[TN-Butterflies] milestone in determining the distribution of tn butterflies

From: "Steve Stedman" <birdsongteam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tn-butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:21:33 -0500
An interesting milestone was achieved during the 2009 butterfly season in 
Tennessee: the average number of species listed for the state's 95 counties 
surpassed 35, as reflected at the BAMONA website; indeed, it surpassed 40 
during 2009.

Documenting 35 species of butterflies in Tennessee's counties (on average) is 
of interest because it may be taken to represent the halfway point on the path 
whose destination is reasonably complete documentation of the distribution of 
the state's butterflies. Let me explain.

Tennessee's butterfly list (at BAMONA) now stands at 136, and it is reasonable 
to predict that this number will probably rise to about 140 during the next 
decade.  If we presume that reasonably complete documentation is represented by 
documenting 50% of the state's butterflies within each county (on average), 
then documenting 70 species in each county (on average) fulfills that 
requirement.  Consequently, documenting 35 species in each county (on average) 
gets the state's butterflying/lepidopterist community halfway to that 
requirement, and that number was achieved, and then considerably exceeded, 
during 2009, if we use the data at BAMONA as a basis for measuring progress 
toward that goal.

Of the 95 counties in Tennessee, 51 now have butterfly lists that equal or 
exceed 35 species.  Polk County with 101 species leads the way, becoming the 
first county in the state to achieve the century mark.  Hamilton is next with 
93 species. Four counties have lists in the 80s and eight counties have lists 
of 70-79 species.  All told, fourteen counties have 70 or more species listed 
at the BAMONA website and thus may be deemed to have reasonably complete 
butterfly lists (although each of these county lists will undoubtedly continue 
to increase over the next decade and beyond).  An additional 37 counties have 
butterfly lists that range from 35 to 69 and are now halfway or more toward 
reasonable completeness of their butterfly lists.

Forty-four counties in the state are currently below 35 species of butterflies 
as itemized below (a few of these numbers exceed the number currently listed at 
the BAMONA website because recently submitted records have not yet been 
processed by the much overworked website personnel).

Counties with 1-9 species:

Crockett--2
Houston--3
Lincoln--5
Robertson--5

Counties with 10-19 species:

Bedford--14
Carroll--13
Claiborne--18
Gibson--10
Giles--10
Hancock--11
Hardeman--15
Haywood--14
Johnson--18
Lawrence--15
Moore--17
Tipton--13
Union--14
Weakley--12

Counties with 20-29 species:

Benton--26
Fayette--29
Henderson--22
Hickman--29
Humphreys--23
Jefferson--28
Lake--28
Loudon--25
McMinn--22
McNairy--29
Obion--23
Perry--27
Sequatchie--23
Trousdale--28

Counties with 30-34 species:

Bledsoe--33
Campbell--34
Fentress--34
Grundy--31
Hamblen--32
Macon--30
Meigs--34
Rhea--33
Scott--32
Smith--34
Unicoi--32
Wayne--31

Besides surpassing the halfway point toward reasonable documentation of the 
distribution of the state's butterflies, two other accomplishments of the 2009 
season included eliminating the group of counties that had no species at all 
listed at the BAMONA website and considerably reducing the number of counties 
with lists in the single digits, there being now just four such counties.

Let me express great thanks to all the butterfliers/lepidopterists who 
collectively supplied me with over 700 photographs or equivalent evidence 
documenting new county records during 2009.  These new county records came from 
80 of Tennessee's 95 counties.  

I hope that the 2010 butterfly season will see equally great progress toward 
documenting the distribution of Tennessee's butterflies.  Perhaps a goal of the 
next season might be to bring all 44 counties listed above up to the 35-species 
level and to increase all counties now with 35-60 species by 10 species or 
more?  Whatever you can do to increase our knowledge of the state's 'flies will 
be much appreciated.

Good butterflyin', Steve Stedman
TN Butterfly Coordinator, BAMONA

Cookeville (Putnam County)
[TN-Butterflies] milestone in determining the distribution of tn butterflies

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