Species Count Triples At TX Butterfly Refuge; Species From Mexico, Central America Moving North
On New Year’s Day, there were a record-breaking 87 species of butterflies spotted at the center. That’s a 300% increase from the 20 to 25 species that normally flutter about this time of the year, National Butterfly Center Executive Director Marianna Treviño-Wright told Border Report.
“What we’re seeing in terms of the species diversity is we’re seeing more tropical butterflies,” Treviño-Wright said. “We’re seeing butterflies that are normally found in southern Mexico and Central America, which means human beings are not the only climate refugees. The butterflies are moving farther north.” In the last days of 2021, the center logged in a variety of butterfly species from the interior of Mexico and beyond. This included the first documented sighting in the United States of a Lugubrious blue skipper on Dec. 28, according to a center report.
Some butterflies recently spotted here hadn’t been seen north of the Rio Grande for nearly 30 years, like the Goodson’s greenstreak, which was last photographed in the United States in 1994. Also spotted were the spread-winged skipper, the rare pale sicklewing, and the Orion cecropians and pale-spotted leafwings, which are commonly found in Central and South America, the center reports.
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Treviño-Wright said this part of the Rio Grande Valley is on the northernmost edge of the neotropics in North America. To witness so many butterflies travel thousands of miles from their homelands, she said, is a scary indicator that they are trying to escape dangerous warm weather that threatens their food and water sources. “They’re trying to get away from the aridity, the dryness and the heat … the drought and the high temperatures that are wreaking havoc on Central and South America,” she said.
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https://www.news10.com/news/climate-change-behind-unprecedented-increase-in-butterfly-species-appearing-in-south-texas-experts-say/