Massachusetts Butterfly Club

The Massachusetts Butterfly Club sponsors state-wide butterfly activities to promote education, conservation, interpretation, and fun! We invite people of all ages and levels of expertise to attend our meetings, programs, field trips, and butterfly counts and to become members of our club.

The 2013 Field Trips list and July 4th Counts list are ready for download. Please click on "Field Trips" on the left.

The Spring 2013 issue of Massachusetts Butterflies is available. It was mailed on March 25th to all members. It includes the 2013 Field Trips list and 2013 July 4th Counts list. If you are a member and have not received it yet, please send email to barbara@massbutterflies.org.

NBC Nightly News broadcast - 9/11/2012
(Both clips are preceded by a 15 second commercial.)
This clip was broadcast September 11 on the NBC Nightly News.
It includes interviews with Greg Breed, Steve Moore and Tom Gagnon along with photos taken by Frank Model.
Southern butterflies shifting to warmer north
The following clip was not broadcast but is available on the NBC Nightly News website.
Butterfly enthusiasts "delighted" data being used

Butterfly populations shifting in Massachusetts
Nineteen years of MBC sighting data has been used to demonstrate increases in southern-based butterfly species and decreases in northern-based butterfly species.
Click the link "In The News" on the left side of this page for links to the press release and two newpaper articles about this subject.
Click here to read the original article by G. Breed, S. Stichter, and E. Crone, published August 20, 2012 in the biology journal Nature Climate Change.
Click here to access the supplementary data to the original article.

The Butterflies of Massachusetts by Sharon Stichter

Sharon Stichter's new website The Butterflies of Massachusetts, is available at www.butterfliesofmassachusetts.net!! This wonderful resource presents new information on the abundance and distribution of Massachusetts butterflies based directly on Massachusetts Butterfly Club sighting data. It also contains a wealth of historical background on each species, as well as conservation and management information!

Links to each species account on this new website will be available from our species photograph pages.

The Caterpillars of Massachusetts 2009 by Sam Jaffe

After a fantastic 2009 season spent seeking out and photographing many of our more spectacular caterpillars, Sam has combined his notes on Massachusetts' caterpillar life histories into a single document. Now, with the help of the Massachusetts Butterfly Club, these notes are available online, as a pdf, with accompanying thumbnail links to Sam's relevant photographs.

These notes should not be mistaken for an exhaustive resource, but the information provided regarding caterpillar location, hostplant, season, and behavior might be especially relevant to all Massachusetts butterfly and moth enthusiasts.

The update to the Checklist of Massachusetts Butterflies is here! See the description on the club publications page to view a sample page and learn how to order yours today!

Many thanks to Erik Nielsen for compiling the records and for creating the checklist and to Mark Fairbrother for maintaining our records!

We are delighted to announce the publication of The Massachusetts Butterfly Club GUIDE TO GOOD BUTTERFLY SITES From the Berkshires to the Cape and Islands, this GUIDE will lead you through twenty-six of the best butterfly-finding sites in the state. Written by well-known Massachusetts Butterfly Club field experts, this 142-page coil-bound book describes each site in detail, with original trail maps, sighting lists, directions, and hot tips! Order yours today!

Sign up to get e-mail from Massachusetts butterfly enthusiasts!

If you wish to receive periodic e-mail messages about butterflies in Massachusetts and to report your own butterfly sightings, consider joining the MassLep list server. Butterfly watchers from around the state send messages listing the butterflies they see, describing butterfly behavior, posing questions, and answering them. Joining the list server is a great way to find out what's flying and to get to know others who share your interests!

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You may read the pre-Sept 2005 archived MassLep e-mail messages here.

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