[TN-Butterflies] Re: Polk County has an Interesting Visitor

"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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