Boston Flora

Tag: butterflies

  • Monday, January 9, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Eastern – Western Butterflies and Lost Species in the Anthropocene, Online

    Monitoring is essential to our understanding of insects in the modern era, the Anthropocene, and monitoring comes in many different forms and serves different purposes. Join Matt Forister, professor in the Biology Department at the University of Nevada, Reno, on January 9 as he discusses working with North America’s longest-running butterfly monitoring project across Northern California, and presents major findings with respect to the impacts of climate change and pesticides on butterfly populations. He will also talk about data from projects supported by community scientists, which are going to be of increasing importance in the coming years. Finally, Matt will discuss new efforts to organize information on species that appear to be lost, but, with effort from scientists and the public, might be found again.

    Matt Forister is a professor of biology and insect ecology in the Biology Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. He has studied butterflies and other insects in the western US for the last 20 years, and has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters on issues that include insects adapting to exotic plants and butterflies responding to a changing climate. One of the main concerns for Forister and his graduate students is the collection of data at sites in the Sierra Nevada that have been studied for almost 50 years, a project originally started by Art Shapiro of UC Davis.

    This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.

    Learn more and register today!

  • Thursday, November 7, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Eastern – Adventures in Ecological Horticulture, Online

    Who doesn’t love butterflies? Habitat cultivation is a vital component of creating ecologically healthy landscapes, particularly in urban settings. But traditional landscaping practices rarely take biodiversity into consideration, and there aren’t yet guidelines to follow. For ecological horticulturist Rebecca McMackin, biodiversity is central to landscape management. In her 10 years as Director of Horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Rebecca oversaw 85 acres of diverse, organic landscapes, all managed to support birds, butterflies, and soil microorganisms. Join us to learn how to use ecological insight and experimentation to develop new management strategies – and why careful observation and documentation of the insects, birds, and other wildlife in your gardens is crucial to their success. Rebecca will speak online in an American Horticultural Society talk on November 7 at 7 pm Eastern. $15 for AHS members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at www.ahsgardening.org

    Rebecca McMackin is an ecologically obsessed horticulturist and garden designer. She is Arboretum Curator for Woodlawn Cemetery, managing one of the best tree collections in New York. She spent a decade as Director of Horticulture of Brooklyn Bridge Park, where she managed 85 acres of diverse parkland organically. Their research into cultivating urban biodiversity and ethical management strategies has influenced thousands of people and entire urban parks systems to adopt similar approaches. McMackin writes, lectures, and teaches on ecological landscape management and pollination ecology, as well as designs the rare public garden. She has been published by and featured in the New York Times, the Landscape Institute, on NPR and PBS, and somehow gave a TED talk. She holds MScs from Columbia University and University of Victoria in landscape design and biology and recently completed the Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

  • Friday, April 26, 12:00 noon – 1:15 pm Eastern – Butterflies and Moths: Winged Wonders, Online

    Butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) are one of the most abundant groups of insects—one in every ten animals on the planet is a butterfly or moth. What are the secrets of their extraordinary success?

    In a lively Smithsonian Associates Zoom presentation accompanied by stunning images, Emmy Award–winning wildlife documentary filmmaker Steve Nicholls presents some of the latest scientific discoveries as he explores the world of butterflies and moths to find out why they’ve been so successful. Along the way, discover the world’s deadliest caterpillars, a moth with a tongue over a foot long, a caterpillar that looks exactly like a venomous snake, and a butterfly that shares its world with polar bears at one extreme and penguins at the other.

    Learn about moths whose wing scales have better sound-absorbing qualities than anything we can construct to hide from the sonar of hunting bats. Others have long tail streamers with sound-reflecting surfaces at their tips to give bats a false target. Yet others scream at bats to jam their sonar completely. It seems there’s no end to the tricks that evolution has come up with as it turned the Lepidoptera into one of the most successful of all insect groups.

    The event takes place Friday, April 26 at noon, and is $20 for Smithsonian Associates members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/butterflies-and-moths (Below: an io moth, photo Steve Nicholls)

  • Tuesday, January 30, 9:30 am – 1:30 pm Eastern – Online Pollinator Workshop

    Join UMass Extension for this January 30 virtual winter workshop about pollinators. Get the latest buzz on the status of pollinators in Massachusetts from state apiary inspectors as well as researchers at the University of Massachusetts. Aspects of the health of honeybees and bumblebees will be discussed, along with “lesser-known heroes” of the pollinator world: ants, beetles, flies, butterflies, sawflies, and wasps! $35. Registration and a complete itinerary are at https://ag.umass.edu/landscape/events/winter-workshop-pollinator-topics

  • Wednesday, February 1, 12:00 noon Eastern – 100 Plants to Feed the Monarch Butterflies, with Stephanie Frischie, Online

    A book about planting for monarchs (and for motivated readers and gardeners) is not quite as wondrous as monarchs and their individual life cycles, their host relationship with milkweeds, or their annual migrations in North America, but it is something of a miracle. Only a few decades ago, the concept of creating native-plant gardens was just beginning to gain traction. Read more about this February 1 Ecological Landscape Alliance webinar and register HERE

    Stephanie Frischie provides pollinator and beneficial insect habitat expertise in Canada, the U.S. and Latin America for a range of land use types – farms, the energy infrastructure, natural areas, and urban green spaces. She also works with the native seed industry and researchers to plan and develop seed supply of important plant species for creating and restoring habitat. Ms. Frischie volunteers as a rare plant monitor with Plants of Concern and is the secretary of the International Network for Seed-based Restoration.

  • Tuesday, January 10, 7:30 pm Eastern – Names, Concepts, Codes and the Diversity of Neotropical Butterflies, Live and Online

    The public is invited to attend the January meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club on January 10, presented by Shinichi Nakahara, Biodiversity Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. You may attend in person in the Gilbert Room MCZ 101A, or on Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/92664403460?pwd=ME%5DGMmxrTi%5DHNGVjOFozbzluR3%5DqZzog#success

    Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) are often regarded as one of the best taxonomically studied groups of insects. However, our understanding of their species richness may prove to be startlingly below common expectation and a disturbingly high number of unresolved nomenclatural issues surrounding names exists, especially in the Neotropical region. With over 30,000 names published for the purposes of zoological nomenclature, tracing the sources of Neotropical butterfly names and resolving their correct applications can potentially result in contention or confusion. Furthermore, in a rapidly changing world, the basis of understanding species diversity is facing many challenges. In this talk, Dr. Nakahara will explore the proverbial tip of the iceberg regarding Neotropical butterfly diversity, ranging from some of the rarest butterflies to common and widespread species in this region, and take this opportunity to reconfirm the importance of stable nomenclature as a progress towards understanding organisms which we share this plant with.

  • Wednesday, October 19, 9:30 am – 11:30 pm – Drawing Butterflies and Moths in Colored Pencil, Online

    On Wednesday, October 19 from 9:30 – 11:30, explore the beauty of butterflies and moths. This two-hour online workshop will introduce observational drawing techniques with pencil and then dive into colored pencil techniques used to create a rich, vibrant image. All skill levels are welcome.   Fees: $30 HMNH members/$35 nonmembers. Advanced registration is required at https://reservations.hmsc.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?EventID=11

  • Saturday, August 7, 10:00 am and 2:00 pm – Butterfly Celebration Day: Release of Butterflies

    Spohr Gardens, 45 Fells Road in Falmouth, will mark Butterfly Celebration Day with two releases of butterflies at 10 am and 2 pm on August 7. This 6-acre woodland garden, next to Oyster Pond, is the perfect place for a walk with nature. Forget about the traffic, congestion, noise and pollution, and take a stroll through the garden’s paths and winding trails. Enjoy the literally thousands of beautiful flowers — daffodils, rhododendrons, azaleas, day lilies and more — or take a seat by the pond and just tune out for a bit.

    The fourth year of the butterfly grow and release project is coming to a close. At present, over 200 Monarchs, 20 Spicebush Swallowtails, about 20 White Cabbage, and 10 Painted Lady butterflies were raised and released. We had numerous Tiger Swallowtails, Red-Spotted Purples, Silver-spotted Skippers, Hummingbird Moths, and Pearl Crescents visited the flowers during July, August, and September of last year. For more information visit https://www.spohrgardens.org/

  • Wednesday, May 19, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – I Have a Butterfly Garden: Now What?, Online

    You’ve created a butterfly garden to attract butterflies but how do you know that they’ve actually visited? Caterpillars and butterflies leave clues, both big and small, so get ready to look at your plants like never before! Using monarchs and swallowtails as our main examples, Amy Mawby will explore native butterfly species in all of their life cycle stages and behaviors. Discover how our gardens support butterflies throughout their marvelous metamorphosis. Go beyond your backyard and learn tricks, tools and timing for raising butterflies at home. This Tower Hill Botanic Garden program will be held virtually on May 19 at 6:30 pm. Once you register you will receive a zoom link in the confirmation. This webinar will also be RECORDED and available for 2 months to all registrants. $10 for THBG members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

    Amy Mawby is a garden educator and photographer. Her roots are buried deep in horticulture and she has spent 12+ years leading education and visitor experience teams at public gardens. Amy has most recently worked at Tyler Arboretum and Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve (BHWP). At BHWP, she found a passion for native plants and at Tyler Arboretum she nurtured her love for native butterflies as the staff lead for the seasonal Butterfly House exhibit, as well as in her home garden. She is also a visual storyteller and nature shutterbug. Amy holds a M.S. in Public Horticulture from the University of Delaware and a B.S. in Plant Science from Cornell University.

  • Wednesday, June 10, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – Landscaping With a Purpose: What’s Diversity Got To Do With It? Webinar

    In the fragmented ecosystems where we live and work, the importance of diversity in our landscapes cannot be over emphasized. Diversity of native plants, insects, mammals, birds, amphibians… they all play a crucial role in sustaining a healthy environment.

    When we encourage a diversity of native plants in the landscape, we provide just one component of a successful habitat. We all learned the components of sustainable habitats when we were in elementary school – all creatures need food, shelter, and water.

    But what does this mean in a landscape? We need diversity of food: native plants that supply food for insects that in turn become food for other insects, birds, and animals large and small. We must have plant diversity to feed a diversity of creatures, but we also need structural diversity. Places for butterflies to hide at night and moths to hide during the day. Places for all sorts of creatures to shelter from weather, both summer and winter. Places for cover and nesting sites. We need diversity of form: trees, shrubs, evergreens, and groundcovers; leaf litter, brush piles, rock piles and fallen logs. We also need water – streams, ponds, bird baths, and mud puddles. Incorporating all these elements into the landscape does not require a large space, but it does require creative vision.

    Dr. Randi Eckel has been studying native plants for over 30 years, and founded the mail-order native plant nursery Toadshade Wildflower Farm in 1996 to further public awareness and availability of native plants. A life-long naturalist, lover of nature, and confirmed plant and ecology nerd, Randi specializes in the interactions between plants and other living things. She is known for her lively and engaging lectures and workshops on growing and propagating native plants, and offers interesting, nuanced information on the complex issues facing native plants and native plant communities. This Ecological Landscape Alliance webinar will be held June 10 at noon, and is free, but registration is required at https://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/webinar-landscaping-with-purpose/