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Since 1995, I have recorded a total of 39 species at Leonora Curtin. Nine species are extremely common and can be seen every year. Most of these, such as the checkered whites, orange sulfurs, and checkered skippers. are common thorughout Santa Fe County. Five species have been recorded twice during these 12 years. Eight species have been recorded only once. When I started surveying butterflies at Leonora Curtin in 1995, there was no development at the site. The most exciting finds of the early years were two species, the phaon crescentspot and the painted crescentspot, abundant at the site, but never before recorded in Santa Fe County. A third species, the red-eyed wood nymph had only been recorded once before. Sadly, all these unusual species are no longer present at Leonora Curtin; the painted crescent and red-eyed wood nymph were last seen in 1997 and the phaon crescent in 2003. Other species, such as the orange bordered blues that flitted around on the hillsides from May to October, have not been seen since 2000. I regarded them as butterflies particularly characteristic of the site. This butterfly has largely disappeared from the other areas in Santa Fe County that I monitor as well.
Butterfly populations normally fluctuate from year to year. Some species, such as painted ladies and dainty sulfurs, die out every autumn in these latittudes; new ones fly up from Mexico every year. The weather further south is the major factor in how many of these species we see here. Weather conditions may limit or favor particular plants on which caterpillars feed or the flowers that the adults require for nectar. It may be a good year for yellow jackets and paper wasps that prey on caterpillars, thus reducing butterfly populations. Often, there is no obvious explanation for population fluctuations. I have seen as many as 26 species (1996) and as few as 14 in a drought year (1999). Numbers of individuals of any one species also vary widely. LCWP remains a good place to see butterflies in Santa Fe County because of its diversity of plants and habitats. I hope to continue monitoring butterfly populations here as every year has surprises.
Linda Wiener is a professional entomologist and long time member of the Santa Fe Botanical Garden. |
This year was a good one for butterfLies at Leonora Curtin. In mid-June beautiful juniper hairstreaks and tiger swallowtails fed on fleabane and I saw a rare giant yucca borer for the first time since 1995. In July and August, large wood nymphs and sandhill skippers, two species rarely seen in Santa Fe County, fed on the New Mexico checkermallows, Later in the season, black swallowtails, monarchs, and painted ladies congregated on the thistles. In all, I saw 25 butterfly species this year. Some, like the beautiful sara's orange tip and the tiny western pygmy blue, had never before been recorded at Leonora Curtin.
We can only speculate about the reasons for this. Drought can affect species already living in a marginal habitat. Development at the site has led to disturbance and the introduction of many invasive, non-native weed species, development in the surrounding areas could have eliminated nearby populations of these species that were necessary to maintain a critical number of individuals for mating and repopulating the site. 