Seasonal White Migration

Folks sometimes think that monarch butterflies as the only butterflies that migrate. Though their migration distance is not nearly as dramatic as that of monarchs, great southern white butterflies (Ascia monuste) sometimes migrate from 20 to 40 miles in two…

Weeds of Wednesday: Where Have All the Bidens Gone?

Usually, common beggarticks (Bidens alba) is abundant -- along roadsides, mosquito control dikes, and in other disturbed places. Not so much this year, though. Perhaps, the lack of rainfall this year explains its relative absence. Common beggarticks are an annual…

Great Southern White

As a few of us lingered at the end of our walk at Coastal Oaks Preserve, a somewhat tattered great southern white butterfly (Ascia monuste) was sipping nectar from two nearby native plants, oakleaf fleabane (Erigeron quercifoliius) ... ... and…

Orange Julia

When the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory began its Volunteer Nature Stewardship Program for the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area (ORCA) in 1998, julia butterflies (Dryas iulia) did not range as far north as Indian River County. The first sighting at ORCA…