Blue butterfly bonanza in the Superior National Forest - Duluth News Tribune
Gary Leeper of Two Harbors and his grandaughter Ruby Leeper, 7, of Duluth, hunt and tally butterflies along a road side 20 miles north of Two Harbors. Leeper is a member of the Northern Crescents Chapter of the North American Butterfly Association and joined other members of the group for a butterfly count on Thursday. On a warm day last week, the Nabakov's blues — named after the famous Russian author and butterfly fan — seemed to be everywhere, darting amidst short spruce and tamarack trees before landing on tall grass or a little bilberry. The short cousin of the blueberry, dwarf bilberry is the only plant upon which the Nabokov's blue will lay its eggs. "You have to have dwarf bilberry to have blues, and this is a pretty good bilberry spot,'' said Dan Ryan, wildlife biologist for the Laurentian District of the Superior National Forest. After emerging in early summer, the adult Nabakov's blues — also called northern blues — live only a couple of weeks, enough time to mate and lay the next generation of eggs on bilberry leaves. Now in its 12th year, the count provides a snapshot of the number of species and their general population levels for these little-studied forest butterflies. But the clearing that was once the rail-side village of McNair holds far more butterfly species than just blues (a species of special concern in Minnesota. Source: www.duluthnewstribune.com
