Below is my total list of butterfly species recorded in Delaware County last year. I came up one shy of 70 species. I must admit there is one species on this list that there was some discussion about its ID and that was the Brown Elfin. I found this butterfly near Emmon Pond Bog and got some poor pictures of it. After eliminating other species and really looking at the pictures for quite some time I am very confident my ID is correct. The butterfly was very worn which would make sense as the date the elfin was found would be a late date for it (June 5th). Below is a picture of this individual.
As you can see it is a very nondescript small brown butterfly. It is clearly an elfin based on its coloration and size (very small). The only other common elfin in this area would be Eastern Pine Elfin, but this butterfly doesn’t have any of the field marks that you would expect, even in a very worn Eastern Pine Elfin. There are other very rare possibilities such as Frosted or Henry’s Elfin, but both of those species should show some amount of gray in the wings. Also, I’m not sure based on range maps that either would be found in our area. Even though it is worn you can still make out the row of spots on the trailing edge of the forewing and the reddish cast on the hindwing, both good field marks for Brown Elfin. So, while far from a nice freshly hatched individual, I am confident enough to count this as my life Brown Elfin.
- Black Swallowtail
- Spicebush Swallowtail
- Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
- Canadian Tiger Swallowtail
- Giant Swallowtail
- Cabbage White
- West Virginia White
- Orange Sulphur
- Clouded Sulphur
- American Copper
- Bronze Copper
- White M Hairstreak
- Coral Hairstreak
- Banded Hairstreak
- Acadian Hairstreak
- Eastern Pine Elfin
- Brown Elfin
- Early Hairstreak
- Eastern Tailed-blue
- Spring Azure
- Summer Azure
- Silvery Blue
- Variegated Fritillary
- Great Spangled Fritillary
- Aphrodite Fritillary
- Atlantis Fritillary
- Meadow Fritillary
- Silver-bordered Fritillary
- Harris’ Checkerspot
- Baltimore Checkerspot
- Pearl Crescent
- Northern Crescent
- Question Mark
- Eastern Comma
- Gray Comma
- Mourning Cloak
- Milbert’s Tortoiseshell
- Compton Tortoiseshell
- American Lady
- Red Admiral
- Red-spotted Admiral (Red-spotted Purple and White Admiral)
- Viceroy
- Eyed Brown
- Northern Pearly-eye
- Common Wood-Nymph
- Little Wood-Satyr
- Common Ringlet
- Monarch
- Silver-spotted Skipper
- Dreamy Duskywing
- Juvenal’s Duskywing
- Horace’s Duskywing
- Wild Indigo Duskywing
- Least Skipper
- European Skipper
- Fiery Skipper
- Leonard’s Skipper
- Long Dash
- Peck’s Skipper
- Tawny-edged Skipper
- Northern Broken-Dash
- Little Glassywing
- Dun Skipper
- Delaware Skipper
- Hobomok Skipper
- Mulberry Wing
- Broad-winged Skipper
- Dion Skipper
- Black Dash
Sullivan & Delaware County Birder's Blog 