Massachusetts Butterfly Club

                        * * * * 30 Years!!!! * * * *
The Massachusetts Butterfly Club is celebrating our 30th year! To see a brief history of the club and how it began, click here.

                   ***   2023 Fall Meeting   ***
      Saturday, October 14th, 3:30 P.M. - 7:00 P.M.
The 2023 Fall meeting of the Massachusetts Butterfly Club will be held on Saturday, October 14th at Mass Audubon's Broad Meadow Brook in Worcester. You can attend either live or by Zoom.
To register for the Zoom meeting (4:00 P.M. to 5:30 P.M.), visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3o-hHquOQleL7DMU5j39DA. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Schedule:
3:30 P.M. - Doors open
4:00 P.M. - Welcome and Guest Speaker
5:30 P.M. - Pot Luck Dinner (bring a dish to share)
6:15 P.M. - Member photos (to share your photos, please contact Dave Small at dave@atholbirdclub.org, 15 photos max, powerpoint or send a link to Dave and he can put it together for you. If in doubt on how to do any of this please contact Dave.)

   Our guest speaker will be Herb Wilson, co-author of the new book Butterflies of Maine and the Canadian Maritime Provinces. He is a Professor Emeritus of Biology at Colby College where he taught Ornithology, Evolution and Diversity, Marine Ecology and Invertebrate Zoology for 30 years. His primary ornithological interests are the impacts of global climate change on bird migration and the foraging behavior of winter birds in Maine. He is also keenly interested in the butterflies and odonates of Maine.
   His talk will center around the findings presented in the Butterflies of Maine and the Canadian Maritime Provinces, published this fall by the Cornell University Press. This publication is based on a citizen-science project (the Maine Butterfly Survey) with field work conducted between 2003 and 2019. A number of MBC members contributed to the project.
   We'll begin with a brief history of butterfly study in Maine and review our diversity. Then, we'll explore the changes in distribution of many species, including a new North American record and other state records as well as the extirpation of some species. We'll look at the importance of habitat in determining the presence of different butterfly species and conclude with an exploration of the effects of climate change on butterfly distribution.

Butterflies of Maine and the Canadian Maritime Provinces introduces readers to over one hundred and twenty butterfly species documented in the Acadian region. Including contributions from researchers and community scientists, this volume is indispensable for anyone interested in the study and conservation of these ecologically important insects.

This user-friendly guide features:

• The first annotated checklist of the species and subspecies of Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island
• Species accounts covering habitat, behavior, threats, and more
• Color photographs, flight histograms, and distribution maps

              * * * Rare butterfly seen after restoration * * *
MassWildlife staff recently discovered a frosted elfin caterpillar at Montague Plains Wildlife Management Area after 2 decades of habitat restoration at the site. This exciting find is evidence that these efforts are paying off. See this link https://www.mass.gov/news/rare-caterpillar-found-after-decades-of-habitat-restoration for more information.

On December 3 we hosted Robert Gallardo speaking on Butterflies of Honduras. Robert is building a nature reserve and working on a complete guide to Honduran butterflies, and has made several discoveries of new species in the process. A link to the recording of this talk is here: https://youtu.be/jZHgYwnwuCc.

If you wish to receive news about the soon to be published Guide to the Butterflies of Honduras, sign up at this link: https://faunaventures.com.

MBC member Andrew Griffith writes a post on butterflies for the Wareham Week Today website. If you’d like to see his posts, you can click on wareham.theweektoday.com. On that webpage you can see a list of recent posts on the right side of the page.

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.

If you care about our butterflies and the club's efforts to support them, please consider making a donation to our club.
Click on this link to see how you can donate.

                  *****  Butterflying Code of Ethics  *****
The Massachusetts Butterfly Club has adopted a Butterflying Code of Ethics. You can find the document under Club Information on the left menu.

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!

If you have questions about MassLep or its operations, send an email to moderator Mark Faherty, msfaherty@yahoo.com. MassLep is independently operated in coordination with the Massachusetts Butterfly Club.

    *****  Report your sightings to our Records Compiler   *****

If you do not report your sightings on MassLep or Facebook and would like to report your sightings to our records compiler directly, you can download the spreadsheet below and email to Mark Fairbrother at mark@massbutterflies.org.

            Sightings Report spreadsheet

Note: Please DO NOT use this form if you report your sightings on MassLep or Facebook.

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