Small Game Hunters: Catching Butterflies in the Pacific Northwest
By: Usfws Columbia Pacific Northwest Region
Tags: Adventurecalendar, Adventure, Conservation, Advent, Wildlife

#AdventureCalendar countdown! ’Tis the season for reflection so join us here on our month-long series as we look at some of our favorite outdoor adventures on public lands from 2020.

By: Zach Radmer, USFWS Fish and Wildlife Biologist, Washington Fish and Wildlife Office.

Photo: The author, Zach Radmer, biologist and butterfly enthusiast. Photo credit: Jerrmaine Treadwell

“Swoosh!” My net lay still, a colorful quarry perhaps captured after a brief sprint along the trail. Admittedly I’m more excited than you would think. It’s not every day that you catch something new. I don’t think people know that most butterflies get away. The large and sun-warmed individuals are highly motivated and will easily outpace you even into a headwind. I have carried a net for miles and caught nothing but mosquitos. But this time it’s a lustrous copper (Lycaena cupreus) that sports bright orange wings covered in dark black spots. Best of all, I have never caught one before.

This is the part of the story where you think I would wax poetic about chasing butterflies as a kid, but the truth is my professional and personal interest in butterflies didn’t start until my colleagues at the Washington Fish and Wildlife Office introduced me. Butterfly catching is for everyone. Butterfly catching turns every hike or picnic into a scavenger hunt. In an alpine meadow or even a brushy field on the eastern slope of the Cascades you never know what you might find. Visit the same place four months later and you might find an entirely different crew of butterflies. Some fly in spring and some fly in late summer. Some could be ‘on the wing’ all year round because they spend the winter as adults resting in the crevices of trees and houses! Wherever you decide to go looking, bring a lunch. Butterflies are small game and decidedly not delicious.

Photo: Common wood-nymph (Cercyonis pegala) butterfly. Photo credit: Zach Radmer, USFWS.

Butterfly catching is a cheap sport, and you can take it as seriously as you want (or not). A net and a field guide can be purchased for less than 50 bucks. I prefer Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest by Robert Michael Pyle and Caitlin LaBar. Butterfly nets come in different shapes and sizes and none cost a pretty penny. I use a collapsible net that is easier to backpack with. Unless you have the reflexes of Jackie Chan, a long handle is a good idea too.

Photo: Zach in action. Photo credit: Jerrmaine Treadwell

There are two endangered butterflies in Washington State, and we like to talk about them a lot (See our web pages on Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly and island marble butterfly). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Washington Fish and Wildlife Office has been involved in butterfly conservation for a few decades. But most people don’t know that 202 butterfly species can be found in Washington and Oregon. Little ones, big ones, spanning just about every color you can think of. Butterflies in Washington and Oregon are sorted in six families, and many of them don’t take any special skills to identify. For example, this is a ‘mud puddle club’ of pale tiger swallowtails and western tiger swallowtails:

Photo: A mud puddle club of swallowtails (both pale and Western). Photo credit: Zach Radmer, USFWS

The pale wings, large size, and striped wings are unmistakable for anything else. You don’t even have to chase it with net! The western tiger swallowtail (the yellow butterflies in the picture) has a few look-alikes, but only in some portions of the range. If you are butterfly catching in Olympia when you see this one, you know it is very unlikely to be a two-tailed tiger swallowtail or an Oregon swallowtail. Trust me, this isn’t as hard as you think. The Lorquin’s Admiral is another great example of an easy-to-identify butterfly.

Photo: Lorquin’s Admiral (Limenitis lorquini) butterfly. Photo credit: Zach Radmer, USFWS

Wherever you’re going, make sure you know which butterflies you should probably let be. A good guidebook will let you know what’s rare and what’s common. This mug shot might look like the federally endangered Taylor’s checkerspot, but it is actually a closely related subspecies (E. e. colonia) that is common in the Cascades:

Photo: Edith’s checkerspot butterfly ( Euphydryas editha colonia), not to be confused for the endangered Taylor’s checkerspot (Euphydryas editha taylori). Photo credit: Zach Radmer, USFWS

Butterfly photography is great but some people want to take their small game home. Personally, I don’t collect the butterflies I catch. Butterfly collecting can contribute greatly to our understanding of these species, and collectors have no chance of impacting the abundance of common species. Collecting, pinning, and preserving butterflies is its own set of skills that I won’t address here. Figuring that out will give you something to do when the weather is poor for butterfly chasing.

If you are nervous to get started on your own, I personally recommend you check out the Washington Butterfly Association that leads occasional field trips. Experts can help you discover where to look and tricks for telling some groups of butterflies apart. This wild-looking pink-edged sulphur you might assume is unique, but in reality is difficult to pick out of a lineup of other sulphurs:

Photo: Pink edged sulphur (Colias interior) butterfly. Photo credit: Zach Radmer, USFWS

There are only a few more things to know before you start. First, catching butterflies is not allowed in National Parks. Not even catch and release. If you must, sign up for the National Park Service’s Cascade Butterfly Project citizen science program to monitor butterflies in the Parks. Second, butterflies should not be moved from where you caught them, and definitely not released outside of their natural range. Butterflies carry diseases and may inappropriately hybridize or compete with closely related species.

Photo: Phyciodes mylitta, the Mylitta crescent. Photo credit: Zach Radmer, USFWS

I will join many other writers on this topic before by saying that the first step in conserving butterflies is to notice them. Where they are, where they aren’t, and what they’re doing. Scientists and enthusiasts can contribute to butterfly conservation by recording what they see and pointing it out to those around them. So grab a net and notebook, and happy hunting.