Observation date: October 30, 2021
Submitted by: butterfly rose
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: Feeding on rabbitbrush at a local public garden. Total surprise!
Status: Stray
Verified by: mikefisher
Verified date: November 25, 2021
Coordinator notes: Your suggested ID is of course correct...this looks like a nearly freshly emerged male. There was a large influx of snouts this year...a huge flight in southern Arizona and New Mexico starting in July and continuing through September/early October. Here in Western Colorado, we recorded it for the first time in at least two counties (Mesa and Hinsdale) and farther north than previous. Your subject could might very well be from a female that made its way north early, found host trees (Hackberry) along the way and laid some eggs. We typically consider the snout a stray even though some may well be "locally grown." Other than in southeastern Colorado, you don't normally see them every year northward and ones in very good condition are usually scarce but suspect of being born locally. This also may be the latest date for this butterfly (on my old list noted in the last sighting is 30 Sept...Yuma County). Look forward to more reports from you next season. Have a good and hopefully healthy Colorado winter (or maybe you "migrate" south?). Mike
