Welcome to Season 3, Episode 1 of the Atlas

With two years under our belts, we are poised to have a great season on our march to survey the entire state before the end of 2027. We can't do it without help from all of you. It is more important than ever for us to get a deep understanding of how Vermont's butterfly populations are faring.

Perhaps you saw the headlines in early March–"A Country without Butterflies: Rapid Decline in U.S. Populations" or "U.S. Butterflies 'all in trouble' as Their Numbers Rapid Decline". A study published in the journal Science examined population trends in butterflies across the continental U.S. by combining data from 35 community science projects. The scientists found declines in overall butterfly abundance over the past 20 years across almost all major regions. Two-thirds of studied species showed declines of more than 10%. Here in the Northeast, 44% of the butterfly species studied were declining. But here's the problem, the study didn't have essential repeated survey data for many places across the country, including Vermont. By repeating the checklist surveys from the first atlas, 20 years later, we're creating that critical data to understand population and range changes of Vermont's butterflies.

Two Years Down, Three to Go The second year of the atlas was an incredible success thanks to observers like you! Last year, 90 observers reported 96 butterfly species in 1,973 complete checklists comprising 7,590 butterfly occurrence records on e-Butterfly.org and 1,161 observers upload more than 7,590 butterfly photos to the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist. After the first two seasons of the atlas we now have nearly 23,000 butterfly records, almost reaching the 30,000 records collected during the entire first atlas!

The most important number in the end is how many surveys have been completed on the 184 priority blocks scattered around the state. So far, participants like you have adopted 127 survey blocks (81/184 priority blocks and 45 non-priority blocks).

Check out your block stats using our Block Mapper tool. Compare the butterflies found in your block with those from the first atlas, view historical data, and more. This is a great way to see where checklist counts were done in the first atlas and revisit them during this atlas.

It is going to be a great year and we can't wait to see what everyone discovers!

Click on map for larger view.

The earliest six spring butterflies in 2025 with number of observations reported to e-Butterfly.

First Seen: A Half Dozen Stars of the Show that Overwinter as Adults and Make an Early Appearance

April may seem too early for butterflies but some of our most hardy species start being active this month. Unlike summer butterflies, these spring butterflies do not expect to nectar on flowers. Instead, they may opt for tree sap, rotting fruit, or scat which are more readily available in the spring. Or you may see them puddling on a road or dirt patch sucking up essential nutrients. Many of these species live in deciduous forests and the males are easiest to spot perching in the late afternoons. Keep an eye out for the common Mourning Cloak and also take a look below on how to ID our other emerging species, the commas and tortoiseshells.

Commas and Tortoiseshells don’t just come out at the same time - they also look similar. The underside of their wings are made for camouflage with brown and white patterns and a rough edge meant to mimic tree bark or fallen leaves. The tip of the underside forewing is squared off and the upperside of their wings are orange and black. Commas are often slightly smaller compared to the tortoiseshells.

Milbert’s Tortoiseshell (Aglais milberti) 

Host plant: nettles

Key field marks: Broad orange/yellow band on upperside of their wings, look for two "cat eye" marks on their wings near their heads. Broad, straight cream colored band on their underside.

Compton Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis l-album)

Host plants: birches, willows, cottonwoods

Key field marks: Tortoiseshell pattern of orange/black/white spots on their upperside. Jagged cream colored band on their underside.

Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma)

Host plants: elms, nettles

Key field marks: Orange/black spots on their upperside with three prominent black spots on hindwing (can be difficult to see in summer form). Various shades of brown on their underside. Their white comma has slightly swollen ends.

Note: Males are aggressive and will chase other insects or even birds. 

Gray Comma (Polygonia progne)

Host plants: gooseberry, currant, azalea

Key field marks: Orange/black spots on their upperside, lacks a third black spot on hindwing. Striated brown and gray underside. Comma on underside is thin and L-shaped. 

Green Comma (Polygonia faunus)

Host plants: birches, willows

Key field marks: Red/orange/yellow with black spots on their upperside, underside brown and gray with some streaks of green. Comma thin sometimes with swollen ends.

Note: They are found in cooler regions (higher elevations or boreal forest in Vermont) and produce only one generation per year.

Explore our flight chart tool and see all the species that have been found flying each week in Vermont. This week lists nine species. You can explore the checklist and individual species accounts at the atlas website.

A Special Spring Butterfly: West Virginia White

It’s not a gaudy butterfly. It isn’t the biggest or the smallest. In fact, it’s mostly just white. But this butterfly is unusual; it only flies in forests. It's an ephemeral spring wildflower groupie. To find this butterfly, head out early in the season to rich, mature hardwoods with spring wildflowers.

The West Virginia White (left) always has faint gray scaling along the veins. Our other, more common veined white, the Mustard White (right), also flies in the woods, but has distinct dark veins in its first brood. The West Virginia White, unlike the Mustard White, only flies early in the season before the tree canopy shades the forest floor with leaves. Their flight is slow and close to the ground. To find them, follow a woodland stream to their only host plants – Two-leaved Toothwort (AKA crinkleroot) (Cardamine diphylla) and Cut-leaved Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata).

Quick Tip: Not Sure? Share it Anyhow!

Have a butterfly you can’t identify? Don’t worry! Post your unknown butterfly sighting with a higher level of identification such as family (e.g., Swallowtails and Parnassians) or even just Butterfly! If possible, include a photo or at least a description so that helpful volunteers on e-Butterfly can help you narrow down to an identification. If you have a photograph, you can also pass it through eButterflyAI, available both on the web and in the mobile app. This helpful tool can provide you with a few potential species to look for in your field guide. 

Were there no butterflies during your survey? Still submit your checklist! We want to know where and when you find no butterflies. Simply add a checklist to e-Butterfly, select Butterfly in the species box and add a 0 to the count box. Answer yes to "I am submitting a checklist..." and submit. Zeros are data too!

Miss an Episode? Watch a Recorded Webinar or Join Live

Visit our events page to watch a recorded webinar or register for one of our upcoming live event.

UPCOMING WEBINARS:

Wednesday, April 23, 7:00 PM – Vermont Butterfly Atlas Q&A

Wednesday, May 7, 7:00 PM – Introduction to e-Butterfly

RECENTLY RECORDED WEBINAR:

Introduction to the Second Vermont Butterfly Atlas from March 26, 2025

We take a peek at Vermont's first Butterfly Atlas and an introduction to the Second Vermont Butterfly Atlas. Attendees can expect to learn about what new butterfly species have been discovered since the first atlas, what new technologies have made butterflying even more fun and easy, and how to search and adopt atlas blocks. Watch on YouTube.

Log Your Volunteer Hours for Conservation Funding

Established in 2000 by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, State Wildlife Grants (SWG) provide money to states, territories, commonwealths, and others to address wildlife conservation needs such as research, surveys, monitoring, and species and habitat management. Projects focus on the Species of Greatest Conservation Need identified in each State Wildlife Action Plan. The Vermont Butterfly Atlas has been an integral project for these plans and is partly funded by SWG. The 2015 plan included 16 butterfly species as Species of Greatest Conservation Concern. The third update to the plan is due in 2025 and we'll be helping complete it once again using data from this atlas.

We need your help to match federal funding. The good news is that your efforts with the Second Vermont Butterfly Atlas count as an in-kind match! You can help match funding by logging into an online portal and entering your survey hours and mileage. Please consider taking the time as soon as you can to help unlock these conservation dollars.

You will first need to gather all of your atlas hours and mileage for each date. This would include any time traveling to a site, surveying butterflies, entering data, or even helping to identify other user's observations. The easiest way to start is to visit your e-Butterfly.org account and collect all the dates and hours you were surveying, visit https://www.e-butterfly.org/ebapp/en/checklists/mychecklists. This may take a bit of time and your best estimate of hours each day is all that is needed, but the reporting requires your sign-off and then our approval too. Once you have all your data, you then sign into the reporting portal the state has created and add all of your information. Visit this link to see the illustrated steps and start adding yours too!

Ask, Discuss, Learn: Join the Vermont Butterfly Atlas Forum

Feel free to start conversations, tell a story about your fieldwork, or ask a question about anything butterfly-related on our atlas forum. There are already many interesting articles and discussions: follow new species updates, test your butterfly knowledge with a weekly quiz, find tips & tricks for using the eButterfly mobile app, discover new insects with the Milkweed Specialist guide, and much more.