BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS
(Lepidoptera)
J.D. Lafontaine
SPECIAL AREAS
A number of areas of special importance emerge from a review of the Lepidoptera of the Mixed Wood Plain Ecozone. Some of these areas are protected, such as those in National and Provincial Parks, while other areas are not protected. Even in protected areas, it is important to locate specific sites that support populations of rare or endangered Lepidoptera so that these will not be eliminated accidentally by activities such as road or campground construction, Gypsy Moth control programs. Special areas are discussed below in terms of the category of habitats that they represent.
DUNES
Most dune areas in the Mixed Wood Plain Ecozone are associated with Great Lakes shorelines. The dune system in the Pinery Provincial Park/Ipperwash Beach area on the shore of Lake Huron has been studied intensively over the past three years. About a dozen species that occur there have southern affinities and are known from nowhere else in Canada. Other species are disjunct prairie relicts that otherwise occur only as far east as southern Manitoba. Other dune areas, such as those at Presqu'ile and Sandbanks Provincial Parks on Lake Ontario and one near Berthierville, Quebec, on the St. Lawrence River, are in need of study.
CAROLINIAN FORESTS
Point Pelee National Park and Pelee Island are important areas for southern species associated with Carolinian forests. Rich, mature deciduous forests are not well represented in either of these areas and are in need of study in the Ecozone. Two sites that should be studied are Rondeau Provincial Park in Kent County and Backus Woods in Norfolk County.
BOGS AND FENS
One of the most important bogs in the Ecozone, and one that supports populations of both northern species and East Coast relicts, is Alfred Bog in eastern Ontario. Mer Bleue Bog near Ottawa and Byron Bog at London, Ontario, are important sites because of the large amount of research that has been done there. Richmond and White Lake Fens south and west of Ottawa are important sites in that they support populations of the Bog Buck Moth (see above under endangered species). These fens have not been studied for other groups of Lepidoptera but we expect that they support unusual species because of the unusual plant communities found there. Other important bogs/fens in the Ecozone, such as Minesing Swamp west of Barrie, Stoco Fen near Tweed, and Caven Bog near Peterborough, have not been studied for Lepidoptera.