Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Volume 3 Issue 1 MillionTreesNYC, Green Infrastructure, Article 18 and Urban Ecology: A Research Symposium

2010

Diversity and Conservation of Butterflies in the New orkY City Metropolitan Area

Kevin C. Matteson Fordham University, [email protected]

Nell Roberts Fordham University, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Matteson, Kevin C. and Roberts, Nell (2010) "Diversity and Conservation of Butterflies in the New orkY City Metropolitan Area," Cities and the Environment (CATE): Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 18. Available at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cate/vol3/iss1/18

This Conference Poster is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Urban Resilience at Digital Commons @ Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cities and the Environment (CATE) by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Diversity and Conservation of Butterflies in the New orkY City Metropolitan Area

Butterflies are charismatic microfauna that provide opportunities for humans living in urbanized landscapes to directly experience biodiversity. However, very little has been published on which butterfly species currently persist in densely populated urban landscapes, such as the City metropolitan area. As a first step owart ds conservation of butterflies in this heavily populated landscape, we analyzed data on butterfly sightings in the five boroughs of and adjacent counties from January 2001 to November 2009. In total, we compiled 12,732 reported sightings (5822 from within NYC limits) representing 106 butterfly species (87 from within NYC limits) that were observed and reported by 143 observers. Important butterfly locations included large parks such as Ward Pound Ridge in Westchester County (1506 observations), Hook Mountain in Rockland County (878 observations), and in Bronx County (801 observations). The five most abundant butterfly species were Pieris rapae, Danaus plexippus, Colias eurytheme, Papilio glaucus, and Vanessa virginiensis. Across years, the number of species and observers remained relatively consistent, although certain species were more prevalent in specific ears.y Some of the species represented by only a few sightings are vagrants while others may be scarce due to the New York City metropolitan area being at the edge of their range. Additional rare butterfly species may be limited by host plant availability and/or specific habitat requirements that might be increased in parks, gardens and other urban green spaces. We provide specific management recommendations for these species and discuss future research needs for conservation of butterflies in the New York City metropolitan area.

Keywords urban biodiversity, butterflies, habitat equirr ements, citizen science, New York City

Acknowledgements We are most grateful for the numerous butterfly enthusiasts in the New orkY City area who take the time to carefully record and submit their data.

This conference poster is available in Cities and the Environment (CATE): https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cate/vol3/ iss1/18 Matteson and Roberts: Diversity and Conservation of Butterflies in the New York City Me Kevin C. Matteson Diversity and Conservation of Butterflies and Nell Roberts Department of Biological Sciences, in the New York City Metropolitan Area Fordham University, Bronx, NY Million TreesNYC, Green Infrastructure and Urban Ecology: A Research Symposium, March 5-6, 2010

INTRODUCTION BUTTERFLIES IN THE NYC AREA (2001-2009) RESIDENT BUTTERFLIES THAT ARE RARE (2001-2009) CONSERVATION RECOMMENDATIONS Butterflies are charismatic microfauna that provide •We compiled 12,732 reported sightings (5822 from within The table below lists some of the rarest species (based on # To conserve butterfly species within the NYC metropolitan opportunities for humans living in urbanized landscapes NYC limits) representing 106 butterfly species (87 from within of sightings) that may reside within the New York City area. area, we recommend the following: to directly experience biodiversity. Despite this, very little NYC limits) observed and reported from 2001-2009. For both Table 1 and Table 2, host plants, habitat 1) Locate and promote conservation of early succession has been published on which butterfly species have been requirements, flight period and number of broods were habitat types, especially: •The five butterfly species with the most reported sightings lost, or currently persist, in densely populated urban derived from Cech (1992) or Opler et al. (2010). •Pine-Oak barrens were the Cabbage White, Orange Sulphur, Monarch, Spring landscapes, including the New York City Metropolitan •Wet meadows Azure, and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. •Serpentine and calcareous grasslands Area. Table 1. Rare butterfly species in the New York City area (2001-2009) including last known ***Many of these habitats remain, particularly on , location, host plant and habitat requirements, and flight period in NYC. •The five species with the fewest reported sightings included but in other locations as well. The goals of this research are to: three extralimital vagrants (Clouded Skipper, Eufala Skipper, 2) Assess status of host plants- extensive knowledge of plant 1. Compile all reported observations of butterflies in the and Sleepy Orange), one potential stray or escapee distributions are maintained by the Greenbelt Native Plant NYC area from 2001-2009. (Peacock Butterfly, from Europe), and one species that is Nursery, Botanic Garden, and New York Botanical 2. Identify butterflies that are common, rare, and possibly Garden. This data may provide insights into the mechanisms rare within its range (Bronze Copper; see Table 1). extirpated from the NYC area. of butterfly persistence within, or loss from, the NYC area. 3. Identify important locations for butterflies in the NYC Figure 1. Rank-abundance diagram for butterfly species reported in the NYC area from 2001- 2009. 3) Increase monitoring of butterflies- with special emphasis area. on difficult-to-identify groups such as skippers. 4. Provide conservation guidelines for increasing and Figure 2. Green space on Staten Island in 2001. maintaining butterfly diversity in the NYC area.

From left: Clinton Ave. Community Garden, Bronx, NY; Harlem Council Community Garden, , NY; Black Swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes (Photos by K. Matteson) POSSIBLY EXTIRPATED SPECIES

Meadow in , Bronx (Photo by K. Matteson) METHODS IMPORTANT BUTTERFLY LOCATIONS IN THE NYC AREA •Shapiro and Shapiro (1973) documented 92 species in just two years of sampling on Staten Island. •We gathered data on butterfly observations from the The following locations all had exceptionally high numbers of CITATIONS AND RESOURCES archives of the North American Butterfly Association (NABA): sightings and species, and thus are likely critical for •The above authors predicted that 21 of these butterfly Cech R ed., (1991) A distributional checklist of the butterflies and skippers of the New York City area (50-mile http://www.naba.org/sightings/Archives/SightingsArchives.htm. maintenance of butterfly diversity in the New York City area: species would be extirpated from Staten Island within five radius) and Long Island. New York City Butterfly Club. years of their study (by 1979, due to development and loss of Cech R, Tudor G (2005) Butterflies of the East Coast, An Observer's Guide. Princeton University Press, •Additional records were compiled and provided by Tom •Ward Pound Ridge (Westchester County) important habitat such as oak scrub and acid barrens). Princeton, New Jersey, USA. Davis WT (1892) Days afield on Staten Island. L.H. Biglow, New Brighton, NY. Fiore and Kristine Wallstrom. These records include •Hook Mountain (Rockland County) •Van Cortlandt Park (Bronx County) •Of these 21 species, 18 (86%) have not been found on Giuliano WM, Accamandon AK, McAdams EJ (2004) Lepidoptera-habitat relationships in urban parks. Urban additional observations from members of the NYC Butterfly Ecosystems 7:361-370. •Chappaqua "power cut", Chappaqua (Westchester County) Staten Island since the study and thus may be extirpated, as Club and the NYC Chapter of NABA, as well as observations Shapiro AM, Shapiro AR (1973) The ecological associations of the butterflies of Staten Island. Journal of •Various parks in Staten Island including Blue Heron, Clay Pit Ponds, predicted. Research on the Lepidoptera 12:65-128. posted on the [email protected] list serve. etc. (Richmond County) Online resources • Wildlife Refuge and Breezy Point/Rockaway Peninsula Table 2. Some butterfly species that may be extirpated from the New York City area (no records in Mulberry Wing (http://www.hmana.org/mulberry/)- Field Notes of the New York City and North Jersey Butterfly •Butterfly records were collected for the following (Kings/ County) over a decade). Clubs. counties/locations: Bronx, New York (Manhattan), Queens, • (New York County) North American Butterfly Association (http://www.naba.org/index.html). Kings (Brooklyn), Richmond (Staten Island), Rockland, •Botanical, private, and community gardens (throughout) Butterflies are Still Free (http://www.butterfliesarestillfree.com/about.html). Westchester, and Nassau. Records are still being compiled Listserve for reports of butterflies in New York State ([email protected]). ***Several butterfly species only persist in a single location, Opler, Paul A., Kelly Lotts, and Thomas Naberhaus, coordinators (2010) Butterflies and Moths of North for Bergen and Hudson counties in New Jersey. America. Bozeman, MT: Big Sky Institute. http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/ (Version 03/01/2010). indicating the importance of site-specific management and localized patches of host plants within parks. Contact information

Dr. Kevin C. Matteson Department of Biological Sciences Fordham University

Tel: (718) 817-0506 Cell: (646) 373-0250 Email: [email protected]

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio glaucus (Photo by K. Matteson) Great Spangled Fritillary, Speyeria cebele (Photo by K. Matteson) Red-banded Hairstreak, Calycopis cecrops (Photo by K. Matteson) From left: Ocean Breeze Park (Staten Island); Battery Park (Manhattan); (Brooklyn) (Photos by K. Matteson)

Copyright 2010 by the authors. All rights reserved. This work is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Cities and the Environment is produced by the Urban Ecology Program, Department of Biology, Seaver College, Loyola Marymount University in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service. Published by The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress). http://catejournal.org TEMPLATE DESIGN © 2008 PublishedMatteson,www.PosterPresentations.com by Digital Commons K.C. atand Loyola N. Marymount Roberts. University 2010. and Loyola Diversity Law School, 2010 and conservation of butterflies in the New York City metropolitan area. Cities and the Environment. 3(1):poster 18. http://escholarship.bc.edu/cate/vol3/iss1/18. 1