Red Admiral Signals Early Appearance of Iowa’s Butterflies

CENTER POINT - A Red Admiral, a black butterfly with a red stripe on its wing, flits onto the white blossom of a pear tree in Dennis Schlicht's front yard.

"That's kind of like the earliest on record," says Dennis, a student of butterflies for half a century. "It shouldn't be here until the beginning of June."

Then again, pear trees shouldn't have blossoms, morel mushrooms shouldn't be popping up and we shouldn't be mowing our yards - again.

Mother Nature has certainly thrown nature lovers a curve this year with the warmest March on record. Already insects threaten to become early pests, from uninvited ants to your picnic to the bad guys who invade corn and soybean fields.

It also presents a conundrum for butterflies and their followers.

"In a year like this year, when should we go?" says Dennis. "The timing is important for them for the resources they need. And for us, we need to be out there at the right time."

The early Red Admiral, up from the southern United States, is just one example. Expect the ever-popular Monarchs to arrive from Mexico late this month, some two to four weeks early.

"I'd think they're up to southern Missouri with this wind (from the south)," Dennis says. "The trouble is, they could run into a frost."

Of course, these aren't the same Monarchs that flew south last fall. While the autumn butterflies have an innate ability to live up to 120 days to make the entire trip, those flying north the following spring are grandchildren who typically live 30 days.

Yep, when you talk to a butterfly expert, you learn some cool stuff.

Dennis, 63, a retired biology teacher from Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, co-authored the book, "Butterflies of Iowa," published in 2007. It was 40 years in the making, started by John Downey who was in charge of the biology department at the University of Northern Iowa when Dennis enrolled. Before he knew it, Dennis, who paid minimal attention to butterflies as he grew up near Cedar Falls, was studying them with his nationally renowned teacher.

For the next four summers, his interest intensified as he watched butterflies as a forest fire lookout on Jelm Mountain near Laramie, Wyo.

"You're up there and they're flying all around," Dennis says. "It was just a circus of butterflies."

Some of his 1966 specimens are among more than 6,000 butterflies mounted in his collection, which includes butterflies gathered by others. He opens one drawer to reveal South American butterflies gathered in the 1920s by Bert Porter of Decorah and then removes the top from a box of Allamakee County butterflies (right) collected in the late 1980s by John Nehnevaj of New Albin.

Currently, Dennis says, Iowa has 115 species of butterflies which all depend on weather conditions for their life cycles. He points to the Ottoe skipper which relies on the opening of purple coneflowers about July 1.

"If it's a wet year, the coneflowers will be late and they need to be late," Dennis says. "If it's a dry year they're early and they need to be early."

And, he laments the loss of the Dakota Skipper, last seen in Iowa in 1990, due to fire and a loss of habitat.

"A number of butterflies, I warned in the book, we're going to lose," he says. "And we are."

In the meantime, enjoy the variety of butterflies while you can. And, like the Red Admiral in Dennis' front yard, expect to see them early this year.