Joann Merritt's Essays

Little Things Mean A Lot
August, 1996

These words from an old song were certainly apropos for seven MIDNATS who celebrated our tenth year of participation in the 4th of July Butterfly Count (4JC). The little things, such as small butterflies, meant a lot to us as they provided the greatest number of individual butterflies on the Count as well as the excitement of adding a new species to our County list.

When Don and I scouted the usual places in our count circle we realized that the drought had adversely affected our butterfly population, but fortunately we were able to obtain permission from a couple of friendly landowners to enter their fields where butterflies were nectaring on the alfalfa blossoms.

At 8:30 a.m. on July 6th, Betty Rae, Don Hunter, Frances, Don Merritt and I started the Count at the Merritts where native wolfberry bushes were covered with tiny white blossoms as a result of the 1.4” of rain we had received ten days previously It was on one of these bushes that we found and identified the Gray Ministreak (formerly called Azia Hairstreak), a new species for the Count and for Midland County. That simple statement does not reflect the difficult but rewarding task of identifying this tiny stray from south Texas. It was our good fortune that the Gray Ministreak was so busy nectaring that he paid scant attention to us as we examined him closely, checking all the field marks against the pictures and descriptions in each of the three Field Guides we had with us.

At the Chamberlin’s Butterfly Garden where there is an abundance of passion vines, we counted 40 eggs, 68 caterpillars of all sizes, eight chrysalides hanging from the gate, and 14 adult Gulf Fritillaries. Then we traveled to an alfalfa field where we observed many Orange and Common Sulphurs as well as 131 Melissa Blues. At the next stop we found an alfalfa patch absolutely teeming with Marine Blues - the Marines had landed! With additional 4JC participants we probably could have set a new North American record, but after we had counted more than 1500 Marine Blues, fatigue and heat sent us back to our homes.

Late in the day when the Crumley’s accompanied us on a last trip to check the wolfberry bushes we found a Horace’s Duskywing and a Question Mark which made a total of 34 species and 2583 individuals for the day.

Yes, little things mean a lot. The tiny Gray Ministreak, the beautiful Melissa Blues and the multitude of Marine Blues were the highlights of our Midland 4JC in 1996.