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An Introduction to Western Carolina Butterflies

 

Join Conserving Carolina for a free lecture entitled, “An Introduction to Western Carolina Butterflies,” presented by Doctor David Ahrenholz, on Saturday, April 30, at 10:30 a.m. at the Anne Elizabeth Suratt Nature Center at Walnut Creek Preserve.

 

During this presentation, participants will learn how to identify the butterflies of the western Carolinas through photographs taken by the presenter, as well as the foodplants needed to attract both the caterpillar and adult stages to your home butterfly garden.

 

Dr. Ahrenholz began his interest in butterflies as a child in Iowa. He taught himself photography because family and friends were not interested in dead insect specimens. After medical school he continued his passion for nature photography, photographing butterflies across the US and tropical South America. His photographs captured new species and led to an appointment as a Research Associate in the Entomology Department at the Smithsonian. He has pursued a 25-year project with the museum to document the butterflies of Ecuador in photographs and by collecting specimens. Now retired from his surgical career at the University of Minnesota, he has moved with his wife to their horse farm in the Landrum area where he enjoys equestrian foxhunting and sharing images from his butterfly garden.

 

This lecture is part of Conserving Carolina’s monthly Speaker Series at Walnut Creek Preserve.  Space is limited to 50 and pre-registration is required. To register and for more information, visit Conserving Carolina’s website and “calendar” tab, conservingcarolina.org/calendar.

 

To get to Walnut Creek Preserve’s Nature Center from the Tryon and Columbus area, take Hwy 108 E and turn left on Hwy 9 toward Lake Lure.  Follow Hwy 9 N for 5 miles and turn right onto McGuinn Road (at the Exxon Station). Go 1 mile to the intersection with Big Level Road; turn left, go 0.2 miles and take the first right onto Aden Green Road. Follow Aden Green for 0.4 mile and turn left on Wood Thrush Lane and into Walnut Creek Preserve. Take the first left onto Conservatory Lane, which takes you to the parking area for the nature center; 179 Conservatory Lane, Mill Spring, NC.

 

The next program at Walnut Creek Preserve will be held on May 21, when Dale Weiler and Loti Woods, of Weiler Woods for Wildlife, will present, “America’s Best Kept Secret: The Red Wolf, Our Country’s Most Endangered Wild Animal.”

 

Conserving Carolina, your local land trust, is dedicated to protecting and stewarding land and water resources vital to our natural heritage and quality of life and to fostering appreciation and understanding of the natural world. For more info visit, www.conservingcarolina.org.

 

Submitted by Pam Torlina