Male and female Anthocharis midea share a perch on this member of the mustard family. It’s April 7th, an early appearance for these orangetips in Raccoon Creek State Park in southwestern Pennsylvania. A happy sight for this butterfly photographer. Why? Because their period of adult flight is short and you never know whether or not they will be seen  in their usual locations on any given morning.

These are near the northern edge of their range. They are rarely seen in most of New York state, and are not mentioned in Larry Weber’s Butterflies of New England (Kollath-Stensaas Publishing, 2002). Jaret Daniels’ Butterfies of the Carolinas (Adventure Publications, 2003) reports them as sometimes common. Cech and Tudor’s Butterflies of the East Coast agrees, reporting them from Georgia north to eastern New York and Conneticut and as far west as Nebraska and Texas.

So, what are they doing, perched on the sunny leaf-top platform? Have they seen our last post and are they commiserating about its poignant memories of Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers and hikes through the long gone trails in Flatbush, Brooklyn? Have they chosen one another as devoted mates? Surely they are not sharing insights about the yings and yangs of the Republicans and Democrats! It’s April, so its too early to summon the pool boy for drinks.

We were pleased to see them and pleased that they tolerated the approach of  our macro- lens.

Were there Falcate Orangetips in Brooklyn, New York, before the small farms sold out to the straw men and the developers who followed them?

Jeff

Related articles

• Grassland butterflies in rapid decline in Europe (guardian.co.uk)
• European Butterfly Populations Down Nearly 50 Percent in Past Two Decades (natureworldnews.com)