Hello Green Mountain birders,
Sorry to talk about butterflies on a bird list serve, but I am hoping you can help us as many of you have probably seen Vermont's newest butterfly species recently and we'd love your records. With the end of the Vermont Butterfly Survey we are lucky to have virtually an army of butterfly crazed folks around the state now. Just in time for an invasion of a southern species. We have been able to document in unprecedented detail, at least for these parts, the invasion of the Giant Swallowtail into Vermont. We have the very first two records in the fall of 2010, a massive invasion in the summer and fall of 2011 and many reports of mating, egg laying and larvae. Then, a mild winter of 2011-12 allowed them to overwinter in chrysalis, at least in the western half of the state. In the spring there were huge numbers in some areas. They mated and laid eggs. Now their young are flying and dispersing all over the state. We'll have to wait and see if they can once again make it through a Vermont winter, but for now, this butterfly is a resident. With an unprecedented number of butterfly watchers now in the state, we really have documented this amazingly well so far, but like all good biologists, we're always data hungry!

Here's were we'd love more help from you. If you have a sight record of this large swallowtail, please give me the date and exact location. If you have seen mating or egg laying, we'd love the details. If you have any photo documentation, please consider enter your photo on the Butterflies and Moths of North American database at http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/. Many of us put a lot of our butterfly photo records on that site now that the atlas is over. In fact, all of the Vermont Butterfly Survey data are on that site, http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/project/VBS ! Check out the map for Giant Swallowtail and see some great photos on the site at http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Papilio-cresphontes

If butterflies are getting your attention more and more, consider some of these Vermont resources too:

VTLEPS email list group: http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=VTLEPS
VT Butterfly Survey report pdf: http://www.vtecostudies.org/VBS/news.html

Thanks so much for your time, interest and help!

Kent McFarland
Vermont Center for Ecostudies