The cold and wet early May and June most likely are the culprit behind
reductions in some of the pollinators this year. The diversity of bees in
my usual haunts is lower than last years, but there is still lots of bumbles
who are the best adapted to thrive in colder conditions. In a couple of
collecting trips, total butterfly diversity is down from the last couple of
years, but certain species numbers are higher. Swallowtails are down,
Fritillaries are up as are Lorquins admirals.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer, Teacher
Snohomish County

_____

From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of
murrayh at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 7:13 PM
To: Tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] butterlies, not birds


Hi! Here in the country, we usually see some Tiger Swallowtails--we
haven't seen ONE this year--we've had cabbages and little blues but not one
swallowtail! The number of bees here is down, too. (Is there some local
organization that keeps tabs on things like that?) I'm partial to the
swallowtail because it was the first butterfly I could identify -- :>) !