Tag: Baltimore Checkerspot

A FLOOD OF MONARCH SIGHTINGS, SOME SHARING THE BEST THEY’VE SEEN IN YEARS!!!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns
GMG Reader Leigh writes,
I just took this pict today (Tuesday July 17) and then saw your post tonight about sharing monarch picts. Spotted this one in my backyard in Rockport— on a zinnia, but near the swamp milkweed.
I enjoy your blog!
 Pamela shares a recent sighting of a Baltimore Checkerspot at Appleton Farm.

Sharon M saw one at Wingaersheek, Catherine M at Niles Pond, M.J. in her Gloucester garden and one in Lanesville, Aurelia Nelson is seeing tons at her milkweed patch in Beverly, Beverly M saw one at Riverdale, Whitney C in East Gloucester, Peggy A at Old Garden Beach Rockport, Lisa W at Magnolia Avenue, Ellen A Beverly, Betty L Pasture Road Rockport, Nancy L at her milkweed field in Salem, and Patti Papows adds that hers are coming daily to her milkweed patch not by the ones and twos, but by the threes and fours! 

Today at my presentation in Beverly Farms, the North Shore Garden Club ladies report seeing tons in their gardens, and today I saw them in my garden, and while checking on the Piping Plovers, they were in the dunes at Good Harbor and on the beach at Revere. If this warm weather continues, 2108 could prove to be a promising year for the Monarchs. Please keep your Monarch (and other butterflies, too) sightings coming. Thank you! And feel free to email us photos of sightings: kimsmithdesigns@hotmail.com

Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

This striking Baltimore Checkerspot was photographed last week in a field of Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). The field is located in Ipswich’s town center.

Notice the Baltimore Checkerspot’s vivid orange antennal clubs and white and orange dotted abdomen. The caterpillar’s food plant, or host plant, is mainly turtlehead (Chelone glabra) in low lands and gerardias upland, e.g., Smooth False Foxglove (Aureolaria flava).

Baltimore Checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton) Ventral

I find absolutely the most interesting creatures in fields where grows Common Milkweed, which tells us that the plant provides a wealth of nourishment for a diverse range of organisms.

Note: The underside of butterfly wings are referred to as ventral; the upper surface as dorsal. An easy way to remember the difference between the terms dorsal and ventral is to think of the dorsal fin of a dolphin.