Page 12 - July/Aug 2020 Outdoor Oklahoma

Blackberry bushes growing along roadside creeks
attract a number of pollinators in spring, including a wide
variety of butterflies. But the bright colors and buoy-
ant flights of the most familiar of butterflies don’t dis-
tract Katrina Menard, former curator at the Sam Noble
Museum of Natural History.
Chasing It will be hopping around the rocks in the sun to get warm.”
“We’re looking for a tiny, dark butterfly about an inch long.
Her mission: find a Linda’s roadside-skipper — a mod-
est member of the skipper family, the broadest category of
Butterflies: butterflies. Before her project began, all Oklahoma records
of the butterfly had been from visual observations. No
specimens had been collected to verify those sightings.
Menard has been searching for the skittish butterfly
in and around state parks in southeastern Oklahoma for
Seeking a four years. She’s been examining blackberry brambles
near creeks, small mud puddles, and patches of Indian
Secretive Skipper woodoats from March to June each year. With the help
of a fellow entomologist, she’s been able to collect and
positively identify a small number of the rare butterfly.
“The adults really like to feed, or nectar, on the black-
By Jena Donnell, berry blossoms. And the woodoats serve as a host plant
for the larvae.”
Wildlife Diversity Information Specialist The grass can be found across Oklahoma, but Linda’s
roadside-skippers have only been spotted in a limited
area, leading to a key question of the study: why?
“In terms of conservation, if we don’t know why they’re
in Oklahoma, or why they’re only in certain areas of
Oklahoma, we won’t know how to help them. We won’t
know which conservation efforts would be most benefi-
cial for these butterflies.”
Menard is also interested in studying the genetic dif-
pUblic domain ferences between Linda’s roadside-skippers and the
more widespread common roadside-skipper.
“What we’re finding is a complex of very related spe-
Jena donnell/odWc

This view of a roadside-skipper shows how this small butterfly perches Katrina Menard hikes through the woods with her butterfly net in search
with one set of wings held horizontal and one set vertical. of Linda’s roadside-skipper.

10 OUTDOOR OKLAHOMA