The Rarest Butterfly I Have Collected

[leptraps]

The rarest butterfly I ever collected:

Prygus centaureae wyandoti

Virginia
Montgomery County
Jefferson National Forest
Poverty Hollow
6 April 1975

How many of you have collected Prygus centaureae wyandoti?

[rayrard]

I never never encountered it in the east, and the western one I do have is much different looking.

The topic is interesting given people who buy specimens versus self-collecting. I'd think something unique I netted myself as most special and memorable in the rare department versus the actual global rarity of the species.

Some of my favorite species:

Mottled Duskywing - I found a decent locality of this species that has declined in the east and is almost entirely extirpated from most of its range except for barrens habitats scattered in the Appalachians and New York. I have three specimens over two dates and never saw it anywhere else.

Appalachian Tawny Crescent - The subspecies maconensis is found only in the high hills of western North Carolina and the species is extirpated everywhere else south of Canada in the east. I have a small series there from a roadside where they flew with Northern Crescents (=incognitus) but not with typical tharos in the richer woodland.

Leonard's Skipper - my favorite specimen despite it not being that "rare" in the north. I have a specimen from 2009 in the sandhills of SC. This worn male is the only one I've heard of from SC since the mid-2000's and it hasn't been recorded since despite lots of watchers going and checking the area.

Berry's skipper - Outside Florida, good luck finding this species! I have one from coastal SC where it is extremely rare and often confused for dark female Byssus Skippers

Southern vagrants are also cool but I never got anything too interesting in SC (like a tropical Phoebis or Giant Sphinx or White Witch).

Then there are those "rare" species that you never find despite many trips, but they aren't really rare at all. I can get some good eastern butterflies but yet I have never seen a Comptons Tortoiseshell or a Hayhurst's Scallopwing. The Appalachian Gold-banded Skipper and Olympia Marble are another I await catching.

[coloradeo]

I’m not sure that I have yet to collect a rare butterfly, but perhaps (?) this moth qualifies as rare... I was delighted when I caught Sthenopis argenteomaculatus a few years back. You all on the site helped me ID it. Appreciated that as I had not happened upon ghost moths as of yet.

[Paul K]

Mota massyla ( Lycaenidae ) collected in January 2017 near Chiang Mai-Thaialnd

Dodona dracon ( Riodininae ) female, 
Males are locally uncommon and can be found in few locations, but female I collected In Lampang, Thailand in January 2017 is the first specimen recored. The photo of this specimen can be viewed on my friend Yutaka Inayoshi's website 
yutaka.it-n.jp/rio/8a090010.html

Famegana alsulus eggletoni ( Lycaenidae ) very rare, I collected on Ko Tao, Thailand where colonies are still in some numbers.

There are few more species that are rare or locally common but those three above are the once worth mentioning 


Paul 

[wolf]

I have not collected Prygus centaureae wyandoti. BUT, i have collected ssp. loki on Whistler Mnt in BC, Canada. Also this year i collected the nominate ssp from the mountains in Norway. Idk if ssp. loki is rare or not. The norwegian nominate is locally common in the mountains in the south and in the north of the country. I thought i'd share some pictures.

[Deleted]

I'm always suspicious of the term "rare", what does it mean exactly? I prefer the terms hardly ever seen, not often collected, hardly ever for sale, local, hard to catch, a lot of species are very secretive in their habits, need careful searching for to obtain them and a lot of patience, rare to me is a term overused by dealers to bump up prices.

[leptraps]

I use the term, "Seldom Encountered". And I have lot's of those. Euphyes berryi was mentioned. When I lived in south Florida, I knew where to find them, the when to go get them was the real problem.

Collecting above the tree line in the Rocky Mountains can be very difficult, but extremely rewarding when you go at the right time. A rather hard to find and difficult to collect Arctid moth is Apantesis cervenoides. I have collected it on Rollins Pass, Horse Shoe Mountain, Cumberland Pass and Mt. Evans. Just getting up to these locations is a challenge. Then getting light traps and batteries out in the Artic meadows requires some serious effort. The air is thin and breathing can get hard.

Although the butterflies are truly hard to collect, the moths I collect can be unknown or not yet described.

I began collecting journeys out west in the early 1980's. One of the most incredible journey was to Unaweep Canyon in Mesa County, Colorado. I came home with more moths that I still have been unable to identify. The canyon is spectacular.

Another journey was to Churchill, Manitoba. The only way you could get there was by train. It was the only time I went collecting with a gun on my hip. Polar Bears and Brown Bears are always hungry.

My point is the Lepidoptera are not rare in Churchill, Manitoba, they are just awful hard to collect, and down right dangerous at times.

I have a slogan, it is in my sign off of emails: "Let's get among them". And boy do I like to get among them.

[Deleted]

For me, my capture of Catocala marmorata or my netted Antheraea polyphemus gynandromorph would be the rarest/very seldom encountered bugs. Oddly......both of these were caught a mere few feet apart in two consecutive years at the top of the same TN mountain.....talk abt luck.

[sam9710]

what about a pair of Stichophthalma nourmahal from Hainan？

Attachments:

[Adam Cotton]

I caught the only known record (maybe more have been collected since, but I'm not sure) for Thailand of Giganteopalpus mirabilis many years ago when I was collaborating on Sphingid research here. It was a big surprise, because we put a sheet out at the wildlife sanctuary guest house before going into the forest to set up our main light trap, and I went back to the guest house just before dark to check that no-one had turned off the light and it was already sitting on the sheet, even though it wasn't yet dark. In general we found that the more unusual species tended only to fly at about dusk or just after, and then the commoner species would come in a little later.

Adam.

[jhyatt]

I've always had Eroea laeta and Problema bulenta come to mind when I think about rarities I've taken... but I've made some other catches that were certainly unusual for the time and place (i.e., common elsewhere or elsewhen): Anaea andria in southwest Virginia; Euphyes berryi in Georgia, Marpesia petreus in Colorado.

And then there are the captures that were almost commonplace at the time, but would be practically impossible nowadays: Miami blues in the Keys in the '70's, Hesperia meskei pinocayo on Big Pine Key, etc.

My one and only Catocala marmorata from this summer has to be somewhere on my list of rarities, too. But I was too late to get a Pyrgus wyandot at Leroy's Poverty Hollow site. The area had reforested when I finally got there.

[leptraps]

Hesperia meskei straton is now Hesperia meskei pinocayo. Where and when did this occur. I have specimens from Navy Wells, Dade County, FL 9 September 1980. I have collected Hesperia meskei from Martin County and Liberty County in Florida. It can be rather common in Jonathan Dickenson S.P. in Martn County in early October. I also have a record, but no specimen, from Homestead Air Force Base, Dade County, Florida from 16 May 1980. It is in my card file with a ?? after the date. I think I gave it to someone in the Metro Dade nature Preserve group way back when.

John Hyatt, I plan to return to Poverty next April to look for Pyrgus centaraea wyandoti. Are you interested? I may also make an attempt in early June to very over Big Jax Mountain Highland County to find Hesperia sassacus.

[rayrard]

I got meskei and attalus at Bull Creek WMA this past week, but was late for Arogos. Also Loammi were flying. Has anyone collected Loammi-type second brooded Dusted Skippers north of Florida? I know there is that "Crystal Skipper" from the barrier islands of NC, but Loammi is historical from NC to GA.

What about the other historical records of Silvery Blue, Silvery Checkerspot, Gorgone Checkerspot and Golden-banded Skipper from the coastal plain of SC and GA? I think Ron Gatrelle got many of these amazing records but no one since. Many of Gatrelle's species are gone from SC but I've heard from researchers that his labels were horrible and localities were hard to pinpoint.

[leptraps]

I have taken Atrytonopsis loamii in North Carolina near the Green Swamp. Both were singletons a year apart. I have also collect Atrytonopsis loammi in South Carolina. A location provided by Ron Gatrelle. The location was developed sometime in the late 1990's.I have taken it in numerous locations in Florida.

There was once a number of very active Lepidopterist who traded information on various species very freely. As I have said before, if you know the habitat, you can usually find what you are looking for.

[leptraps]

When I read Bull Creek WMA, I could not remember ever hearing of this area. I googled Bull Creek WMA. It is in Ocseola County to the east of US441. I have been there and collected there. I was looking for Euphyes berryi, which I found. I also collect Atrytonopsis loamii, Atrytone Argos and Hesperia attulus. Never did collect Hesperia meskei. I also set out light traps. I visited this area numerous times. Did not know it was wildlife management area. I collected there in the late 1980's thru the mid 1990's. When did it become a WMA??