Mid-Project Butterfly Summary

With the third of four field seasons currently underway, now is the perfect time to give an update on some of our statewide pollinator survey findings. Over to course of our first two years, our team has spent a cumulative 848 hours surveying for butterflies, detected over 86,000 individuals, and identified 60 different butterfly species.

The areas with the highest butterfly diversity span from the southeast corner to the northwest corner of the state. This high diversity strip corresponds with the Missouri Coteau, a region of North Dakota with significant areas of native prairie, rolling hills, and wetlands.

When we look at the composition of our butterfly community across the state, we see that an overwhelming proportion of our sightings belong to just four species that each had over 10,000 detections.

As you can see, it's incredibly important that we survey the state extensively to give us the best chance to detect more rare species! The following chart illustrates the number of observations of each of the 60 species we have detected so far. The relative abundance of nearly all of our species stayed consistent between 2017 and 2018 aside from the Painted Lady which experienced a boom year in 2017.

We can't wait to see what we discover this year, and whether it remains consistent with our findings thus far.

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