Lepidoptera of Nebraska's Journal

Greetings butterfly and moth enthusiasts! I would not have predicted when setting this project up in 2014 that less than 8 years later, iNaturalist would have amassed over 10,600 Lepidoptera observations from Nebraska, with 638 species represented. Over 1,400 people have submitted observations, and over 900 people have made at least one identification. What an amazing community of naturalists and what an amazing diversity of species and habitats those records reflect!

Some of you have taken the extra step of joining the project. In case you would like to help further, project members now will have the option of choosing to trust the Lepidoptera of Nebraska project administrators with locations of your observations of native moths and butterflies in Nebraska. If you do not wish to do that, that is completely fine - no pressure. Choosing to share the locations with us will help us make better use of the information but it is by no means required!

Thank you for your passion for conservation of butterflies and moths.

Best wishes,
Rachel Simpson, Nebraska Natural Heritage Program, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission

I wanted to share information on an opportunity to learn more about Nebraska butterflies and moths, through a new blog by Neil Dankert at nebraskalepidoptera.com. He has been studying Nebraska butterflies for over 30 years and his new project is a ‘Nebraska Butterfly Big Year.’ He’s visiting public access areas around the state and reporting on what he finds. His natural history observations are sure to be of interest to anyone who would like to learn more about butterflies and moths. You can also contribute information for the annual census of Nebraska butterflies through the site.

Rachel Simpson, Nebraska Natural Heritage Program, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission

Many thanks to the Nebraska Inaturalist community for reporting your butterfly and moth sightings! I’m excited to report that among your sightings are records from 29 of our state’s at-risk Lepidoptera species! One of these reports is for a Tier 1 species - the Silver-bordered Fritillary - for which we have very few records in the Nebraska Natural Heritage Database. And a number of the taxa are Tier 2 at-risk species that are also under-represented in the database:

American Copper (Lycaena phlaeas), Anicia Checkerspot (Euphydryas anicia), Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon), Banded Hairstreak (Satyrium calanus), Common Ringlet (Coenonympha tullia), Coral Hairstreak (Satyrium titus), Gray Comma (Polygonia progne), Harvester (Feniseca tarquinius), Hobomok Skipper (Poanes hobomok), Horace's Duskywing (Erynnis horatius), Juvenal's Duskywing (Erynnis juvenalis), Long Dash (Polites mystic), Milbert's Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis milberti), Northern Crescent (Phyciodes cocyta), Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus), Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis), Spring White (Pontia sisymbrii), Tawny Emperor (Asterocampa clyton), Weidemeyer's Admiral (Limenitis weidemeyerii), Wild Indigo Duskywing (Erynnis baptisiae), Zabulon Skipper (Poanes zabulon), and Zebra Swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus).

Thank you again and keep up the great work!

-Rachel Simpson, Nebraska Natural Heritage Program, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission