The Fourth Annual Mercer Butterfly Count, sponsored by The Washington Crossing Audubon Society, was held on July 9 in good weather. My thanks to the 16 participants, who totaled 40 species (compared to last year's high of 41 species) and 2425 individuals. New to the count, were Juniper Hairstreaks, found by three of the 5 teams. Missing from the count but seen on previous counts were Harvester, American Copper, Red Banded Hairstreak, both American and Painted Ladies, Southern Cloudywing, and European and Peck's Skippers. Our first count had 689 Pearl Crescents which was the highest in the nation. This count had 938. Noteworthy were 104 Monarchs, compared to 2 and 10 in the past two years. We also had high numbers of Wild Indigo Duskywings and Gray Hairstreaks.

Species Count

SWALLOWTAILS (Papilionidae)
Black Swallowtail	51
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail	56
Spicebush Swallowtail	7
WHITES & SULPHURS (Pieris)
Cabbage White	408
Clouded Sulfur	6
Orange Sulfur	56
COPPERS, HAIRSTREAKS,& BLUES (Lycaenidae)
Coral Hairstreak	1
Banded Hairstreak	4
Striped Hairstreak	1
Gray Hairstreak	43
Eastern Tailed-Blue	115
Summer Azure	19
Juniper Hairstreak	14
BRUSHFOOTS (Nymphalinae: Nymphalidae)
Great Spangled Fritillary	54
Pearl Crescent	938
Question Mark	3
Eastern Comma	2
Mourning Cloak	2
Red Admiral	3
Common Buckeye	5
Red Spotted Purple	3
Viceroy	1
SAYTRS & WOODNYMPHS (Satyrinae: Nymphalidae)
Appalachian Brown	2
Little Wood Satyr	15
Common Wood-Nymph	164
MILKWEED BUTTERFLIES (Danaiae: Nymphalidae)
Monarch	104
HESPERIIDAE
Silver-spotted Skipper	43
Horace's Duskywing	5
Wild Indigo Duskywing	117
Common Checkered-Skipper	27
Common Sootywing	6
Swarthy Skipper	1
Least Skipper	6
Tawny-edged Skipper	1
Crossline Skipper	5
Northern Broken-Dash	39
Little Glassywing	48
Sachem	23
Delaware Skipper	7
Dun Skipper	20
TOTAL NUMBER OF SPECIES COUNTED:	40
TOTAL INDIVIDUAL BUTTERFLIES COUNTED:	2425

Summary of Previous Counts