Caterpillars, butterflies and ‘junk bugs,’ oh my! Citizen science counts reveal which species prevail in Hampton Roads

They’re there whether we count them or not.

Creeping, crawling, skulking, squirming: insects.

Several community science projects in Hampton Roads have worked recently to document exactly which ones are out there.

Over at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk, a mix of staff and volunteers have been shaking the trees all summer. It was the zoo’s second year of contributing to Caterpillars Count!, a citizen science project out of the University of North Carolina.

The count catalogs arthropods — invertebrates such as spiders, beetles, and, yes, caterpillars — to study how seasonal and climatic shifts are impacting them. Arthropods are an important food source for birds and other wildlife as well as having an impact on crops and forests, according to the project website.

Climate change, however, is affecting when spring leaves appear on trees and other factors that could disrupt the food chain. The counters want to see how those factors are changing the number of bugs on the ground.

How exactly does one count tiny creatures with the naked eye?

Kate Reichert, the zoo’s volunteer coordinator, said the team strategized where they’d look, down to the tree branch.

They chose six sites, mostly in the garden and orchard parts of the zoo. None were in animal exhibits.

From May through early this month, the workers went out almost once a week, outfitted with a large canvas sheet and wooden sticks. They beat the branches and bugs fell onto the sheet; workers then counted and measured each. Over those few months, that included nearly 1,500 individual arthropods across 13 broad groups such as bees and ants.

Ants and spiders made up about three-quarters of those counted. Only about 2% were caterpillars, despite the name of the project.

Reichert said it’s highly unlikely they’d be counting the same bugs a week or more apart. The staff shakes them off the sheet when they’re done, so the bugs would have to trek back to the same exact spot.

But even if some were recounted, it wouldn’t affect the goal of assessing the overall population over time, she said. The number on a given day “still represents a potential snack for a hungry bird.”

Many of the zoo’s plants are cultivated, meaning they’re not native to Hampton Roads, she added, which will likely affect the findings. Counters found very few bugs on an olive bush, for example.

One of Reichert’s favorite finds was a critter that the group initially thought was just a piece of debris. Then it started moving. Later they learned it was a lacewing larva, often called a “junk bug” because it covers itself in debris to protect itself.

“That sense of discovery is really meaningful and memorable,” she said.

Though Reichert loves arthropods, she has “a hard time with spiders.”

Seeing the diversity of spiders on zoo grounds, however — everything from those that were lime green to “creepy looking ones” — has helped her appreciate them.

The zoo hopes getting members of the public involved in citizen science will do the same for them.

Meanwhile, on the Middle Peninsula, a few dozen volunteers recently set out on their own insect hunt. But their focus was more narrow: butterflies.

Enthusiasts of the natural world have long been undertaking such butterfly counts loosely affiliated with the North American Butterfly Association, including long-established efforts in Williamsburg, Virginia Beach and the Northern Neck, said Gloucester resident Susan Crockett, a Virginia master naturalist who organized the Middle Peninsula count.

But the one she spearheaded last month was a first for her area, she said.

Similar to the zoo’s arthropod search, the butterfly hunt was divided into predetermined sections within a 15-mile circle. The circle included parts of Gloucester, Mathews, Middlesex and King and Queen counties.

Early on Saturday, Aug. 28, Crockett and her husband set out with about 30 other volunteers to go through each area and hunt.

The heat was brutal, Crockett said, “but you get so excited about counting the butterflies that you keep going.”

They walked through woodlands, home gardens and public parks using websites and field guides to identify species. Photographers including her husband, Tom, captured detailed shots that help to identify more after the fact.

The group counted 1,722 butterflies from 48 different species.

“We were hoping for 50 species but we got 48,” Crockett said, “so that’s close enough.”

Eastern tiger swallowtails dominated, with nearly 600 of them spotted. Others Eastern tailed-blues, cloudless sulphurs, monarchs, American painted ladies and common buckeyes.

Some species had never been documented in the area before — not that it’s shocking they’re there, just no one had bothered to check yet, Crockett said.

People who participate in citizen science counts are drawn to the natural world, Crockett said, but she also loves the mental challenge of it. At 66, she likes that the counts help keep her brain active, using small, often nuanced markers to match a moving creature with its species.

“It’s like putting together pieces of a puzzle.”

Katherine Hafner, 757-222-5208, katherine.hafner@pilotonline.com