— The property was always a joy, but it has been sold —

       — I will miss the search and discovering of butterflies —

Please enjoy these images of the varieties that were found on the property

A Butterfly Inventory of Our 15 Acre Property in Durham, NC

This is an attempt to photograph and identify as many butterflies as I can on our 15 acre property in Durham, NC.  My idea started out as something simple.  Take a pic, buy 2 or 3 field guides, post the pic with the name of the butterfly.  Simple, right.  Boy was I mistaken.  The amazing number of species and the minute differences of some varieties complicates everything.  I learned that male and females of the some varieties can look totally different.  Another complication is that there can be dark forms of a variety.  I never imagined how much work would be needed just to post pictures of butterflies with their names.

A bunch of sources and much research was needed for what I hope is accurate identification of the subjects in each of these pictures.  But no guarantees. Do not use this page as a field guide.  Most importantly, special thanks to the North American Butterfly Identification And Discussion Facebook page.  The people there were very helpful to pin down id’s that I was unsure of.

I have a bunch of butterfly pictures that remain as unidentified for now.  But I have included just a few of these in their own unidentified section at the end just to illustrate the subtle differences some butterflies can have.  Please, if a knowledgeable person can identify, correct or add information in this blog post, please contact me.

Click on any of the pics to see a larger view.  Open wingspan size is indicated in inches.

They are divided into the groups as identified in the ‘Audubon Field Guide to North American Butterflies’

White Butterflies 

Falcate Orangetip 1-3/8 to 1-1/2″ (New addition April 2021)

Sulphur’s 

Sleepy Orange 1.4 - 2.2"

Cloudless Sulphur 2.5 - 3.1"

Folded-wing Skippers

Fiery Skipper 1.3 - 1.5"

Fiery Skipper female

Fiery Skipper

Least Skipperling 0.9 - 1.1"

Silver-spotted Skipper 2 - 2.7"

Silver-spotted Skipper

Zabulon Skipper 1.4 - 1.6"

Dun Skipper 1.1 - 1.4"

Spread-wing Skippers

Horace’s Duskywing 1.4 – 2″

Swallowtails

Spicebush Swallowtail male 3.7 - 5"

Spicebush Swallowtail

Spicebush Swallowtail

Red-spotted Purple Swallowtail

Red-spotted Purple Swallowtail

Tiger Swallowtail 3.7 - 6.6"

Tiger Swallowtail

Tiger Swallowtail

Pipevine Swallowtail male 2.9 - 5.3"

Black Swallowtail male 3.2 - 4.5"

Angled-wing Butterflies 

Question Mark 2-3/8 to 2-5/8″

Question Mark

Snout Butterfly 1-5/8 to1-7/8″

 

 

Hairstreaks and Elfins

Banded or Edwards Hairstreak 1 - 1.25"

Striped Hairstreak 1 - 1.375"

Red Banded Hairstreak 0.75 - 1"

Grey Hairstreak 1 - 1.25"

Olive Hairstreak 0.875 - 1"

Blue Butterflies 

   Summer Azure 1.2-1.3″

Eastern Tailed-Blue 3/4-1″

Copper Butterflies – None Found

Metalmarks – None Found

Checkered Butterflies – None Found

Fritillaries and Orange Patterned Butterflies

Monarch 3.4 - 5"

Monarch larva

Variegated Fritillary 1.8 - 3.2"

Variegated Fritillary

Pearly Crescentspot 1.2 - 1.6"

Pearly Crescentspot

Pearly Crescentspot 1.2 - 1.6"

Pearly Crescentspot

Boldly Patterned Butterflies

American Lady 2.1-2.7"

American Lady

Painted Lady 2.2-2.9"

Painted Lady

Red Admiral 1.75-2.25"

Eyespot Patterned Butterflies

Common Buckeye 1.6-2.7"

Common Buckeye 1.6-2.7"

Carolina Satyr 1.3-1.5"

Carolina Satyr 1.3-1.5"

Little Wood-Satyr 1.75-1.9"

Garden Moths

Unknown – waiting for positive identification

 

—  Thanks For The Look  —

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