It’s the hottest month of the year in Louisiana, and the butterflies love it! Actually, July is just as hot, but by August we’re really tired of it, so maybe it just seems worse. Whatever. Don’t get hooked on butterfly counting if you can’t take the heat.

As August approached last summer, I set out to do some butterfly counting on my own. I had learned that Morehouse Parish, which neighbors my home Ouachita Parish, was “under-reported” when it comes to butterflies. In other words, not much butterfly counting has been done there and so the list of known species for that parish is shorter than it should be. So I set out to change that. I visited the parish several Saturdays and ended up adding 4 species to the list. The Southern Broken-dash (Polithes otho) above was the “first of the firsts” for Morehouse Parish.

Indian Bayou in southern Louisiana is one of the regular sites on our summer count circuit. Last year in August we were privileged to see a very uncommon butterfly, the Hayhurst’s Scallopwing (Staphylus hayhurstii), at that site. I have counted Indian Bayou several times before, but 2025 was the first year to see Hayhurst’s there. The species has a large range across eastern and southern states, and where you see one of this species you will often see several. However, these small, highly localized populations and few and far between.

Both of these butterflies are in the large sub-group known as “skippers.” These two photos illustrate two distinct behavioral patterns among skippers. The Southern Broken-dash is holding its wings in the “fighter jet” pattern common to the sub-group called “grass skippers.” The Hayhurst’s is holding it’s wings flat, a rare behavior among skippers in general.

#YearInReview