[TN-Butterflies] Re: Polk County has an Interesting Visitor
- From: kjchilds <kjchilds@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: TN Butterflies <TN-Butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 14:48:56 -0700 (PDT)
"are occasional passengers with northbound nursery shipments of Cana" would
explain why the 2 other TN county records are around Nashville.
Ken Childs
Henderson, TN
Chester County
http://www.finishflagfarms.com
________________________________
From: Julius Basham <juliusbasham@xxxxxxxxx>
To: TN Butterflies <TN-Butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sun, August 29, 2010 9:53:53 AM
Subject: [TN-Butterflies] Polk County has an Interesting Visitor
When you walk up to a patch of thistles in Tennessee you don't really
expect
to see a Skipper about three times bigger than all the other Skippers. But
that's exactly what we saw yesterday near Paddy Bridge.
This wandering Brazilian Skipper was at least 2 miles from the nearest
patch
of Cana, (which it so dearly loves) and seemed quite happy to nectar on
this
fall thistle.
Here it is shown with a Clouded Skipper for size comparison. The Clouded is
a fairly large Skipper, as Skippers go, but look at the size of the
Brazilian. He's a big dog.
He was quite skittish at first, and would be off with a mighty whirring of
wings when approached, but he gradually became accustomed to human presence
and calmed down a bit.
Brazilians are North America's largest grass Skipper and are kind of a
cinnamony brown with three or four translucent moonmarks on the Ventral
hindwing. They also have variable translucent marks on the forewing that
usually cannot be seen due to the way they hold their wings most of the
time.
Their body shape is similar to our Ocola Skipper.
They have an extremely long haustellum, and seem to be able to take nectar
from blossoms on the far side of the flower that they are perched upon.
No one seems to know for sure if the migrate this far north, or are
occasional passengers with northbound nursery shipments of Cana. They
certainly are strong fliers so it wouldn't surprise me to find out that
both
methods of dispersal are true.
Whatever the case, it has been at least five years since we have seen an
individual of this species in Polk County, so it's nice, to again find, one
of these rare visitors to Tennessee.
At the same location we found an interesting seed pod that looks like a
Blackberry.
It is evidently called Blackberry Lily, because of these seeds, and has a
gorgeous orange Tiger Lily looking flower earlier in the year.
It is a non-native and is originally from China.
The base of the plant gives away it's membership in the Iris Family.
Julius Basham
Chattanooga, Tennessee
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