Extinctions Of Our Time
Silver-bordered Fritillary - a species that has now become extirpated in New Jersey. They disappeared from the Belleplain State Forest region in the mid 1990’s. Photo by Jack McDonough
Much of our local butterfly decline, we are yet to understand. It can be hard to determine why we see such immense crashes. Desiccation of eggs and larva from hotter weather and lower annual rain and snowfall, the loss of bogs and riparian wetlands from increased and prolonged droughts, habitat fragmentation, succession of xeric and meadow-like environments, invasive plants, predation from introduced insects and birds, parasites, the infiltration of wastewater and pollution from suburban areas into natural ecosystems, and various everyday anthropogenic activities such as racking up leaves, light pollution, trampling of host plants, and costly disturbance, all heavily diminish butterfly populations and prosperity. Out of the long list of troubles, the ever increasing popularity of round-ups in backyards, used by public works, and the conversion to popular herbicides in agricultural lands is believed to be truly one of the most devastating issues in all of conservation in South Jersey. We have lost so many butterflies because of it.
My realization of how bad it was started in November of 2022, when I updated The Cape May Bird Observatory’s butterfly checklist to Cape May County. The template that was being distributed at programs hadn’t been updated since 2007. Looking up and down the checklist, it was obvious before I began the small project that some major changes needed to be made. Of course, the general statuses of multiple species needed to be updated and a few new southern vagrants were ready to be additions to the list. However, the majority of the change was actually something much more noticeable and extremely alarming. Since the early 1900’s, we have lost a combined total of 18 breeding butterfly species in Cape May County alone. Most of that decline has been within the past 30 years. Nearly every one of those species are now either extirpated in the county, or have completely disappeared from the state. Not only that, but we are at a high risk, even within the next few years, at losing even more of our butterfly diversity. Right now, a solid four, or five species are facing immediate jeopardy, with several more already imperiled.
When we see this severe rate of decline, the usual factors of habitat loss, pollution, climate change, etc. more, or less go right out the window. We are looking at a bigger issue here. Round-up, with its active ingredient, glyphosate, is used across peoples backyards and business properties everywhere. It’s sprayed in parks, on lawns, on sidewalks and bike paths, within courtyards and wineries, over fields, farmland, and railroads, on airport properties, along powerline cuts, etc. These chemicals are sprayed, drenched, and distributed everywhere. There is no limit to the amount of destruction that the combined use of herbicides and pesticides can cause. In farms, pasture and hay, alfalfa, corn, orchards and grapes, rice, cotton, wheat, vegetables, and soybeans are some of the most common crops sprayed with herbicides. For Monarch butterflies, this is an extreme issue. Common Milkweed, one of the Monarch’s host plants, really does grow like a “weed” in farm environments. It’ll grow in between row crops, on the edge of fields, along roadsides, and anywhere else that it can in sunny, meadow-like places. Monarch, preferring pasture habitats, find the milkweed and lay eggs on them. Then, a week later, the crops get sprayed, it kills the larvae, and less and less female Monarchs are able to successfully reproduce. Between 2015-2018, there was a 29% increase of glyphosate use in New Jersey agricultural lands.
One of the county’s most devastating herbicide catastrophes destroyed multiple strong colonies of species that are now threatened in the state. The Dennisville railroad track, that crosses over Petersburg Rd., used to hold some of the best butterflying in the state. Not only that, but the tracks held a combined diversity of nearly all our rarest butterflies under the same roof. The tracks, which were sprayed by vicious herbicides, destroyed the biodiversity that thrived there. Dusted Skippers disappeared by 2009, Common Roadside-Skippers by 2010, Striped Hairstreaks by 2014, Frosted Elfins by 2016, and various others such as Cobweb Skipper. Many of those species still greatly suffer in the county and state. Their populations vary year to year due to annual habitat degradation and different levels of spraying near, or at their localized breeding sites.
Historically, one of the first species to become extirpated from Cape May County was the Regal Fritillary. This gorgeous butterfly disappeared from the Cape May area around 1910 after significant habitat loss and various sprayings, amongst other anthropogenic disturbances. They were gone from southern New Jersey by the 1960’s, with the last state record seen in 1971 on Staten Island. Many species started to decline dramatically during the 1960’s, including Aphrodite Fritillary and Eyed Brown, which eventually disappeared from Cape May by the 90’s. Leading up to 1983, Georgia Satyr receded from the bogs in northern Cape May County and has since disappeared from several locations in South Jersey due to illegal collecting and the overgrowth of savannah swamplands. Come the turn of the 1990’s, Harvester disappeared sometime around when Baltimore Checkerspot was last recorded in 1993. During the 1970’s, Hoary Edge started to decline sharply and was last seen during the Cape May Butterfly Count in 1996. Leonard’s Skipper was gone by the early 2000’s, last seen near the Woodbine airport. In 2007, the last report of Meadow Fritillary was seen at Gus’s Beach. The last sighting of Checkered White was in 2013, which was probably a stray, long after breeding populations had been wiped out.
In addition to the checklist, another concern that popped out at me was the change of butterfly diversity with the newly revitalized Belleplain Butterfly Count, one of NABA’s annual 4th of July Counts. This count was carried out every late June, or early July from 1991-2015. After a few years of dormancy, I decided to take on the liberty of picking up the count again for the summer of 2021 and then again for the following June of 2022. Comparing the past two years, of a new decade, to the historical counts is troubling. Belleplain State Forest is one of the largest protected areas in the county, encompassing 23,000 acres. The places around the forest consist of suburban homes and neighborhoods, which likely have herbicide users. We have lost several breeding butterflies in Belleplain over the years. Silver-bordered Fritillaries haven’t been seen since 1993, Bronze Coppers since 1995, Two-spotted Skipper since 2005, Dotted Skipper since 2006, Peck’s Skipper since 2008, Black Dash since 2009, and Dion Skipper since 2013. Dion Skippers are the only butterflies out of that list that even still occur in Cape May County and they’re limited to just a few sites south of Cape May Court House. Fortunately, the sites in which these skippers do occur have been stable and even increasing year after year in most places. Yet, a few of those sites are in jeopardy of being choked out by invasive phragmites and have been affected by recent summer droughts. Micheal O’Brien is the compiler for NABA’s Cape May Butterfly Count in mid-late July, which is timed every year to properly survey this localized species.
Fast forwarding to today’s time, a concern for Belleplain is the gradual absence of Tawny Emperors. Generally uncommon throughout South Jersey, the species is more prevalent in the southern parts of the county, but might be disappearing from the north. A large absence of the species counted for the Belleplain count from 2006-2015 and again for 2021, made things look grim. However, a single Tawny Emperor was recorded for 2022’s count. With yearly records coming in from The South Jersey Butterfly Log, it has been showing that the species is on a slow, but steady decline since a drop off in 2017. The NABA Cape May Butterfly Count data shows that the ten year average from 2001-2010 was 8 individuals for Tawny Emperors, and from 2010-2020, the average has been reduced to 1 individual per year.
Across the entirety of the county, many other butterflies are facing much more severe declines. The Common Sootywing is one of those species, not only in Cape May County, but for the entirety of southern New Jersey. Sootywing reports through The South Jersey Butterfly Project have shown, over the past decade, a 13% decrease, or more in their population from the previous year's tally, for every year following 2016. This past year, there were only 21 sightings of Common Sootywing in South Jersey, where every year preceding 2018 had well over a 100, or more sightings. Peck’s Skippers have been a species in question for the Cape. It is undeniable that they have mass disappeared from Cape May County. However, they still seem to occur as late summer/fall strays. Many species of skippers that traditionally have a summer-long flight season become very nomadic by early fall, venturing away from sylvan breeding sites in search of sustainable nectar. Two of these species in particular, Sachems and Zabulon Skippers, can show up in overwhelming numbers along coastal habitats where late blooming flora are more plentiful. Coastal migratory flyways and migrant traps, such as Cape May Point, end up being particularly great places to see these numbers. This is likely due to the nature of their dispersal. For this reason, many of these skippers are seen intermixed with the migrant lepidoptera, with varying numbers day to day, making it appear like they’re just as migratory. This may be the new case for future Peck’s Skipper sightings in Cape May, where historically, they used to breed here. European Skippers, introduced in the United States, have disappeared from Cape May County as well, just within the past few years.
A couple other notable species on decline are Eastern Tailed-Blues and American Coppers. Both previously abundant species and they are both butterflies that inhabit open mowed fields where they nectar on clovers. The 2022 Belleplain Butterfly Count was the first year in the count’s history that no American Coppers were seen. The previous year, there were seventeen. Eastern Tailed-Blue numbers were the lowest in count history at 48 versus 81 in 2021. It would seem likely that these drop offs would be correlated. This could very well be the aftermath of herbicide use in local parks and round-up on surrounding properties. Nearly all of our hairstreaks and elfins have been on a slower, but steeper decline over the past decade. Many species in Cape May County such as Eastern Pine Elfins, Brown Elfins, and Banded Hairstreaks could be in trouble in the upcoming years. Yet, most species of butterflies and insects have low numbers every five years, or so, and it is unclear whether they could start to rebound within the next two summers. Yet, if numbers following these seasons continue to be low, it will certainly illustrate a noticeable decline throughout South Jersey, not just in Cape May. It is always important to look at butterfly trends by decades, rather than by years, to properly consolidate the health of local populations. Regardless, these are species to keep an eye on within the next couple years.
Survey and census results each year between the NABA 4th of July Counts, The South Jersey Butterfly Project, NJ Fish & Wildlife, and The Cape May Bird Observatory are continuing to see gradual and even dramatic decreases in nearly all butterfly species in southern New Jersey. Even previously common butterflies may be just as threatened in the next decade as many of our elfins and skippers are today.
Rachel Carson in her book Silent Springs (1962), caused a revolution that had a ripple effect so wide that it led to the use of DDT, a major agricultural pesticide, becoming banned in the United States (1972). A following 33 countries banned DDT, with 34 additional countries converting its use to major restrictions. Today, these extreme pesticides are almost globally banned. It is time that a new revelation takes place in our world. We must begin to turn away from traditional herbicides and convert to more organic matters, whether it be vinegar or salt solutions, or simply a little weeding. It is something that we must act on soon. The biggest thing that anyone can do in this situation is to get the word out. This is a real, current problem today that is killing thousands of our pollinators and starting to cause a massive extinction not only in our own county, but for the state of New Jersey and many places like it.
The future of these butterflies is in our hands. In addition to putting an end to the spraying on your property, create a backyard garden with native plants that provides hosts and nectar for pollinators. There are many great, protected areas in New Jersey between the Pine Barrens and the Pinelands National Reserve and south to the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge. Yet, backyard gardens are perhaps the most significant habitat for butterflies across South Jersey. This is because 81.7% of NJ is privately owned, either by housing, or by business. 34% of land in New Jersey is protected parkland, or wildlife preserves. Imagine if everyone had backyard gardens with native plants and trees to help support pollinators and other wildlife such as butterflies? How we landscape and treat our own backyards has a critical impact on the biodiversity of our area.
- Jack McDonough
Coordinator
NABA South Jersey Chapter