrhasius m-album
White-M Hairstreak
4
Milkweed Butterflies
Danaus gilippus berenice
Queen
1
Passionflower Butterflies
Agraulis vanillae nigrior
Gulf Fritillary
44
Passionflower Butterflies
Heliconius charithonia tuckeri
Zebra Heliconian
31
Passionflower Butterflies
Euptoieta claudia
Variegated Fritillary
1
Admirals
Limenitis archippus floridensis
Viceroy
2
Satyrs and Wood-Nymphs
Hermeuptychia sosybius
Carolina Satyr
2