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Charleston Butterfly Blitz 2019

Charleston Butterfly Blitz 2019 took place July 27-August 4, 2019 in Coles County, IL. Over 60 people contributed almost 1600 butterfly observations from Coles County to iNaturalist, representing an amazing 44 different species! 

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Thanks to all these citizen scientists, we now have a good idea of what species are in our area this year at this time. I can’t wait to compare these data with what we find during Blitzes in future years!

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Monarchs came in as the most submitted butterfly, followed by silver-spotted skipper, eastern tiger swallowtail, and common buckeye. It’s encouraging to see the monarchs having a good year.

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Cool and surprising sightings included three unusual sulphurs: sleepy orange (6 submissions), dainty sulphur (2 submissions), and southern dogface (1 submission). Finding all 3 species during the Blitz is pretty amazing! Also, Jake Pschirrer found a very late in the season banded hairstreak – another surprise.

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Prizes for most submissions and species went to: Kathryn Bulver, Tom Canam, Marge Phelps, and Amy Lynch.

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To look at the Blitz results on iNaturalist, click "2019 Blitz Results." For a map showing the location of UBI hotspots, click the "UBI Hotspots" button. And to sign up for a FREE iNaturalist account, click on the "iNaturalist" button.

Charleston Bfly Blitz 2019 poster.jpg

This image shows photos of all of the species found this year, in order of their submission numbers, the most common being in the upper left and least common in the lower right.

Charleston Butterfly Blitz Flyer 2019
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