Applegater Summer 2016 13 Blue is imperiled due to its rarity and found in the daylight sitting or slowly Not too late to see Melissa Blue other factors that make it vulnerable to fluttering about on the ground. The extinction throughout its range. This adults can be seen in late spring to early and Ornate Tiger Moth species, described by famous novelist summer. BY LINDA KAPPEN and lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov in The larvae of the Ornate Tiger Moth the 1940s, was classified endangered in are generalist feeders and will feed on Melissa Blue butterfly Their habitats are open fields, prairies, 1992. In May 2000, the foliage of many herbaceous plants in The Melissa Blue ( Melissa) and disturbed areas. was listed as locally extinct in Canada. the spring. The moth’s habitat is moist is a butterfly of the family. Its The Melissa Blue is quite common, Conservation efforts have been underway to open forest, grasslands, and high wingspan is up to one and three-eighths and its range is throughout the west in the eastern US for a number of years. mountain meadows west of the Cascades. inches. The upper side or dorsal view of from Canada to Baja California. The Ornate Tiger Moth The range of this species occurs west the male is blue with a thin black line photo of the Melissa Blue on this page The Ornate Tiger Moth (Grammia of the Rocky Mountains in the Pacific around the border. The female dorsal was taken on a 30-acre reserve owned Ornata) is of the moth family Erebidae. Northwest. view is brown tinged with blue and by Southern Oregon Land Conservancy When wings are open, the moth can be It is documented that this species in a border of orange on forewings and along Williams Creek in Williams, about one and a quarter to one and a half the Pacific Northwest is larger in Oregon hindwings. Oregon, in May 2015. This male Melissa inches wide. The forewings have a netted than in other Pacific Northwest states. The male Melissa Blue will patrol was friendly to the camera as I followed pattern with yellow and black. The hind The Ornate Tiger Moth in the photo larval host plants waiting for females. it from plant to plant on an open rocky wings are yellow to orange with black was found in the Klamath-Siskiyous The female will lay eggs on host plants beach next to the creek. spots, the black mostly fusing together in California just over the border from or other plant stems or twigs nearby, and Note: The Karner Blue butterfly on the wing margins (or edges). Oregon. Being so close, it really was their eggs will overwinter. Ants tend to found in the eastern US is a subspecies The adult male is nocturnal and large. I found this particular moth in the larvae as they grow, keeping them safe of the Melissa Blue butterfly. The Karner will come to light. The female is heavily April 2016 near the Klamath River on from predators and stroking bodied with a large abdomen and can be a road running along a creek. The area the caterpillars until they had many herbaceous plants. The moth secrete a sweet sticky treat for Photo left: Melissa Blue butterfly found along Williams was sitting on the ground with closed the ants. (See the spring 2014 Creek. Photo below: Ornate Tiger Moth found near the wing and looked very fresh. It was indeed Klamath River. Photos: Linda Kappen. Applegater for a story about heavily bodied, able only to flutter its Silvery Blues and wings and fly a few inches. I was able to their symbiotic relationship gently open the wings for a fuller view with ants.) and positive identification. The Melissa Blue can be It was a good find and one of the seen in flight from late April highlights of a fine spring day observing to late September in southern butterflies and moths. Oregon. They like to nectar Linda Kappen on many flowers, including [email protected] their host plants, which are Linda earned a naturalist certification from a variety of legumes such as Siskiyou Field Institute and hosts two-day lotuses, lupines, and vetches. butterfly courses there.

Cantrall Buckley Park butterfly project: Bringing back the monarch BY JANIS MOHR-TIPTON

Many locals who lived in the food. Milkweed has been considered a Applegate Valley in the 1970s tell us noxious weed and is often sprayed or that monarch butterflies were around mowed. If we want monarchs back, we every year from May into fall and that have to let our wild patches of milkweed lots of caterpillars and flittering adults grow and also provide more native Over two years ago, owners of a property behind Ruch School saw milkweed growing in a were seen around Ruch School and the plantings. Monarch eggs are laid on the pasture that had been kept mowed and decided to let it grow. valley. Now, 40 years later, we see very underside of the leaves of the milkweed; Last summer they had lots of caterpillars and adults in the native milkweed. few. What happened? the caterpillar attaches its chrysalis to the Monarch photo: Erin Galbraith. Caterpillar photo: Jamie Lusch, Mail Tribune. Several years ago, Tom milkweeds, too. Landis, a forester with US Forest At Cantrall Buckley Park, a project is the fourth generation born in southern For more information Service (USFS) who retired after 30 in the planning stage to create a monarch Oregon is called the “Super Generation” •Ecoregional Planting Guides— years as a nursery specialist, moved way station in the park that will help because its life cycle is the longest at www.pollinator.org/guides.htm to the Rogue Valley. He saw very few support habitat and be an educational seven to nine months. Then they fly from •Facebook: Milkweeds for Monarch Waystations and Monarch Butterflies monarchs and thought that they were tool to encourage others to join in the our region to southern California for in the Pacific Northwest not very common. After researching, effort to restore habitat throughout the overwintering in a warmer climate, and •Local native milkweed plants: Applegate he learned that the western monarch Applegate Valley. This project is a joint in the spring they lay their eggs to start School Milkweed Gardens —Linda populations had crashed, so he used his effort of USFS, Applegate Valley Garden the migration cycle north again. Kappen at 541-846-6280 nursery training to propagate the food Club, Applegate Elementary School Timing is important, so this •Local native milkweed and nectar they needed to see if they would return. students, and Linda Kappen of Southern fall—with the park setting as protection plants: Forest Farm—541-846-7269, www.forestfarm.com; Goodwin Creek In spring 2014, he planted a patch of Oregon Monarch Advocates (SOMA). for the monarch and with milkweed in Nursery—541-846-7357, www. milkweed for the caterpillars—milkweed The migration of the monarch the ground, pollinator plants in place, goodwincreekgardens.com; Shooting is their only food source—to test his “if is amazing, and the part we play in and a “puddling” area for moisture Star Nursery—541-840-6453, you plant it, they will come” theory. The habitat restoration is important for and minerals—visit the park and see a www.roguevalleynursery.com. project worked. The butterflies came to their survival. Monarchs, which are monarch way station in action. •Local native milkweed seed and plants: the milkweed patch the first year and laid really a tropical butterfly, have several Janis Mohr-Tipton Klamath-Siskiyou Seeds— their eggs. The resulting caterpillars began generations of egg-to-adult life cycles 541-846-7501 www.klamathsiskiyouseeds •Southern Oregon Monarch Advocates— feasting on the milkweed and made their of six to ten weeks each in order to be Applegate Valley Garden Club http://somonarchs.org chrysalises. Monarchs emerged to fly in able to migrate from the edge of Canada [email protected] our skies again. (See article in Medford to southern California. A typical life Mail Tribune, September 22, 2014.) cycle of an egg is three to four days, a Now, many individuals and groups larvae/caterpillar’s is two to four weeks, of people are helping to restore lost a chrysalis’s is two to four weeks, and an habitat and creating way (feeding) adult butterfly’s life-span is from two to stations with native milkweed and nectar four weeks. plants throughout the migratory path of Monarch breeding activity in the western monarch. Southern Oregon is from May into Research has shown that late fall, when the butterflies migrate to monarchs have the genetic warmer locations. Monarchs are in our coding to come to our area to find their area for the longest period of time. Also,