Butterfly Monitoring

Nachusa Grasslands is "a flutter" with 47 native butterfly species, including swallowtails, whites, sulphurs, yellows, blues, hairstreaks, brush-footed, and skippers.

Regal Fritillary Monitoring

Particularly exciting is the preserve's population of regal fritillaries (Argynnis idalia occidentalis) . In Illinois, the regal fritillary is a threatened species due mainly to the loss of prairie habitat. The regal caterpillar's diet of ONLY prairie violets also complicates their survival.

However, Nachusa Grasslands has become an ideal home for this beautiful butterfly since the remnant lands contain many violets, and the restoration prairie plantings are also seeded with several violet species.

Regal fritallary monitors walk a route one time in late June or early July when the butterflies are mating, recording all that they see.

Volunteer for this opportunity by completing the form on the "About Community Scientists" page.

Butterfly Monitors Coordinator Needed

Butterfly monitoring by volunteer community scientists will help Nachusa collect additional data on the butterfly populations. The Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network states that the "goal is to provide data collected with a standardized protocol that allows land managers to evaluate long-term trends in a changing landscape."

Volunteers would attend a training workshop before the season begins in order to learn the common species and monitoring protocols.

Each monitor then walks an assigned route at least six times during the summer. Usually a route can be traversed within an hour. The monitor records the species seen along their route and then reports the data.

To indicate your interest in coordinating the butterfly monitoring program, please complete the form on the "About Community Scientists" page.