Butterflies of Manitoulin Island: An Informal Survey

At the end of July, my wife and I left Toronto to spend a week in a cottage on Manitoulin Island. The largest fresh-water island in the world stretches across the top of Lake Huron for 160 kilometers (100 miles). It takes the better part of seven hours to drive there from Toronto, so I had plenty of time to think. The question that nagged at me was simple: Why do we travel? The only answer that occurred was that we wish to see things we cannot see at home. It may seem trivial to some, but the main reason I wanted to visit Manitoulin Island was to see the kinds of butterflies I would never be able to find in Toronto.

Photo of the Chi-Cheemaun ferry for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
To reach Manitoulin Island, we took the Chi-Cheemaun ferry from Tobermory at the northern end of the Bruce Peninsula. The venerable boat is sporting a new paint job that evokes the work of First Nations artists who belonged to the Woodland School.

My wife, on the other hand, is a beach addict. So on our first full day on the island, we drove south to Providence Bay, where an extensive series of sand dunes enhances a beautiful white-sand beach. I left my wife there and continued driving east for another twenty kilometers. I wanted to explore the long dirt road that runs between the local highway and the shore at Michael’s Bay. In the heat of the day, butterflies like to come out to wet areas on such roads to “puddle,” that is, to feed on salts that give them the energy they need for reproduction.

The light traffic on the road allowed me to drive slowly along until I saw a butterfly rise up from the ground. Then I would park the car, get out with my camera, and wait till the butterfly settled again. The first species I photographed was a Compton Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis l-album) a strikingly beautiful butterfly, but one I’d seen several times in Toronto.

Photo of a Compton Tortoiseshell for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
The Compton Tortoiseshell is one of the Brushfoot butterflies whose numbers seem to rise and fall from year to year for reasons that are not entirely understood.

With the next butterfly, I hit pay dirt. The Green Comma (Polygonia faunus) is a species so rare in Toronto that it has never been recorded there on the internet platform iNaturalist. I recognized it immediately by its extremely uneven wing margins, a trait that sets it apart from other members of the same family, such as the Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma). This was one of my target species for the trip, and I was delighted to add it to my life list.

Photo of a Green Comma for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
The Green Comma was flighty and difficult to photograph, but I finally got a couple of shots that served to confirm its identity. In this photo you can see that the butterfly has extended its tongue to taste for salts on the road surface.

I found one other new butterfly before calling it a day. The Columbine Duskywing (Erynnis lucilius) is a rather plain species that looks quite similar to its close relative, the Wild Indigo Duskywing (Erynnis baptisiae). But while the Wild Indigo is common in southern Ontario, the Columbine is the default duskywing species in the north. At times, butterflying is like selling real estate in the sense that location makes all the difference.

Photo of a Columbine Duskywing for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
The Columbine Duskywing gets its name from the red wildflower called Canadian Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), which serves as its larval food plant. This butterfly stubbornly refuses to lay eggs on the hybrid species of columbines that are popular with home gardeners.

Of course, there were many other types of insects to see along the road or in the stands of wildflowers that bordered it. Perhaps my most exciting discovery was of a Dragonhunter (Hagenius brevistylus), a large species of dragonfly that is a rare presence in Toronto. It is called Dragonhunter because it kills and eats other species of dragonflies. In Dragonflies and Damselflies: A Natural History, the entomologist Dennis Paulson notes that the Dragonhunter is one of only three species of dragonflies known to capture and kill hummingbirds.

Photo of a Dragonhunter dragonfly for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
Big, boldly coloured, and often seen eating butterflies, the Dragonhunter seems to have a particular fondness for Monarchs.

On another day, we drove to Misery Bay Provincial Park, which is also on the south side of the island but much further west than Michael’s Bay. The ecosystem is different too, which means we had a good chance to see different species of butterflies. Most of the park consists of an alvar habitat. Alvar is a Swedish word that refers to a geological formation of limestone bedrock that lies close to the surface of the land. The topsoil in such a habitat is either thin or nonexistent. This makes the land poor for farming, but it also means it supports a number of rare wildflowers and shrubs. This type of vegetation in turn attracts species of butterflies that are rarely seen in more lush habitats.

Photo of the alvar pavement at Misery Bay for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
At its most extreme, the limestone in an alvar lies right at the surface of the land and forms a type of pavement. The only plants that thrive in such an extreme environment are those that can grow in the cracks that run between rocks.

After stopping at the Visitor’s Centre to pick up a checklist of the local butterflies, we walked through a red pine and cedar forest to reach the shoreline of the bay. Butterflies were scarce in the woods, but I did find an uncommon species of longhorn beetle resting on a type of goldenrod that was also new to me.

Photo of a Typocerus sparsus longhorn beetle for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
Typocerus sparsus is a type of longhorn beetle with red legs and yellow stripes on its elytra or wing casing. It is uncommon enough that it lacks a popular English name. Here it is resting on White Flat-topped Goldenrod (Solidago ptarmicoides), an unusual species of goldenrod whose flowers resemble those of a white aster.

Once we came out of the woods and reached the bay, I began walking along the rocky shoreline. I saw many different types of wildflowers growing in the sandy soil, including Kalm’s Lobelia (Lobelia kalmii), Cylindrical Blazing Star (Liatris cylindracea), and Lesser Fringed Gentian (Gentianopsis virgata).

Photo of a Kalm's Lobelia wildflower for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
Kalm’s Lobelia is a wildflower that appears delicate to the eye but in reality is hardy enough to thrive in the harsh conditions of an alvar habitat.

 

Photo of the wildflower Blazing Star for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
Blazing Star is aptly named. The pink flowers are show-stoppingly vivid. This flower is listed as vulnerable in Canada by Nature/Serve, an organization that tracks the conservation status of wild species in North America.

 

Photo of Lesser Fringed Gentian wildflower for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
I have a weakness for the colour blue, so the fringed gentians rank high on my list of favourite wildflowers. Lesser Fringed Gentian is the expected species in Northern Ontario, while Greater Fringed Gentian is more common in the south. It can be found growing wild in several of Toronto’s parks.

Soon I began to see butterflies that were attracted to these flowers.

Photo of a Northern Azure butterfly for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
A Northern Azure (Celastrina lucia) nectaring on Kalm’s Lobelia.

Then I got a quick glimpse of a Dorcas Copper (Lycaena dorcas), a new species for me, resting on top of a small boulder. A little later I found two of these northern butterflies near a stand of Shrubby Cinquefoil (Dasiphora fruticosa), which serves as the larval foodplant for this species.

 

Photo of a Dorcas Copper for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
Since Shrubby Cinquefoil is so widespread around Misery Bay, the Dorcas Copper is a relatively common butterfly in this area. It is much less common below the Canadian Shield.

We ate lunch in a wooden pavilion by the shore, then walked a trail that took us through a broad meadow and back to the Visitor’s Centre.

Photo of an alvar meadow for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
The alvar meadow with scattered wildflowers and low-growing shrubs. The yellow flowers are a rare species of aster called Lakeside Daisy (Tetraneuris herbacea), known locally as “Manitoulin Gold.”

Here I found several Aphrodite Fritillaries (Speyeria aphrodite), a striking orange-and-black butterfly that I’d only seen once before. When it is not nectaring on flowers, this species likes to rest on the ground or on a tuft of moss with its wings open, which makes it relatively easy to photograph.

Photo of an Aphrodite Fritillary for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
The Aphrodite Fritillary is one of four species of fritillaries that have been recorded at Misery Bay Provincial Park.

It was also in this area that I found what may have been my favourite butterfly of the trip, the subtly patterned and rather uncommon Coral Hairstreak (Satyrium titus). It was nectaring on a type of flower whose popular name reads like a dog’s pedigree: Hairy White Old-field Aster (Symphyotrichum pilosum).

Photo of a Coral Hairstreak for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
The Coral Hairstreak is one of the few species of hairstreak without “tails” as the bottom of the hindwing. It is listed as uncommon throughout southern Ontario and the near north, and it is completely absent from the far northern reaches of the province.

These were the highlights of my butterflying sojourn on Manitoulin Island. I did see several other more common and familiar species, including a single Acadian Hairstreak (Satyrium acadica) in the dunes at Providence Bay, where I also found several Monarchs, American Ladies, Red Admirals, and Dun Skippers.

Photo of an Acadian Hairstreak for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.
In this photo of the Canadian Hairstreak at Providence Bay, you can clearly see the tails at the base of the hindwing. I found this butterfly sheltering from the wind in a stand of Common Milkweed (Asclepius syriaca). It may be the most common hairstreak species in the Toronto area.

On the drive back to Toronto, I tallied up the results in my head: five new species of butterflies. Was the trip really worth it—all the time and effort and money we put into our week away from home? I thought of the wildflowers and beetles and dragonflies and other forms of wildlife we saw throughout the trip. One truth that our time on the island confirmed for me—a truth I sometimes forget—is that butterflies don’t live in a vacuum. They are part of an ecosystem so complex and interrelated that learning about one aspect inevitably opens our eyes to all the rest.

Another photo of the Chi-Cheemaun Ferry for the Butterflies of Manitoulin post.

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2 thoughts on “Butterflies of Manitoulin Island: An Informal Survey”

  1. Thank you for this beautiful work, dear Edward.

    I could envision you chasing those butterflies and on the go learning about their habitat.

    Saludos Amigo!

    Reply
    • Thanks very much for your comments, Rodrigo. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the article. I hope all is well with you in Mexico!
      Best regards,
      Edward

      Reply

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