Not all naming conventions for wildlife are puzzling. It is fairly clear when a bird or moth has the word ‘great’ in its common name that the animal is important or large. If it is the ‘blue’ something, well, the beast is shades of blue. But why are some animals ‘royal’? We do not know.
In addition to the ‘kings’ we have talked about in the past, including the belted kingfisher and the eastern kingbird, Lanark provides a home to three ‘ladies’ that we know of. In the human world, a lady is a general title for women of royalty whether high ranking or low, so we consider there to be something special about Lanark’s three ladies which are the American lady butterfly, the painted lady butterfly, and the Asian lady beetle.
One of our favourite butterflies is the American lady which we see at the cottage on Three Mile Bay every year. Its scientific name, genus Vanessa, sets it up more as a goddess than as a royal. Some may overwinter here, but most American ladies will spend their winters further south in more moderate zones. In the spring, many will migrate as far north as southern Hudson Bay. A beautiful, colourful butterfly, the photograph below, which was taken last year, shows the underside of the American lady’s forewing which has two large eyespots to intimidate its prey.
We see the painted lady butterfly far less often than its cousin the American lady. When we were first learning about these two butterflies, we found them difficult to differentiate. The field guides tell us the painted lady has more of an orange/pink hue on the top (dorsal) side. It has taken years to see that hue rather than focusing only on the spotted pattern of the wings. Painted ladies are less cold tolerant and not likely to overwinter here, usually migrating as far south as northern Mexico to escape the cold, returning to northern North America when the weather warms. The photo below was taken in late June a few years ago.
Closely related to the American and painted ladies is the red admiral butterfly which we see every year throughout the summer around Three Mile Bay. While not all admirals are royalty, many historically-important admirals were, so we feel justified including an admiral in this article. This year, for the first time in 18 summers, our intrepid photographer was able to capture a red admiral in May. Our ROM field guide tells us that red admirals seldom overwinter as far north as Lanark, so we consider ourselves fortunate to have finally seen one this early in the year. As with other species of butterflies that overwinter here, the emergent adult looks rather bedraggled with paler colouring than it had in August and rather ratty wing edges. This photo was taken May 24th this year.
The Asian lady beetle is a small oval beetle about 5 to 7 millimeters in length and we do not know why it is called a lady. It and one of its cousins, the seven-spotted lady beetle were introduced to North America during the 20th century to control aphids. Unfortunately, the strategy did not work well and these two beetles have out-competed our native nine-spot lady beetle. As kids, we used to play with native lady beetles without harm, but we find that handling the Asian lady beetle can result in a wee nip. While not dangerous, we strongly dislike their autumn invasion into our cottage. As anyone who has intentionally or inadvertently squished one knows … they stink.
Not a lady, not even closely related to the ladies, is the chalk-fronted corporal dragonfly, one of the earliest dragonflies that fly at the cottage every year. Does this corporal provide military support to the ladies? In May and June each year, we see dozens, if not hundreds, of chalk-fronted corporals. They are our most numerous dragonflies and can be found resting on the road-side or lawn. When disturbed they rise in unison as a cloud. We greatly appreciate their efforts providing us with the royal treatment, protecting us from the millions of tiny biting insects that also fill the air in May.
We have taken some artistic license, anthropomorphising the insects in this article … just for fun. After all, our time at the cottage is all about enjoying ourselves and having royal amusement. Learning the naming conventions for wildlife and their common names provides us with hours of entertainment and royally enriches our cottage experience.
In writing this article, we re-read portions of several books including The ROM Field Guide To Butterflies of Ontario by Peter Hall etal; Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East by Dennis Paulson; and, Beetles of Eastern North America by Arthur Evans.
