The Butterflies of Iowa

Introduction to the Range Maps and Flight Diagrams

Introduction to the Range Maps and Flight Diagrams he distribution maps indicate in which of Iowa’s ninety-nine counties specimens have been collected. Each county dot is shaded based on the year of most recent collection: black dots represent collections made from 1980 to 2005; double open circles represent collections made from 1960 through 1979; single open circles represent collections made before 1960. The flight time for each species is shown by marking the date of collection for each verified specimen on a yearly calendar. You can use this information in a variety of ways. The accumulated records indicate when to look for adults—the probable flight times for butterflies to be on the wing. An absence of records for specific periods may indicate the lack of records or of actual specimens or of both. It might also indicate things such as a low adult density between broods during a season. We expect that each collector will add data to the flight times and to the county records for a given Iowa butterfly. You might also use adult flight periods to determine when eggs and larvae might be expected to occur on the host plants. For those species that overwinter as eggs or young larvae, you might search for the immatures some days or weeks ahead of the time when adults of that generation begin to fly. The range maps and flight diagrams are based on all Iowa butterfly specimens or photographs verified by the authors, amounting to more than 14,000 individual records. These are based on collections made by John Fleckenstein, Brian Scholtens, Ron Harms, Diane Debinski, Jessica Skibbe, Tim Orwig, Mike Christenson, David Cuthrell, Jerry Selby, John Downey, Jim Durban, Frank Olsen, Ed Freese, Michael Hafner, Judy Pooler, Jeff Nekola, Robert Howe, Steve Milne, John Nehnevaj, M. J. Hatfield, Mark Leoschke, Ray Hamilton, Dennis Schlicht, Scott Mahady, Bob Cecil, Brian Blevins, and others, who all contributed to the Iowa Lepidoptera Project of Center Point, Iowa. We have not included records based solely upon sight observations (such as those available from the 4th of July Butterfly Counts), because these reports cannot be independently verified. Our experience with such information suggests that it can often be unreliable for groups like skippers and hairstreaks that are difficult to observe and identify due to their small size, rapid flight, and subtle markings. Furthermore, due to habitat destruction, populations at the sites of older records may no longer exist. T ...