ArrayJuly 18, 2018 at 4:58 pm
By Regional Wildlife Biologist Scott McLellan
[caption id="attachment_3002" align="alignright" width="492"]
In the center of this photo is a frigga frittillary butterfly.[/caption]
The life of a regional wildlife biologist involves wearing many hats, and can require working with a diversity of species within a short period of time. One can respond to the call of a dead moose that requires investigation, evaluate a stand of timber with a forester in a sensitive habitat type, and conduct a woodcock breeding survey at dusk all during the same day.
Occasionally, we are sometimes tasked with a highly unusual job that that may not ever be asked of us again during our career. That recently occurred to me when I was asked to accompany a scientist to a large bog in the greater Moosehead Lake region so that he could collect a small number of butterflies for the purpose of better understanding their life cycle. This individual is known as a Lepidopterist, which is someone that specializes in the study of butterflies and moths, of which there are few that exist in the northeastern United States.
More specifically, his goal was to locate the Frigga Fritillary, a very unique butterfly that is only known to exist in one bog in Maine, to collect some females to develop and study the egg and caterpillar stages. The success of his goal was dependent upon intercepting the adult life stage of this butterfly, which has a very short time window for sampling in June.
The adults only live for a small number of days, in which they breed and lay their eggs, and then die shortly thereafter. My job was to safely navigate him into the remote bog habitat, help search for these butterflies, and exit the area safely.
We were successful, and also encountered several other butterfly species that exist in this unique habitat type, including Brown Elfins, Jutta Arctic, Bog Fritillary, Viceroy, Canadian Tiger Swallowtail, and Cherry Gall Azure. One of the accompanying photos displays the targeted species, Frigga Fritillary, while the other photo shows the plant that this butterfly is most closely associated with, the bog willow.
[caption id="attachment_3001" align="aligncenter" width="768"]
Frigga fritillary butterflies are closely associated with bog willow, pictured int his photo.[/caption]
In the center of this photo is a frigga frittillary butterfly.[/caption]
The life of a regional wildlife biologist involves wearing many hats, and can require working with a diversity of species within a short period of time. One can respond to the call of a dead moose that requires investigation, evaluate a stand of timber with a forester in a sensitive habitat type, and conduct a woodcock breeding survey at dusk all during the same day.
Occasionally, we are sometimes tasked with a highly unusual job that that may not ever be asked of us again during our career. That recently occurred to me when I was asked to accompany a scientist to a large bog in the greater Moosehead Lake region so that he could collect a small number of butterflies for the purpose of better understanding their life cycle. This individual is known as a Lepidopterist, which is someone that specializes in the study of butterflies and moths, of which there are few that exist in the northeastern United States.
More specifically, his goal was to locate the Frigga Fritillary, a very unique butterfly that is only known to exist in one bog in Maine, to collect some females to develop and study the egg and caterpillar stages. The success of his goal was dependent upon intercepting the adult life stage of this butterfly, which has a very short time window for sampling in June.
The adults only live for a small number of days, in which they breed and lay their eggs, and then die shortly thereafter. My job was to safely navigate him into the remote bog habitat, help search for these butterflies, and exit the area safely.
We were successful, and also encountered several other butterfly species that exist in this unique habitat type, including Brown Elfins, Jutta Arctic, Bog Fritillary, Viceroy, Canadian Tiger Swallowtail, and Cherry Gall Azure. One of the accompanying photos displays the targeted species, Frigga Fritillary, while the other photo shows the plant that this butterfly is most closely associated with, the bog willow.
[caption id="attachment_3001" align="aligncenter" width="768"] Frigga fritillary butterflies are closely associated with bog willow, pictured int his photo.[/caption]Categories