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The Rochester Butterfly Club is an independent club formed to promote the study of butterflies in Western New York. We focus on habitat, environment, life cycles, education, and reporting our findings.
Monarch by Carol Southby
Monarch caterpillar by David Southby
The Rochester Butterfly Club is an independent club formed to promote the study of butterflies in Western New York. We focus on butterfly watching, habitat, environment, life cycles, education, and reporting our findings.
Field Trips
One of the best ways to learn about butterflies and where to find them is to go on a field trip with experienced leaders who will share their knowledge with you. Each year the Rochester Butterfly Club organizes at least 15 guided field trips to prime butterfly spots in the local area, including some members’ gardens. These trips take place on both weekdays and weekends. The trips are listed in our annual schedule sent out to members in the spring. We are always pleased to welcome non-members on our trips. You need only to show up at our butterfly walks as announced in the printed schedule. If you have them, bring a pair of binoculars and a butterfly identification book. (If you don’t have a book of your own, try your local library.)
Newsletter
Members receive our newsletter “Butterly News,” which is published 3 times a year. It includes a variety of articles and topical information about our local butterflies.
If you would like to become a member of the Rochester Butterfly Club, an application can be found here.
Club Officers:
President: Carol Southby Vice President / Secretary: Shirley Shaw Treasurer: Lucretia Grosshans Statistics: Bill McCleary Editor: David Southby For information about the Rochester Butterfly Club, contact Lucretia Crosshans.
ROCHESTER BUTTERFLY
CLUB
FIELD TRIPS and
ACTIVITIES
www.rochesterbutterflyclub.org
Our field trips are free and will take place rain or shine, but not during thunder storms. On cloudy or showery days, we will have a general nature walk, and look for caterpillars, hiding butterflies and plants that butterflies use. With luck the sun will come out and with it, the butterflies.
Our morning field trips last about 2 hours. Some trips have an option to continue into the afternoon, and others are all day trips, returning some time after 4p.m. Bring a cold drink and for the longer trips, your lunch and folding chair.
***** Long pants and appropriate footgear are strongly recommended, as there is often poison ivy *****
We have provided contact numbers (all area code 585) in case you would like more information about a field trip. For most of our field trips, just come along to the meeting place listed. Also for most of our field trips, an alternate meeting place may usually be arranged, if needed, via one of the contact numbers. A few field trips do require pre-registration, as noted.
Please bring close focusing binoculars, a field guide and your camera, but leave your butterfly nets at home, because they can injure wings, legs and antennae.
Non-members, beginners and children accompanied by an adult are welcome at all of our activities.
During recent years there have been deer ticks in the area and cases of Lyme disease contracted here. Because of this, we recommend you wear long pants tucked into socks, and use insect repellent.
2019 Field trips can be downloaded here.
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**** Please remember to send all your butterfly sightings ****
Whenever you go out butterflying or are just sitting on your back porch, keep a list of the butterflies you see and how many of each. Be sure to record the location and date of each sighting and the observers. If the town and county of the sightings are not well known, record those also. Finally, if you see any other interesting things such as caterpillars (if you can identify them) or a female butterfly laying eggs, see if you can also identify the plant and send this information along as well.
You can send your records to Bill either as you make them or at the end of the season. Send them on our standard checklist record sheets or in any other form that you prefer.
Lots of information about the Monarch Butterfly
North American Butterfly Association
Greg Lasley Nature Photography
North American Insects and Spiders
Robert Michael Pyle's account of his butterfly big year in Orion Magazine.
Help preserve the Auburn Trail. Information can be found here.
If you would like to download this list for printing, you can find it here.
If you would like to download this list for printing, you can find it here.
If you would like to download this list for printing, you can find it here.
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Butterfly host plants:
| Butterfly Species | Caterpillar Plants | |||
| Trees and Shrubs | ||||
| Tiger Swallowtail | American hornbeam | ash | tulip tree | wild cherry |
| Spicebush Swallowtail | sassafras | spicebush | ||
| Harvester | woolly aphids on alder | |||
| Coral Hairstreak | black cherry | choke cherry | ||
| Acadian Hairstreak | small willows | |||
| Banded Hairstreak | oaks | |||
| Hickory Hairstreak | hickory | |||
| Striped Hairstreak | American hornbeam | black chokeberry | hawthorn | |
| Spring Azure | flowering dogwood | maple-leaf viburnum | New Jersey tea | shrubby dogwoods |
| Question Mark | elm | (and herbaceous) | ||
| Eastern Comma | elm | (and herbaceous) | ||
| Compton Tortoiseshell | birch | |||
| Mourning Cloak | elm | poplar | willow | |
| White Admiral | American hornbeam | black cherry | cottonwood | oak |
| Red-spotted Purple | American hornbeam | black cherry | cottonwood | oak |
| Viceroy | small poplars | small willows | ||
| Hackberry Emperor | hackberry | |||
| Tawny Emperor | hackberry | |||
| Silver-spotted Skipper | black locust | |||
| Dreamy Duskywing | birch | poplar | ||
| Juvenal's Duskywing | oaks | |||
| Butterfly Species | Caterpillar Plants | |||
| Herbaceous | ||||
| Black Swallowtail | dill | fennel | parsley | Queen Anne's Lace |
| West Virginia White | toothwort | |||
| Cabbage White | cabbage family | |||
| Clouded Sulphur | clovers | |||
| Orange Sulphur | alfalfa | |||
| American Copper | sheep sorrel | |||
| Bronze Copper | swamp dock | |||
| Eastern-tailed Blue | pea family | |||
| Great Spangled Fritillary | violets | |||
| Aphrodite Fritillary | violets | |||
| Atlantis Fritillary | violets | |||
| Silver-bordered Fritillary | violets | |||
| Meadow Fritillary | violets | |||
| Butterfly Species | Caterpillar Plants | |||
| Herbaceous | ||||
| Harris' Checkerspot | flat topped aster | |||
| Pearl Crescent | asters | |||
| Baltimore Checkerspot | English plantain | white turtlehead | ||
| Question Mark | hops | nettle species | ||
| Eastern Comma | nettle species | |||
| Milbert's Tortoiseshell | nettle species | |||
| American Lady | pearly everlasting | sweet everlasting | ||
| Painted Lady | bull thistle | nodding thistle | ||
| Red Admiral | nettle species | |||
| Monarch | common milkweed | swamp milkweed | butterflyweed | |
| Hoary-edge Skipper | tick trefoils (Desmodium) | |||
| Southern Cloudywing | tick trefoils (Desmodium) | |||
| Northern Cloudywing | bush clovers (Lespedeza) | tick trefoils (Desmodium) | ||
| Wild Indigo Duskywing | wild indigo (Baptisia) | |||
| Common Checkered Skipper | mallow family | |||
| Butterfly Species | Caterpillar Plants | |||
| Grasses and Sedges | ||||
| Northern Pearly Eye | grasses | |||
| Eyed Brown | sedges (Carex) | |||
| Appalachian Brown | sedges (Carex) | |||
| Little Wood Satyr | grasses | |||
| Common Ringlet | grasses | |||
| Common Wood Nymph | grasses | |||
| Arctic Skipper | grasses | |||
| Least Skipper | grasses | |||
| European Skipper | Timothy grass | |||
| Leonard's Skipper | grasses | |||
| Peck's Skipper | grasses | |||
| Tawny-edged Skipper | grasses | |||
| Crossline Skipper | grasses | |||
| Long Dash | grasses | |||
| Northern Broken Dash | grasses | |||
| Little Glassywing | grasses | |||
| Delaware Skipper | grasses | |||
| Hobomok Skipper | grasses | |||
| Dion Skipper | sedges (Carex) | |||
| Broad-winged Skipper | Phragmites | |||
| Dun Skipper | sedges (Carex) |