[TN-Butterflies] palpable evidence separating dreamy and sleepy duskywings

From: Stephen Stedman <SStedman@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: TN-Butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:38:17 -0500
In my recent post about the duskywings, I confessed to having a problem
separating Dreamy and Sleepy duskywings from one another.  In a
follow-up post, Don Holt reminded me that the palps (i.e., the labial
palpi-three-segmented structures lying on either side of the proboscis)
are considered to extend farther beyond the facial hairs in Dreamy
Duskywing than they do in Sleepy Duskywing by Glassberg (in Butterflies
through Binoculars East-Opler in both Eastern Butterflies and at the
BAMONA site also offers this bit of advice).

 

Recent photos of individuals of this duskywing pair offered by Allan
Trently and Jeff Basham cause me to wonder a little about the value of
this field mark as a means of identifying Dreamy Duskywing, though it
seems it might be useful to i.d. Sleepy Duskywing.

 

You will recall that Allan posted to TN-Butterflies a photo of a
Dreamy/Sleepy duskywing taken 30 March 2009 in Perry County.  Don and I
both looked at this photo and thought at first that the palps were quite
protrusive and that the individual might be a Dreamy Duskywing, even
though Allan remarked that the photo was taken where food plants
(poplar, cottonwood, etc.) typical of Dreamy WERE NOT present and food
plants (oaks, etc.) typical for Sleepy WERE  present.  After giving
Allan's photo more scrutiny, Don decided that the appearance of the
facial hairs in the photo was misleading and that the individual was
indeed a Sleepy Duskywing.  I was so taken by the protruding palps in
Allan's photo that I forwarded the photo to Rita Venable, asking for her
thoughts on the i.d.; she decided the photo did not offer enough info to
be sure about the i.d., but she leaned 85% toward calling it Dreamy (and
15% toward calling it Sleepy).  This set of responses to the photo of
Allan's duskywing makes me somewhat leery about identifying individuals
of this pairing based on palps that appear to extend beyond the facial
hairs.

 

Jeff Basham recently posted to TN-Butterflies two photos of a duskywing
taken in Hamilton County April 1, 2009;  Jeff identified the individual
as a Sleepy Duskywing; his photos show a duskywing with no visible (or
little visible) palps extending beyond the facial hairs.  I am inclined
to think Jeff's i.d. is correct, but I would be glad of other thoughts
on these photos.

 

So, here's where I am now on this issue.  Photos showing a duskywing of
the Dreamy/Sleepy pairing that has no visible palps beyond the facial
hairs can be called Sleepy, but photos showing a duskywing of this
pairing that has palps extending beyond the facial hairs are not safe to
be definitively called Dreamy and should be viewed as Dreamy/Sleepy
duskywings.  I plan to get further reviews of Allan's and Jeff's photos
to see if this tentative conclusion will hold up.  Will be glad to
change it if there is a need.

 

Anyone trying to i.d. either of these duskywings needs to get really
good views of the facial hairs/palps; really clear close-up photos would
be even better.

 

Dreamy and Sleepy duskywings fly only during spring (we think; I have
seen at least one individual of what I thought was one of these species
in July, so this may not be correct).  Neither species is well
represented on county butterfly lists at  BAMONA, so now is the time to
try for photos of one or both species.

 

Steve Stedman

Cookeville, Putnam County
[TN-Butterflies] palpable evidence separating dreamy and sleepy duskywings

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