The year 2025 marked the tenth year that a dedicated group of FODM volunteers collected data on butterflies and dragonflies in Dyke Marsh and the Belle Haven Marina. In 2025, they documented 25 butterfly species and 17 dragonfly species.

Over the ten years, for species counts, they identified a total of 55 butterflies, 42 dragonflies and 13 damselflies.

Common buckeye butterfly (Junonia coenia). Photo by Glenda Booth		Common green darner dragonfly (Anax junius). Photo by Kevin Munroe

Surveys tell us what’s common, uncommon, what has been abundant and what is scarce, explained long-time survey leader, Jim Waggener. Surveyors follow the same path at the same time of day for the same period of time, year after year, yielding highly comparable data on species and numbers.

Dyke Marsh’s wetland habitats support a healthy population of butterflies, such as swallowtails, monarchs and various skippers, among the 55 species documented so far. Although fewer dragonfly and damselfly species are listed for 2025, 42, there is greater variability in numbers counted annually. For example, the big bluet damselfly (Enallagma durum) counts ranged from 2,900 in 2016 to three in 2020. Its 10-year total was 4,909. 

Clouded Sulphur butterfly (Colias philodice). Photo by Glenda Booth		Mourning Cloak butterfly (Nymphalis antiopa). Photo by Glenda Booth

Butterflies Are in Serious Decline

Butterfly abundance in all U.S. regions declined by 22 percent between 2000 and 2020, with 13 times as many species declining as increasing, concluded a 2025 study published in Science magazine. Two thirds of the surveyed species showed declines of more than ten percent. The major drivers are habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change.  Visit https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp4671.

Silver Spotted Skipper butterfly (Epargyreus clorus). Photo by Glenda Booth	Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). Photo by Glenda Booth