Rosemary Jorna writes from the Kemp Lake area:  Does this one qualify for the first butterfly of 2021? It was on our kitchen counter today and has been trying to leave ever since. 

 

   Yes, writes Jeremy Tatum, it most certainly does.  This is not one of the butterflies that overwinters in the adult state – it normally does so as a pupa.  The pupa has presumably been indoors, and the butterfly ecloded (with a d) prematurely because of the warmth.  Yet it is often asserted that daylight length is at least as important as temperature in determining date of eclosion (with an s).

 

 

Cabbage White  Pieris rapae (Lep.: Pieridae) Rosemary Jorna

 

Cabbage White  Pieris rapae (Lep.: Pieridae) Rosemary Jorna