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Post by beetlehorn on Aug 23, 2017 4:21:06 GMT -8
As everyone knows we experienced a total solar eclipse on August 21. I live in Tennessee, right in the path of totality. As we watched the moon cover the sun, I noticed a change in insect behavior. All of the annual cicadas stopped singing, as well as any type of katydid. Bird sounds also ceased. It was eeriy still. Only a single male cricket was heard, and he was very faint. It was about two hours before things got back to normal.  |
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Post by admin on Aug 25, 2017 9:41:25 GMT -8
Yes, even here in Southern California where we only got 62% coverage I noticed all bird and butterfly activity ceased for about an hour. Normally I have tons of birds and butterflies swirling around in my butterfly garden. All that activity stopped cold during the eclipse!
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Post by admin on Sept 2, 2017 11:36:15 GMT -8
Also just got a report from my friend who was in the eclipse totality zone collecting butterflies on a mountain side in Montana immediately before and immediately after the eclipse. He says the activity stopped for an hour or so as expected during the eclipse but when it started up again after the eclipse the butterflies started mating in higher than usual numbers! Go figure.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Sept 3, 2017 11:28:48 GMT -8
I'm not very surprised, many butterflies mate early morning and late afternoon, so the eclipse must have made them think it was both in a short period of time.
Adam.
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Post by beetlehorn on Sept 6, 2017 3:21:17 GMT -8
I viewed the total eclipse from my front yard, just a few feet from three large Buddlea bushes where normally you can see several species of butterflies S. cybele, P. glaucus, P. troilus, V. cardui, occasionally D. plexippus, and Hemaris thysbe-Hummingbird moths on sunny days. All of the activity at the bushes became less apparent, and during 3/4 phase throughout the total eclipse there was no activity. Things started to normalize at about the halfway phase of the eclipse.
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