Thursday, May 23, 2013

Dreamy Duskywing found at Newport Forest, Wardsville

Pat and Kee Dewdney found this Dreamy Duskywing at Newport May 18, puddling at the edge of  the Thames River. 




Initially, using the Kaufman butterfly guide I thought it was a  Sleepy Duskywing.  As I have since found, Sleepy and Dreamy Duskywings are notoriously hard to tell apart. 

Dreamy vs. Sleepy

Analysis based mainly on the following resource:
http://wisconsinbutterflies.org/butterfly/species/117-dreamy-duskywing
Distinguishing Feature
Source
Pat and Kee's Specimen
Dreamy(D) or Sleepy (S)
The Dreamy has a more defined silvery light patch at the on the leading edge of the forewing, that is usually more obvious than in the Sleepy.
wisconsinbutterflies.org
Silvery patch fairly obvious
D
This darker part of the bands is not as distinct in the Dreamy as it is in the Sleepy and usually the second, inner band is also more obvious in the Sleepy Duskywing.
wisconsinbutterflies.org
Second inner band obscure
D
Dreamy Duskywings host plants are mainly willows and poplar in Wisconsin, and as such are often found in moister habitats than the Sleepy Duskywing. But they can be found, especially when they are nectaring, in many of the same drier habitats where Sleepy Duskywings are found.
wisconsinbutterflies.org
Found in river habitat - few oaks present.
D
At present, Sleepy is known to occur in only three areas of southern Ontario: Lambton County (Pinery Provincial Park area), Norfolk County (St. Williams area), and the south shore of Lake Ontario (Hamilton to Grimsby).
Butterflies of Canada
Newport Forest is not near to any known occurrence for the species.
D


If this identification is correct, it is an incredible find.  According to Kee: "There are two "official" locality records listed in Layberry (Butterflies of Canada) for Middle-sex County (neither one all that close to Skunk's Misery), and no specimens listed for Elgin County."  Nice find Pat and Kee!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Chalk up another species for Newport. I have to get there one of these days.