A Nice Surprise
(click on photo to enlarge)
Saturday morning, 11/3, I got an early start for my second SEABA (Southeast Arizona Butterfly Association) field trip. This trip was to explore areas of Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus sp.) which is an abundant fall-blooming shrub extremely attractive to butterflies. It tends to grow in washes where moisture is more abundant. When I got to the designated location, the trip leader announced that there was very little blooming there and suggested we drive back to the Patagonia area (Santa Cruz County) where Rabbitbrush was recently reported as being abundant. When I arrived at the little butterfly garden at the city park in Patagonia, the group was not there. I entertained myself by photographing some of the hundreds butterflies that were taking advantage of the many blooming nectar plants in the small but excellent garden. To make a long story short, I never did meet the group which had arrived much earlier and had proceeded up Harshaw Canyon Rd. where all the Rabbitbrush was to be found (I didn’t know the location at the time). It turned out that I had driven the wrong route to Pagagonia and got there much later than the group! It wasn’t until a day later that I remembered that small metalmark which I had photographed in the garden. I didn’t recognize it at the time and wrongly assumed it was a worn Palmer’s Metalmark. When I checked my books, it seemed to match another — the Hepburn’s Metalmark. I then had some local experts look at my photo and they concurred that I had photographed the fifth state record of this butterfly in Arizona. Suddenly I didn’t feel like Saturday was a waste of time at all.
Hepburn’s Metalmark (Apodemia hepburni)
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