[TN-Butterflies] documenting the distribution of butterflies in tn

From: "Stedman, Stephen" <SStedman@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "tn butterflies (TN-Butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)" <TN-Butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2014 13:37:29 +0000

Last year saw further increases in the known distribution of butterfly species 
in Tennessee, as reflected by butterfly submissions to the BAMONA database and 
as reflected in maps based on BAMONA data provided by Doug Bruce.  The effort 
to map the distribution of butterflies via BAMONA has been going on for a long 
time, but especially during the past seven years (2007-2013).

Thanks to all Tennessee butterfliers who have made contributions to this effort 
and to other efforts that increase our knowledge of butterfly distribution and 
status in our state.  Particularly laudable are the ongoing butterfly counts 
conducted under the auspices of the North American Butterfly Association, but 
other efforts to increase knowledge of the state's butterflies are also taking 
place, along with similar efforts related to the moths of the state.

As I have done for the past seven years, I have summarized the documentation of 
butterfly species at the county level in Tennessee at this page of my website:

http://iweb.tntech.edu/sstedman/ButterflyDocumentationTN.htm

This page (Table 2) lists the 95 counties alphabetically and displays the 
annual increase in the documented butterfly species for each county.  Polk 
Count continues to lead the way with 112 documented species, but many other 
counties (40) have more species documented than the new state average of 57.53 
species per county, up quite a bit from the average for 2012.  It is also 
encouraging that all counties in the state now have butterfly lists exceeding 
30, quite an improvement from just a few years ago when many counties had 0 
species documented.

A refinement that I have added this year with considerable assistance from Doug 
Bruce is to provide data for the average number of butterfly species at the 
Regional level as well as the state level (Table 4).  The 21 counties of West 
Tennessee collectively have an average of a bit more than 48 species per 
county; the 41 counties of Middle Tennessee now average just over 53 species 
per county; and the 33 counties of East Tennessee average a spectacular 68.55 
species per county.

I hope you will join me in continuing the effort to document the distribution 
of Tennessee's butterflies during 2014.

Best wishes for a great butterflying year, Steve


Stephen J. Stedman, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Tennessee Technological University
2675 Lakeland Dr.
Cookeville, TN 38506

931-528-3820

http://iweb.tntech.edu/sstedman/ButterflyTennessee.htm

[TN-Butterflies] documenting the distribution of butterflies in tn

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