Is it really a WVW?

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Samantha Davis|

Not all of the white butterflies in the woods in the springtime are west virginia whites. In my studies this year, I found 2 separate sites where cabbage white butterflies seem to be invading forests across Ohio. Keep your eyes peeled!

Posted in Uncategorized

Edge of Appalachia 2012: The Return of Sam

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Samantha Davis|

So I headed back down to EoA (near Shawnee State Park) on April 12 to see if we could snag some butterflies and confirm their presence for this year.  I’m going to let you down gently, but right away: We didn’t see a single West Virginia White.  However, I got to spend the day with the naturalist, John Howard, and he had some pretty neat finds.

Olive Hairstreak, taken by John Howard

First up: The Olive Hairstreak, or Callophrys gryneus.  This gorgeous hairstreak butterfly occupies the unique niche of using cedar and juniper (conifers) as its larval host plant.  The eggs are laid on the tips of leaves and older caterpillars actually mimic the leaves of the conifer.

Gemmed Satyr, taken by John Howard

Red-banded Hairstreak, taken by John Howard

 

Posted in Uncategorized

Confirmed sightings at Wooster Memorial Park, Holden Arboretum!

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Samantha Davis|

West Virginia White at Wooster Memorial Park

Just a quick note to say hi and say that I’m out butterfly hunting! Well, watching, in this case. I did a 2 day round trip to both the Cleveland sites (Holden Arboretum) and Wooster sites (Wooster Memorial Park) on Weds/Thurs of this week.

The stairs up out of the ravine at Holden Arboretum, Cleveland, OH.

I drove up to Holden and worked from about 12-6. I had initially gone in, intending to find garlic mustard to work with. Unfortunately (for me, not Holden!), I couldn’t find ANY. So I left the park for about an hour to grab something to eat and picked up some garlic mustard from the roadside to bring back (temporarily) to Holden. I’ll remove those garlic mustard plants before they set seed and ruin the park, no worries!

I didn’t catch any pictures of the butterflies in Holden, although I did take a picture of the staircase leading back up to the Arboretum. Because this butterfly is a riparian / closed forest canopy butterfly, they tend to fly around creek beds, which in Ohio, seems to be at the bottom of very large, semi steep ravines.

Buddy, the field dog, packs some water and my shovel for me!

I brought my field partner, Buddy, out with me, on this day too. He’s a bloodhound mix and he loves both riding in the car and doing field work with me. He was actually a huge help in Holden, when I temporarily misplaced my shovel, as he offered to dig the holes for me.  If anything, he did a better job than I did!

He does not, however, love stairs. We had a bit of an issue when the hotel I was staying at booked us on the third floor. He found his courage, however, and was going up and down the stairs like a pro by morning.

The next morning, I stopped by Petsmart and grabbed him a backpack, which you can see there in the picture on the right.  It’s hard for me to bring 4-5 water bottles in my own bag, because I need water not just for him and I, but also, my transplanted plants.

Me, on a cool day, in Wooster Memorial Park

Then we were on our way to Wooster, OH.  It was a much colder day on the 5th, and although I did see some butterflies, they were few and far between, and spending most of their time resting and sunning, trying to get their wings warmed up enough to do some useful things, like nectar robbing native wildflowers and laying some eggs.  Regardless, I got close to 200 data points between the two sites, examining behavior of the butterflies.

I put 2 pots of garlic mustard in the ground at Wooster, but there was actually some garlic mustard scattered about in the habitat.  As an active removal site (they pull garlic mustard like its their jobs!), I was surprised that I found as much as I did.  Hopefully the plants present can affirm or deny once and for all the question of which plants the butterfly likes best.

Posted in Cleveland field sites, Wooster Memorial Park

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Morrow County – Plant tagging!

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Samantha Davis|

There's an egg - can you find it?


The day started off rainy, but recovered nicely.  Myself and my new field assistant, Liz, headed out this Friday to tag plants and look for some butterflies and eggs.  Similar to last year, we’re interested in asking the question: Where do the butterflies lay eggs and why?  How many eggs do they lay?

We hit the jackpot on this field trip.  We pulled about 5 ticks off between the two of us (thankfully, not attached!) and also saw 8 butterflies in flight, and found 1 egg on a plant.

Posted in Morrow Co Field Site, Uncategorized

First Sighting in Morrow County!

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Samantha Davis|

Hi, all!

So on March 26, I saw my first WVW flying in the field in Morrow County, OH; the primary field site I used last year.

I had first gone to Wooster Memorial Park to take a walk with some excellent people, Cathy Herms and Roger Downer, to talk about their population of the WVW butterfly and how I could do sustainable research there to improve the outlook for this rare butterfly.  When I was visiting them, it was much too cold for us to actually see any butterflies out – starting temperature at 11am was roughly 42 degrees Fahrenheit and it didn’t get much warmer by 12:30 when I left (maybe 46 or 48 ish).  The drive was wonderfully easy, and WMP was well worth a visit.

After leaving there, I debated stopping at the Morrow County site, which is northeast of Delaware, OH, but thankfully decided to go ahead and do it.  I entered the field site at close to 2pm and did a walk around – surveying the plants, mostly, for flowering status, and also keeping my eyes peeled for butterflies.

3 great friends and me: top 2 are Denise and Jananie; bottom two are me and Joanna.

I lucked out and got to see one WVW flying as I was walking around.  I was so excited, because the last year had been so dismal for the butterfly, and I was secretly worried that a local extinction had occurred.  I am happy to report that this is most definitely NOT the case.

The Morrow County field site has good quality habitat intermixed with scruffy, disturbed habitat.  The site is really beautiful, and the creek holds some gorgeous sites.  When we were removing my footprint last year, we did stop to take some pictures.

Posted in Morrow Co Field Site

Edge of Appalachia Reserve

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Samantha Davis|

Hi all -

The first sighting of WVWs flying occurred in Lake Farmparks Metropark this year on March 20th.  I made my first visit to the field on March 21, to a reserve that is just east of Shawnee State Forest and Park, east of Cincinnati.  I met with some really cool people who manage the reserve, who showed us around to potential sites for the West Virginia White butterfly.  We had some great hiking and were able to successfully find places where host plants were.

Nearby the Edge of Appalachia, Portsmouth, OH overlooks some beautiful scenery!

We didn’t find any West Virginia Whites (although we did see 2 largish white butterflies in the forest, we couldn’t catch to confirm), but we did see a lot of other things – including swallowtails, cabbage whites, and my new favorite butterfly, the falcate orange tip - which is another Pierid species that is slightly smaller than the West Virginia White.  This butterfly has wings which are two separate, distinct patterns on the underside vs. on top.  On top, it has beautiful orange tips (hence the name), and on the underwings, there are speckled black/white patterns which may be used for camouflage.

Posted in Edge of Appalachia, Shawnee State Park

2011: How environmental conditions and changing landscapes affect Pieris virginiensis

Posted on March 17, 2012 by Samantha Davis|

In 2011, I presented the results of our first field study at the Ecological Society of America meeting.  I’ve included the abstract here so you can see what I accomplished in 2011.  Hopefully, 2012 will bring many more results!

-Sam

Background/Question/Methods

Rare organisms are often strongly affected by chance, disease, invasive species, and other factors. Pieris virginiensis (Pieridae), a rare woodland butterfly, flies only in April and May, in often unsuitable weather, and uses the native mustards Cardamine diphylla, C. concatenata, and Arabis laevigata as its primary larval hosts. P. virginiensis may be adversely affected by the introduction of an invasive mustard, Alliaria petiolata, and other biotic and abiotic stressors. A. petiolata, which has feeding deterrents known to affect larvae of other Pieris species, has been observed as an oviposition site for P. virginiensis in some locations. We reexamined a population of P. virginiensis in Ohio that uses A. laevigata as its primary host. This population was last studied in the 1988 prior to the introduction of A. petiolata to the area. We sought to test the hypothesis that the introduction of A. petiolata has changed the oviposition behavior of P. virginiensis. On April 28, 2011, we marked 64 flowering stems of A. laevigata and 54 flowering stems of A. petiolata in the exact location where the previous study was performed and examined them weekly for eggs, larvae, herbivore damage, and other observations.

Results/Conclusions

We observed 5 P. virginiensis individuals at the research site on 4/21/2011, but none had begun oviposition. Returning weekly until 5/12/2011, we recovered no P. virginiensis eggs or caterpillars, observed no Pieris-specific damage on monitored plants, and we failed to observe any butterflies. To examine alternative stressors on the butterfly or host populations, we recorded general damage, deer browsing, and the presence of possible larval predators. Across all plants, 21.2% had evidence of minor leaf or stem damage, and 10.2 % of plants demonstrated significant deer browsing. Ants and spiders were observed on 7.6% and 13.6% of the plants, respectively. Although the invasive A. petiolata is well established at this site, we believe that the primary cause of butterfly mortality for 2011 was weather, with nearby Columbus, Ohio reaching a new record of 18.1 cm precipitation from April 1-28. From 4/1-5/12, only 33% of the days were marginally acceptable for adult flight (wind < 6.7 m/s, temp. > 10 o C). We conclude that despite pressures due to invasion, predation, and deer browsing, poor flying conditions were the primary stressor in 2011 and apparently prevented any successful reproduction of this butterfly in this area.

Posted in Publications and Presentations

Back in Action!

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Samantha Davis|

Wow, what a warm spring, huh?

I’m excited for the springtime field season to be on us again!  I’ve waited a long time to be able to head out and find some West Virginia Whites. Botany in Action funded me again this year, so I think that I’ll get some good work done.

We have an undergraduate student coming to work with us this quarter, I’m assuming that she, plus 2 others, will be accompanying me out to the field when the time comes.  I’ll probably head out the first week of April to check and see if any butterflies are out – its been so warm this year.  I’m afraid that if I wait until mid-April, I’ll miss them all!

Stay tuned for updates!

Posted in Uncategorized

Quick notes from the Phipps Conservatory

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Samantha Davis|

Hey guys –

So I’m a “Botany in Action” fellow, as I think I’ve mentioned before. So, we’re about to give our presentations this evening. I’m REALLY excited to share my science with everyone here at Phipps, including the awesome new friends that I’ve made this weekend.

I don’t have any pictures to share, but I wanted to let you know that I’ve got some great caterpillars going right now (Cabbage Whites) and we’re really excited. So if you’re here, now, and checking out my blog from your smart phone, stop my booth later – I’ve got two LIVE caterpillars, 3 LIVE pupae, and a couple of dead butterflies.

Thanks!!!!

-Sam

Posted in Cabbage whites, Publications and Presentations

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CITO and environmental impacts of geocaching

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Samantha Davis|

Geocaching in Fairborn, OH

So, if you know me (personally), you probably know that one of my favorite activities is geocaching, or basically, a giant GPS scavenger hunt.  You get coördinates to a site, and then you find a container with a log book, and sometimes, toys (as you can see to the right).

Geocaching is a great activity for everyone – it gets you out, hopefully into nature, although there are plenty of urban caches.

But, when hundreds of people essentially pave a trail (nicknamed a “geotrail” by fellow cachers)… It leaves me to wonder; what plants were there before we were?  Did we interrupt some ant pathways or drive the deer away?  Is human interference in a wooded setting good?

There is a “Cache in, Trash out” movement, known as CITO for short, which aims to combat environmental impacts by encouraging geocachers to clean the area as they search for their prize.  Pick up litter and what not.  This is a GREAT idea.  But given the state of some caches I’ve found, I can safely say that this does not always occur.

Some parks or natural areas prevent geocache placement, as a way to prevent “geotrails” and other caching related incidents.  What do you think?  Does your organization have a geocaching policy?

Posted in Hobbies and Fun